4 ms·
I don't know much about the book industry specifically, but I'd be worried about the viability of second hand book shops in street-level retail environments bec
by walrus01 4y ago
I don't know much about the book industry specifically, but I'd be worried about the viability of second hand book shops in street-level retail environments because of rapidly rising commercial rents in many big cities.
The revenue brought in by a second hand book store may be sustainable in a much smaller city with static/non rising commercial rents, but when a commercial landlord looks at lease renewal and decides they can get a whole lot more money if somebody converts the place into a small restaurant, coffee shop or (other) retail...
- zimpenfish 4y ago> a commercial landlord [...] somebody converts the place into a small restaurant, coffee shop Charing Cross Road in London is a prime example - used to have a whole bunch of small book (and other) shops. Now it has a whole bunch of pastry, coffee[1], sweet etc. shops and a couple of small bookshops (who probably don't have long to go, really.) (Also has a huge bookshop, Foyles, but that's a soulless corporate monstrosity.) [1] I am particularly aggrieved about the nicer of the two Any Amount Of Books being turned into a squashed coffee shop.
- iNerdier 4y agoFoyles was interestingly weird but eventually got bought by Waterstones and became what it is now. I’d still say it’s better than some, just not by enough. The expensive building changes to the Chinatown side didn’t help the smaller shops and it’s clear as their leases end the shops are closing and it’ll be like everywhere else with a generic mash of forgettable places.
- ggm 4y agoHad a friend who worked in foyles packing mail outs. He used to get his jollies writing author sigs and dedications on the books. Married a bookseller who worked at skoob, Sicilian avenue. The owner had worked next door to 84 charing cross road. We avoid second hand bookshops now, you can grow out of them. Everyone raves about hay. The QT is on petersfield and the honour box system.
- flir 4y agoPetersfield is a wonder. The way it unfolds. I saw a full folio copy of Dante's Divine Comedy with Doré's woodcuts in there for £80... three decades ago? I'm still kicking myself that I didn't buy it.
- ggm 4y agoSame here for a bookshop in Brisbane with pugin architectural drawings, and a bookshop in York which had Mervyn Peake original pencil drawing of his son for £300 in 1981
- flir 4y agoDamn. A reputed Mervyn Peake life drawing sold at auction in the UK in the past few weeks and I was severely tempted. No spare pennies unfortunately. It sounds like you and I have very similar tastes. I've been amusing myself recently by asking AIs to draw Gormenghast. None of them get the scale.
- thorin 4y agoSame with Denmark Street with instruments. When the premises are worth millions it's not surprisingly that minority shops cannot break even. They either need to be owned by the very rich as hobbies or will be bought up by chains. I think Stanfords is still there nr Covent Garden though, that was always a favorite a in some ways an only option for expedition planning pre internet/google earth.
- zimpenfish 4y ago> I think Stanfords is still there nr Covent Garden Moved to a smaller space a few yards from where it was. Lost its charm in the process, for me, much like Foyles.
- flir 4y agoThe redevelopment of TCR gutted that area. The Intrepid Fox is long gone, too.
- thorin 4y agoI used to go to the Intrepid Fox all the time and the 12 bar :-( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Intrepid_Fox https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Intrepid_Fox
- slyall 4y agoIt is often the case that bookshops and the like are not paying commercial rent. Either the shop-owner owns the building or the actual owner is happy to charge them less than commercial rates. The building may also be have problems that prevents the owner renting it out to a "full price" tenant.
- bombcar 4y agoThis is the majority of the ones that I personally know of - the shop-owner IS the building owner, and runs the bookstore as a personal side-project they enjoy. If you can avoid rent/mortgage, many businesses suddenly become viable. If you have to compete with other rent payers, many businesses die, and the street becomes nothing but bank offices, lawyer offices, and maybe a Starbucks.
- llanowarelves 4y agoOne day we will return to valuing a rich commons enough to price it in. (An existing example is like parks etc. We are rightfully not rushing to let them be converted/developed, even in NYC) Instead of subordinating the commons to whatever the biggest amount of nameless faceless money happens to be in the area.
- tenpies 4y agoOften, commercial landlords allow for less-profitable shops because they drive traffic to your more profitable tenants and generally improve the value of the other properties around it. It is very obvious when this is not done, because you end up with cities like Toronto where there's a plethora of streets with nothing but a chain coffee shop, a chain pharmacy, a dry cleaner, and a dentist; but absolutely nothing that would be of interest or unique.
- vintermann 4y agoYeah, from what I understand real estate values in Toronto don't depend much on cosy shops in streets, or what's in the streets at all.
- noja 4y ago> rapidly rising commercial rents in many big cities. I thought the problem was people were not coming back to the office? Why is commercial rent rising? (Do you mean retail rent?)