Bitter Bookstore
Mar. 22nd, 2004 03:15 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
hwangoI was reading Neil Gaiman's Journal earlier, and followed the link to the website of the Avenue Victor Hugo bookshop, a bookstore in Boston that's going out of business. They sound very, very bitter about it, and cited "Twelve reasons for the death of small and independent book stores." Among them:
"3. Book buyers--those who want the ‘convenience’ and ‘cost savings’ of shopping in malls, over the quaint, the dusty, or the unique; who buy books according to price instead of content, and prefer what is popular over what is good--for creating a mass market of the cheap, the loud, and the shiny."
This sort of thing tends to make me feel a bit defensive, even though I know they aren't talking about me specifically, and that I alone could never have kept them in business. I admit that I gravitate towards larger bookstores, but that's because small ones rarely have the book that I'm looking for. There used to be a little store in Chelmsford that would order things for me, and that was great. I got a bunch of things there. But if I wanted something that day, I probably wasn't going to find it there. It wasn't their fault - they could only keep so many books in stock, after all.
It's sad to see independent businesses failing, but I'm not really sure what to do about it. I avoid Wal-Mart because they are pure evil, but that's about all I've managed to do. I try to shop at my local gaming store, but that has its own set of obstacles...such as the fact that they are absolutely horrible about ordering things that aren't in stock. It took them over a month to get me my copy of Abyssals for Exalted. While waiting for them to order it for me, I visited three other stores that had it on the shelf. If it weren't for the gift certificate I had, I would have cheerfully given another of the stores my business after being patient for a couple of weeks and getting nothing for it.
I buy some stuff online. It's cheaper, it's convenient, and it's a lot quicker, because most of the stuff I'm ordering online I can't find easily in a store in the first place. For example, I think the last 6 or 7 CDs I've purchased I bought from Amazon. I used to be able to rely on Newbury Comics for that sort of thing, but even they didn't have a copy of Ohgr's Sunnypsyop, or Assemblage 23's Failure or Contempt, or even the soundtrack for Donnie Darko.
It's all sort of depressing. I'd like to support small businesses, but I don't see how I can do that if they aren't carrying the merchandise that I'm looking for. But because they're small businesses, they can't afford to carry a wide enough range of stock to serve every potential customer. I guess it's just one of the many unfortunate aspects of Capitalism. *sigh.* Wake up, Cthulhu! Wake up!
"3. Book buyers--those who want the ‘convenience’ and ‘cost savings’ of shopping in malls, over the quaint, the dusty, or the unique; who buy books according to price instead of content, and prefer what is popular over what is good--for creating a mass market of the cheap, the loud, and the shiny."
This sort of thing tends to make me feel a bit defensive, even though I know they aren't talking about me specifically, and that I alone could never have kept them in business. I admit that I gravitate towards larger bookstores, but that's because small ones rarely have the book that I'm looking for. There used to be a little store in Chelmsford that would order things for me, and that was great. I got a bunch of things there. But if I wanted something that day, I probably wasn't going to find it there. It wasn't their fault - they could only keep so many books in stock, after all.
It's sad to see independent businesses failing, but I'm not really sure what to do about it. I avoid Wal-Mart because they are pure evil, but that's about all I've managed to do. I try to shop at my local gaming store, but that has its own set of obstacles...such as the fact that they are absolutely horrible about ordering things that aren't in stock. It took them over a month to get me my copy of Abyssals for Exalted. While waiting for them to order it for me, I visited three other stores that had it on the shelf. If it weren't for the gift certificate I had, I would have cheerfully given another of the stores my business after being patient for a couple of weeks and getting nothing for it.
I buy some stuff online. It's cheaper, it's convenient, and it's a lot quicker, because most of the stuff I'm ordering online I can't find easily in a store in the first place. For example, I think the last 6 or 7 CDs I've purchased I bought from Amazon. I used to be able to rely on Newbury Comics for that sort of thing, but even they didn't have a copy of Ohgr's Sunnypsyop, or Assemblage 23's Failure or Contempt, or even the soundtrack for Donnie Darko.
It's all sort of depressing. I'd like to support small businesses, but I don't see how I can do that if they aren't carrying the merchandise that I'm looking for. But because they're small businesses, they can't afford to carry a wide enough range of stock to serve every potential customer. I guess it's just one of the many unfortunate aspects of Capitalism. *sigh.* Wake up, Cthulhu! Wake up!
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no subject
Date: 2004-03-22 07:41 pm (UTC)However, businesses have to be competitive. There are a few ways in which to do this - either be cheaper, be better, or be different than your competitors.
Little bookshops can't compete on the price issue, but the last two items are completely within their grasp. They can cultivate their clientele, have authors in, have book-signings, obtain rare/niche items that the big stores are generally not interested in carrying, and do many other things to actively participate as a member of their communities.
I know that they're in a "David and Goliath" sort of situation. That's tough. But I have little sympathy when it appears that people whine about the economic realities of business in general. I've been to a lot of niche bookshops with indifferent clerks - when an enthused one could have easily convinced me to buy, spend more time and money there. And it seems like a lot of people spend time whining about the unfairness of their competition rather than giving consumers a compelling reason to shop at their store instead.