is aol article right? will the independent bookstore be dead in 10 years?

recently AOL had a story entitled "Businesses that will be extinct in 10 years." One of them was the independent bookstore! According to the article, there still be chains around, but the independent owner will be revereting only to cyberspace and no longer deal with the hassle of rents, personnel, and long hours of open time.

Thee are such things as healthy fears. The fear of losing my area's wonderful independents makes me want to buy every book from them and never buy from a chain. what do you think about all this?

I'm also a supporter of buying all my books from independents. I think the large problem is that the world has become very impatient and with an independent bookstore, you may have to wait for that perfect book. :)

There use to be 5 or 6 independent bookstores around here. Even had one in the local mall years ago. But sadly they are all gone. And I miss them and the personal service you use to get. It use to seem that they always remembered you last purchase
or would hold on to something they thought you might like or could recomend somthing you might like based on what you had purchased in the past.

Shopping at a local store, independent is a choice. Service over price. Not everyone is willing to make that choice. Even this website is linked to Amazon.

Being in the UK, I don`t know if my observations will have much relevance, but we`ll see.

Over here, the number of independent bookstores has fallen. Those that remain have to be more innovative if they don`t want to go the way of the dinosaurs. I know of one that involves itself in `reluctant readers` projects, and also put on events featuring Benjamin Zephaniah, who lives nearby. Just setting up shop and waiting for customers is not enough, but in truth, the `mortality rate` for independent bookstores has always been high.

There is also an issue with second-hand/antiquarian bookshops. I may be part of the problem, as my wife and I run an online business of that sort ! Certainly, they are being squeezed by competition from online bookshops, charity shops etc, but in some cases (I stress, only in `some cases`), their seems to be a determination to avoid change. An acquaintance of mine owns two second hand bookshops - there is stock in one that I know for a fact he has had over ten years, and which has visibly depreciated. I once heard him comment on a mutual friend/bookseller "he sits in his shop putting books on E-Bay when it`s quiet. I`m not doing that".

In another case, a friend in the trade runs a bookshop with a business partner. They do no online sales as they do not have time (i.e. do not have time between the hours of 9.00 - 5.00 !) For a long time, we had an arrangement where he would give us a substantial discount for buying large quantities, particularly of books we can sell online, but which don`t sell well in the area where he is. Normal business practise you might think. Amazingly, his business partner objected !

#4 "Local store" is the key phrase here. So many people work long or unsocial hours now, if there`s any appreciable journey involved, it really isn`t an option, taking into account the other demans life makes on your time.

The other factor of course is price. As a young man , high unemployment meantthat I had to juggle casual jobs to stay in employment until Icould find something permanent. Despite long hours and low pay, I kept myself provided with reading matter from charity shops. `Service over price` wasn`t a choice for me - price was the over-riding factor ! I`m sure many are in a similar position now.

Here in Inverness the only independent is a secondhand quite pricey shop and like nickhoonaloon's friend some stock seems to stick for years. I don't frequent it as much as I used to as I don't find the owner very friendly and once when I was there he was quite rude to an old man enquiring with books to sell. As others have said "service" is the key and the honest truth is some of the current staff at Waterstone's are much more friendly and helpful. And of course there are the charity shops (Oxfam, Barnardo, Blythswood) but they have only a small stock so whilst I often nip in I don't consider them serious outlets although in large towns Oxfam have dedicated book outlets that can be quite good if Canterbury is anything to go by.
But I'm really responding to nickhoonaloon's comments about the online business. I've sourced a number of books online - mostly out-of-print books on local history, the Lancashire textile industry, and so on. I've used both eBay amd abe books. But the books themselves have come from what I take to be small independents - in some cases it has been clear they have been trading from a shop, in other cases from home. I've generally been very pleased with the service. I would like to think these businesses will survive. But as far as the mainstream is concerned it seems to be increasingly difficult for ANY shop to survive in our town centres.

Yes, I waffled on a bit and strayed from the point. I think `adapt to survive` will be the way forward. I`m not sure how many `bricks and mortar` shops will survive, but I bet they will combine `real` with `online` sales.

I wonder if big businesses will continue to put pressure on.

US LTers may not be aware that J K Rowling`s publisher refused to supply copies of her latest to a supermarket (I think it was Tesco) after learning they wanted to sell it at a loss in a move allegedly specifically aimed at putting independent stores out of business. Tesco is owned by Dame Shirley Porter, who is of course a person of impeccable character, as her Wikipedia entry will no doubt confirm.

I know Waterstones and others are getting rid of unsold shop stock, particularly with minor defects like shelf wear to dust jackets, through pound shops (these are shops, usually in poorer areas, which sell everything from coffee to books to CDs to hardware etc, with every item at £1 - about half a US dollar - or sometimes less. I`m addicted to them myself). Just recouping their losses, or making it harder for independents to survive ? I`m open-minded myself, presumably these books represent a considerable outlay that has to be recouped.

This is a bit OT but relates to the last paragraph of post #7. I came across a book I was looking for in the Canterbury (my mother lives there) branch of Waterstones but it was damaged - nothing much but damage to the edges of some pages. I pointed it out and asked if they had another copy in stock but they didn't. Nor did they agree to reduce the price. I think I might have got a better response in Inverness branch where some of the staff would recognize me as a fairly regular customer. I'd probably have been very happy to pay more than they would have got from a "pound" shop. I bought the book because it was on "on my list" but wasn't too happy about paying the "perfect" price for a less than perfect copy. Just a token discount would have made all the difference.