7 ms·

Physical bookstores across Europe have dwindling stock of actual books. Instead, a relative few books are kept around as token attempts at being a bookstore, wh

Physical bookstores across Europe have dwindling stock of actual books. Instead, a relative few books are kept around as token attempts at being a bookstore, while the owners seek higher profit margins on things like gimmicky stationery, tea sets, vinyl records, etc. So, even physical locations are no longer very useful for discovery. You are lucky if you still have a local bookshop as capable of surprises as back in the 1990s.

adventured 6y ago
That's an interesting trend for Europe. In the US physical bookstores have thrived over the past decade. I can't remember the last place I was - small town or large city - that didn't have a normal physical bookstore filled with actual books, as was common 30 years ago.
- dhosek 6y ago
  Really? I've noticed a huge decline in the numbers of bookstores over the last 30 years. There was a stretch of about 3 blocks near DePaul University in Chicago that had about 8 bookstores in the 80s/90s and now I don't think there's a single bookstores there. 3rd Street Promenade in Santa Monica used to have about a dozen bookstores and now only has Barnes & Noble (plus an arts and architecture bookshop whose name I don't recall at the moment which used to be on the promenade but moved to Wilshire). Venice Blvd in Venice also had 3 or 4 bookstores which are all gone now.
  - bwb 6y ago
    The number of independent bookstores in the United States was impressively high in 2019, with 1,887 independent bookselling companies running 2,524 stores. That said, compared to numbers in the 1990s it is down. But lately going up. https://www.statista.com/statistics/282808/number-of-independent-bookstores-in-the-us/ https://www.statista.com/statistics/282808/number-of-indepen...
dhosek 6y ago
Bookselling is truly a sui generis endeavor. A bookstore will typically have thousands of distinct items in inventory with most having only a single copy in stock. For better or for worse, non-book inventory has a much better rate of return for the bookseller than actual books. The trend you describe is not unique to Europe, but has been happening in the US as well. That said, while my local indie does have a lot of non-book inventory for sale, the bulk of their square footage is still books. It's been a while since I was in Europe, but when I was, the bookshops that I visited (mostly in Paris, but I think I may have looked into one in Bruges as well), were all well-stocked with books. Same with my visit to Prague and Vienna in 2008. What I have noticed is that the density of bookstores in the US has declined greatly over the last 30 years. I used to travel a lot to give workshops in LaTeX and I would pull out the pages in the hotel yellow pages to visit all the local bookstores wherever I was teaching¹. This would occupy my evenings for the whole week of my trip. On my last business trip, to Atlanta, about 6 years ago, there were only 6 bookstores I could find in the whole city and two were chain stores. 1. One memorable moment happened in Denver when I didn't realize that the bookstore I was visiting was an adult bookstore. I wandered the shelves wondering why I didn't recognize any of the authors. It wasn't until I returned to my rental car and looked back at the store that I realized what had happened.

adventured 6y ago

That's an interesting trend for Europe. In the US physical bookstores have thrived over the past decade. I can't remember the last place I was - small town or large city - that didn't have a normal physical bookstore filled with actual books, as was common 30 years ago.

dhosek 6y ago
Really? I've noticed a huge decline in the numbers of bookstores over the last 30 years. There was a stretch of about 3 blocks near DePaul University in Chicago that had about 8 bookstores in the 80s/90s and now I don't think there's a single bookstores there. 3rd Street Promenade in Santa Monica used to have about a dozen bookstores and now only has Barnes & Noble (plus an arts and architecture bookshop whose name I don't recall at the moment which used to be on the promenade but moved to Wilshire). Venice Blvd in Venice also had 3 or 4 bookstores which are all gone now.
- bwb 6y ago
  The number of independent bookstores in the United States was impressively high in 2019, with 1,887 independent bookselling companies running 2,524 stores. That said, compared to numbers in the 1990s it is down. But lately going up. https://www.statista.com/statistics/282808/number-of-independent-bookstores-in-the-us/ https://www.statista.com/statistics/282808/number-of-indepen...

dhosek 6y ago

Bookselling is truly a sui generis endeavor. A bookstore will typically have thousands of distinct items in inventory with most having only a single copy in stock. For better or for worse, non-book inventory has a much better rate of return for the bookseller than actual books. The trend you describe is not unique to Europe, but has been happening in the US as well. That said, while my local indie does have a lot of non-book inventory for sale, the bulk of their square footage is still books. It's been a while since I was in Europe, but when I was, the bookshops that I visited (mostly in Paris, but I think I may have looked into one in Bruges as well), were all well-stocked with books. Same with my visit to Prague and Vienna in 2008. What I have noticed is that the density of bookstores in the US has declined greatly over the last 30 years. I used to travel a lot to give workshops in LaTeX and I would pull out the pages in the hotel yellow pages to visit all the local bookstores wherever I was teaching¹. This would occupy my evenings for the whole week of my trip. On my last business trip, to Atlanta, about 6 years ago, there were only 6 bookstores I could find in the whole city and two were chain stores. 1. One memorable moment happened in Denver when I didn't realize that the bookstore I was visiting was an adult bookstore. I wandered the shelves wondering why I didn't recognize any of the authors. It wasn't until I returned to my rental car and looked back at the store that I realized what had happened.