"I Put Borders Out Of Business, Target Is Next"

[ctg]

My wife and I used to go our local Borders Bookstore and have coffee and read magazines and books. Inevitably, we'd leave with a bag of our favorite books and magazines. Sometime in 2009, that all changed. We'd still go to bookstore to read and have our coffee but I had purchased T-Mobile G1 smartphones and I started checking the prices of each book I liked by scanning the bar-code on the back. To my surprise, I found that in the majority of cases, I could buy the book on Amazon (AMZN), shipping included, for less than half the retail price in the bookstore. Our purchasing pattern changed quickly to coffee only with the books showing up a week later by mail.

Read More: http://seekingalpha.com/article/1110721-i-put-borders-out-of-business-target-is-next?source=yahoo

 

[J Riff]

With the money saved, coffee and a muffin becomes possible* )

 

[Venusian Broon]

If Borders or any big book shop in the UK turned into coffee shops/cafes, they'd probably make money - think of all the tax they could avoid

But seriously and on a related note - I see HMV has gone under today for probably the very same reasons.

 

[Vertigo]

I think this is going to happen more and more. Not a sustainable way to shop sadly. I see people going in and trying on clothes in shops; figure the right size and then leave, noting all the details in a notebook/bit of paper. Guess what comes next... the internet.

Eventually there'll be no bricks and mortar shops left where you can go look at the product before buying it. I don't know how long that will take but I see no way of stopping it.

 

[Dozmonic]

A lot of book shops have a coffee shop in them, but they don't always prove to be profitable. So much so that at least one store I worked in didn't keep Costa in the long run

 

[Venusian Broon]

I think this is going to happen more and more. Not a sustainable way to shop sadly.

It will be interesting, but stressful times, for the high street. I think the most worrying thing is the loss of sense of community - I'd also point to the marginalisation of pubs as being another negative that sits alongside all these changes.

Ok, I'm not saying all was rosy and nice about public houses in the past. But they also gave benefits, especially for isolated communities. Now when you can get drinks approximately 1/3rd the price of pub prices, even in bog standard corner off-licences, people will look to their wallets first.

p.s.

Anyhow, I'm diverging wildly - we should probably direct it back to bookstores. Perhaps there might still be a role for physical second-hand bookshops?

 

[Boneman]

I've said it before and I'll say it again - I won't buy on Amazon. That means I pay more to keep my local bookshop open, I accept that. Guess what? I can buy at waterstone's online for a good discount and go to my local store and pay them, so they still get the business.

When all the bookstores have closed, people like Bryan Waters will have to go to a coffee shop for a coffee, and will no doubt feel very proud of themselves... think of all the money they saved just to shut all those shops. And then when Amazon jack all the prices up, he'll be blogging and whingeing about it.

 

[HareBrain]

He seems to have so much belief in the primacy of market forces, he doesn't think he has any choice personally but to obey them himself, to always make the rational decision and seek out the best deal, etc, no matter what the eventual cost of his behaviour, and no matter the guilt he feels at it (as he admits in one of his below-the-line comments). His apparent belief in the inevitability of robot economics is pretty depressing.

 

[TheTomG]

Bricks and mortar could adapt. For instance, let's take the bookshop for people to come and do what he terms "showrooming" (looking at a book, then buying it online.) What if the store was made explicitly for that purpose ?

You wouldn't need a large room at the back to house 10 or 50 or 200 copies of the book, just one copy out front. The book on display may not even have to be the real book, just a slim cover, some info, and a QR or similar code to scan to get the info and make a purchase if you like on your electronic device of choice (e-reader, phone or tablet.)

The store could also re-design itself for it's new purpose. People like to be in bookshops in order to meet other people who like to go to bookshops. So, the store could focus on the "coffee" aspect, that is use the saved space to make comfortable seating and meeting locations, with pleasant snacks and beverages to hand for some profit.

There could also be merchandise from the popular books too, posters and t-shirts and what have you. Perhaps the store might be owned by Amazon, or perhaps there might be some sort of licensing deal struck whereby the store would be able to make some profit from books purchased after people had checked them out there.

Hosted events could also be held, book signings and the like, which again would bring the chance to sell more coffee and the like. In fact, the store would become primarily a coffee shop, oriented on profit from that, and the socializing that people like to go to those stores for. Starbucks could start doing it, but they'd need larger stores of course as most are very small, but the move could come from that side of the industry.

Knowledgeable staff would be another plus not provided online. "When is the next Starbringers of Mighty Doom Orc Warriors due out?" "I really liked The Time Just After The Sun Sets But Before It Gets Really Dark, what else might I like?"

The product would change - no longer would they aim to move physical copies of the books, but instead provide services, a meeting place, and the sale of coffee and soft drinks.

Specialist software could be developed for the store, with an app for your device. This could let people have a "forum" there, physically located in the store in a sense, but not requiring people to be online at the same time. People could leave messages, or reviews. Augmented Reality could be used for some interesting marketing and promo stuff. Your little slim fake book could, once selected in the app, prompt you about the book, telling you about movies and tv series' it is based on or inspired, even letting you watch snippets and extracts on your device, and giving you the opportunity to book tickets to a showing, rent the movie, purchase the DVD, purchase the music used in the show, etc. It could cross-connect you to other works listed by the author as inspirations or their favorites.

Personally, I really like that kind of idea