The Daily Telegraph has an article on the effect supermarkets and on-line bookstores are having on independent, high street bookshops. It is not a beneficial one - according to the article nearly 2000 bookshops have closed since 2005,leaving only 2,178 on the high street - drop of nearly 50%. A quite alarming drop, if the Telegraph’s figures are correct.
Whilst this is undoubtedly sad, it is not the catastrophe the doom mongers say it is. They conflate the threat to public libraries and the closure of bookshops to come up with the dire warning that certain areas will become 'book deserts'. I will leave aside the argument about public libraries for the moment to concentrate on the bookshops.
The problem for the independent bookshops is not that people are not buying books any more, but that they have large competitors, especially on-line with Amazon being the best example. I buy as many books as I ever used to, but rarely from a bricks and mortar bookshop. I get them on the internet for two reasons - the choice is so much larger and I can buy the book I want and more often than not it is cheaper than buying it on the high street. Sadly, the smaller independent book shop simply cannot compete with the range of books or prices available on line.
I am not so sure of the case against the supermarkets. Whilst it is true that the supermarkets do sell deeply discounted books, they also (in my experience anyway) have a very limited choice. I would argue that whilst everyone goes to supermarkets, they do not specifically go book hunting in supermarkets. If you are after one of the twenty or so titles available, then you will probably put a copy in the trolley with the groceries, but otherwise there is nothing there for you. At least a bookshop will order a book for you if they don’t have it stock – I very much doubt whether a supermarket would offer that service.
In this, as in so many things, I am a hypocrite. Whilst I mourn the passing of the local bookshop, I do nothing to prevent it. Indeed I play an active part in their demise. There is a small bookshop in the town where I live, but it must be nearly ten years since I darkened their door. I first abandoned them for the large national chain store bookshop less than 10 miles away and now I only ever visit that store to browse (and occasionally, very occasionally, pick up a 3 for 2 deal) or buy an expensive coffee. However, if Amazon can deliver what I want within a day or so of ordering for less than the price charged locally, then why should I pay more just to keep a local businessman or a particular corporation in business.
If you want to buy a book there is generally only one edition available (hardback or paperback), so there is no difference in the quality of the product available from each retailer and it therefore makes sense to go for the cheapest. People will pay more for better quality books (here I mean the paper and covers, not the content), just as they will for a car (Ford or BMW) or hi-fi (Tesco's own brand or B&O), but not for a plain paperback copy of a novel available from any number of outlets. This is the problem for local bookshops (and the chains, come to that). Price can relate to quality, but not in a commodity such as a paperback book.
Books will still be produced and sold, and people will always read them. What is changing is how the book gets from the author to the reader, and there will be winners and losers in this. One or two winners and many, many losers perhaps, but it is difficult to see what can be done to change this. What the bookshops and publishers would like, I am sure, is some sort of price fixing system, rather like the old net book agreement, but then you and me, the customers, would be the ones to suffer. We would be forced to pay higher prices in order to subsidise privately owned businesses.
It wouldn’t work anyway. It might suit the publishers, but it probably wouldn’t help the bookshops. Those of us who have switched to the on-line stores would continue to use them because of the convenience and range of books available. After all, they can’t force us into the shops.
Clearly local shops cannot compete on price, so they must do something else to stay in business. Our local bookshop manages to survive (despite my lack of custom) by, if memory serves, concentrating on local subjects, offering great service, and selling other goods such as artist's materials. Waterstones are now ringing the changes as well. There will be less piling 'em high and selling 'em cheap (the 3 for 2 deals are going) and more concentrating on the needs of the customers. That is what is going to keep the local bookshops alive - looking after the customer. Change like this is difficult, and doubtless many more will close, but others will open and a new balance will form.
The internet is changing many things and book selling is just one of them and it will be interesting to see how things work out.
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