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That was 15 years ago, though -- a veritable millennium in the internet age. Although Amazon was around, a lot of people still accessed the internet over a cab
by metaobject 9y ago
That was 15 years ago, though -- a veritable millennium in the internet age. Although Amazon was around, a lot of people still accessed the internet over a cable modem (or even dial-up!) or some other technology which didn't provide ubiquitous internet access. Most people surfed the internet from their desktop, as opposed to using their phones from a wide variety of places from the couch to the toilet.
- gwern 9y agoWhy does that matter? Borders didn't shrink in size physically just because the Internet got bigger. And the B&N that replaced it was just as big.
- addicted 9y ago(a) higher sales volume and higher profitibality meant that they could afford some loss leaders. (B) online not being as popular meant they were still a market for niches. Today niche interests are almost all entirely online (C) The one big thing people are ignoring is that with the abundance of alternate media, books in general are almost certainly being read less. It's not just sales but actual consumptions of books that have likely dropped. The number of readers of certain niches has almost certainly reduced.