Posted on 10/08/2006 4:47:29 PM PDT by RayChuang88
CHICAGO (AP) - Adam Brent knew his 11-year-run selling best sellers and new releases was over when mail carriers started walking into his building to deliver books from Amazon.com to the tenants upstairs.
"Literally, they didn't walk downstairs or take the time to make a phone call," Brent said of the neighbors of Brent Books & Cards in the city's business district.
Brent's experience is shared by scores of independent bookstores around the nation that have been knocked out of business by huge chains like Borders Group Inc. (BGP) and Barnes & Noble Inc. (BKS), massive retailers like Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (WMT) and most recently Internet sites like Amazon.com.
But Brent is also part of a growing number of independent bookstore owners refusing to give up. He's closing his store this month but plans to reopen as a discount book store. Others are luring customers by putting in cafes or opening specialty shops that cater to a specific audience, like mystery lovers. Some are following the lead of public television and selling memberships. Or they're being saved by investors who can't bear the idea of losing these local institutions.
(Excerpt) Read more at apnews.myway.com ...
The failure of Tower Records to adapt to this environment should be a lesson to almost every retailer out there. I mean let's face it folks: bookselling in the USA are evolving into the Barnes & Noble/Border Books superstore model where you have a huge selection of books plus an attached coffee bar to keep customers. Also, bookselling has turned into a major online retailing business, led by Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble's online store.
Twenty years ago, when I was at the University of Michigan, there was this huge, wonderful independent bookstore called Borders. I wonder if it's still around.
That bookstore in Ann Arbor, MI was the beginning of the Borders Books chain.
What crap! Maybe if Miss Priss Adam had a website of his bookstore he would be shipping out books from his own store! Instead he would rather sit in the corner and gripe. Typical Chicago.
Welcome to Joseph Schumpeter's "Creative Destruction". Move the time frame back 100 years and substitute "buggy whip makers" for "Indie bookstores".
Thanks to creative destruction, our life expectancies and material comforts have not remained at the 1906 level.
Yeah... I know.... It's my reflexive response, whenever I hear about indie booksellers complaining.
I looked around a bit and found no website for him. A lot of the other indie stores have one.
What a moron. Just asking for it. Of course he should be selling online so he can keep his store open.
My economy does not have 'discretionary funds' that allow me to support anyone outside myself and family.
Over the years of raising my children, there were many years I worked 2-3 jobs simultaneously - every penny I ever had, now have, was hard won.
If I can go on line and buy a book, shipped to my door, and pay - including shipping - a third of what the same book would cost me downtown...guess where I'll buy my books.
The world, it's peoples and it's businesses have always evolved and will continue to.
Evolve or get buried. Self-choice.
Maybe they didn't like your attitude that they somehow owed you their business just because you're downstairs from them, Adam.
Ever notice how snotty some of these bookstore guys are?
Nice thing about Amazon, it's hard for some lefty to re-position Ann Coulter's books behind Hillary Clinton's.
That's true -- but they can "have it on back order" or accidentally misspell it "Colter" or offer little or no discount.
I luv independent bookstores. Luv 'em. Luv 'em for the remainder tables, where the great finds are to be found. Which is why Half Price Books is the best bookstore (and chain) there is - all remainders and used.
There are literally thousands of indie booksellers on the internet. The key to survival is to specialize in rare or regional books that cannot be found at Amazon or Barnes & Noble.
That's the thing about business ... some fall by the way. So you and your grandfather may have shopped at Marshall Fields. But the business landscape changes.
It's not a bad thing. Jobs are still created and filled.
I still have my old typewriter in the office. It's time to get rid of it. That's a good thing.
They always show up at the opening of new Starbucks stores. Very "anti-corporate" attitude. Maybe they'd prefer to pay $40.00 for a book to my $28.00. Let 'em.
Used to live on an upper floor in a bldg which had 2 bookstores on different sides: Oddly, one was more general and thriving, the other was very specialized and having a hard time making it.
I sat though it when it was on TV in order to catch my favorite actress for all of 10 seconds. For the life of me I can't remember the name.
I think I know the movie and she used to be my favorite actress also:)
I just went and checked. The movie was "You've Got Mail". (Gag me with a spoon!)
Actually, at first I was thinking 'Meg Ryan' but changed my mind when I reread that you only saw '10 seconds' of her.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.