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When I visited the PNC in 2015 I peregrinated all the way from Seattle (WA) to Portland (OR) simply for the joy of visiting Powell’s. I even chose my hotel to b
by qubex 6y ago
When I visited the PNC in 2015 I peregrinated all the way from Seattle (WA) to Portland (OR) simply for the joy of visiting Powell’s. I even chose my hotel to be as close as possible (which turned out to be the very hip ACE Hotel, which was another amazing experience).
These places may be retail businesses, but they’re also basically priceless experiences that should be viewed as public goods.
- CalRobert 6y agoUnfortunately we haven't found a great way to price externalities correctly - whether the positive externalities of a local bookshop, or the negative externalities of online commerce. Of course, there are negative externalities to local stores (people demand the right to drive there, for some odd reason, though Portland does better here than most), and positive externalities to online shopping (more efficient distribution, etc.) but regardless we do a terrible job at pricing them.
- qubex 6y agoI live in Milan so the whole shopping-experience thing is still very much a part of my daily life. I realise that it’s different in the world of malls and big-box stores.
- icebraining 6y agoThe Lello bookstore in Porto, Portugal has a lot of visitors just for sightseeing (if you search for photos you'll get why), so they started to charge €3 (~$3.6) for the entrance, refundable if you purchased a book. Still, seems like Powell's experience is all about the books themselves, so that value should be well captured in increased sales.
- CalRobert 6y agoI have never managed to visit Powells without buying a book, which helps!
- onecommentman 6y agoI wonder if used bookstores should be thought of as that "third place" (not work or home) a significant percentage of the population like to hang out at, rather than just a retail shop. Would a used bookstore look different if it was designed as a club first, with a great used bookstore as its theme attraction? Borders was sort of going for that with their in-house coffee shops, but they were fairly sterile and mall-esque...not very clubby.