5 ms·

I don't know that bookstorez are dying, in the US. Amazon killed Borders, sure, and Barnes and Noble isn't as focused on books anymore. But independent bookstor

I don't know that bookstorez are dying, in the US. Amazon killed Borders, sure, and Barnes and Noble isn't as focused on books anymore. But independent bookstores have been doing okay afaict, though having to make changes. Here's data from the American Booksellers Association: https://www.statista.com/statistics/282808/number-of-independent-bookstores-in-the-us/ https://www.statista.com/statistics/282808/number-of-indepen... It's possible that the bookstores are increasingly in big cities or something, but I don't think that's Amazon's fault. A lot of this is just about certain commerce moving online, and books competing against more and more forms of content. Amazon can provide low prices, but does terrible at spontaneity or getting me to read something totally new to me.

tptacek 5y ago
Books have kind of also never been more available than they are today? We've come a long, long way from the heyday of Waldenbooks. I feel like I might rather be an author today than pre-Amazon.
- beambot 5y ago
  We also have public libraries with pretty amazing inter-library loan programs...
- kevinmchugh 5y ago
  My sense is that authors mostly make less money than they did 25 years ago, but only because there's so many more of them. And authors mostly didn't make much money to begin with. As I was writing my first comment I kept thinking about how Walden and Borders are gone, but Half-Price Books seems to be doing well. I think a used book store is probably net better for an area than a Borders ETA: one relevant market Amazon definitely created is ebook romance/erotica. Somehow the second page of results of any Amazon search contains $3 romance ebooks, whatever you were searching for. Those authors have never had it so good.
greedo 5y ago
I think if you look at the number of bookstores that were in the US before Amazon, and compare that to now, you'll see that they're in a steep decline. Not all of this is due to Amazon, since much of the consolidation was from competition from Borders and B&N. But today's B&N is a far cry from what it used to be, Borders is gone, and Amazon is the 800lb gorilla.
- kevinmchugh 5y ago
  If you can supply the data I'd be happy to look at it. I linked what data I managed to find. I think Amazon is largely responsible for ending borders, but less so the transformation of b&n. GameStop went through a similar crappification. That's just been retail. I won't be surprised if there's a lot fewer book stores than there were 25 years ago. If we could break it out by big chain vs indie stores would be interesting. Because indie bookstores have been doing well in the last ten years (despite ebooks!). I was surprised by this. It didn't fit my mental model. Maybe I don't remember well enough the pre-crappy versions of borders and b&n well enough, but I really don't feel strongly about them. Indie bookstores are where it's at for me.

tptacek 5y ago

Books have kind of also never been more available than they are today? We've come a long, long way from the heyday of Waldenbooks. I feel like I might rather be an author today than pre-Amazon.

beambot 5y ago
We also have public libraries with pretty amazing inter-library loan programs...
kevinmchugh 5y ago
My sense is that authors mostly make less money than they did 25 years ago, but only because there's so many more of them. And authors mostly didn't make much money to begin with. As I was writing my first comment I kept thinking about how Walden and Borders are gone, but Half-Price Books seems to be doing well. I think a used book store is probably net better for an area than a Borders ETA: one relevant market Amazon definitely created is ebook romance/erotica. Somehow the second page of results of any Amazon search contains $3 romance ebooks, whatever you were searching for. Those authors have never had it so good.

greedo 5y ago

I think if you look at the number of bookstores that were in the US before Amazon, and compare that to now, you'll see that they're in a steep decline. Not all of this is due to Amazon, since much of the consolidation was from competition from Borders and B&N. But today's B&N is a far cry from what it used to be, Borders is gone, and Amazon is the 800lb gorilla.

kevinmchugh 5y ago
If you can supply the data I'd be happy to look at it. I linked what data I managed to find. I think Amazon is largely responsible for ending borders, but less so the transformation of b&n. GameStop went through a similar crappification. That's just been retail. I won't be surprised if there's a lot fewer book stores than there were 25 years ago. If we could break it out by big chain vs indie stores would be interesting. Because indie bookstores have been doing well in the last ten years (despite ebooks!). I was surprised by this. It didn't fit my mental model. Maybe I don't remember well enough the pre-crappy versions of borders and b&n well enough, but I really don't feel strongly about them. Indie bookstores are where it's at for me.