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Are there other bookstores like this around the world? Let’s hope some of them can survive and thrive. I've come to deduce that the death of bookstores is noth
by reaperducer 2y ago
Are there other bookstores like this around the world? Let’s hope some of them can survive and thrive.
I've come to deduce that the death of bookstores is nothing more than a trope pushed by tech fetishists.
Last Thursday evening, I sat in the cafe of a chain bookstore in a major American city while my wife was browsing, and counted the people. There were close to 70 in my field of view, and in the 40ish minutes I sat there, over 100 people came in. The line at the checkout never had fewer than five people in it, and often more than a dozen.
A couple of weeks ago, I drove past my local bookstore (also a big chain) before it opened, and there was dozens and dozens of people waiting in line to get in.
Books aren't dead. Reading isn't dead. Acknowledging that there are people who enjoy different things than you do is dead.
- garciansmith 2y agoI don't think it's just techies who believe that (although plenty do, for sure!). Lots of regular non-techie people think only old people care about books, for instance. When I worked at a used bookstore (left just before COVID), family members would make comments like that and seemed surprised when I told them we had tons of people in their teens and 20s coming in and buying books (used and old ones at that!). It is true that the bookstore business has faced a lot of downturns: indie bookstores were really hurt by the big chain stores, Barnes & Nobles and Borders in the '90s, then Amazon and online shopping hurt them all some more. But the indie scene is stronger than it was, say, 15 years ago. A lot more smaller and niche shops have been opening up (at least in US cities I'm familiar with).
- glitcher 2y agoIt's probably a mistake to arrive at a conclusion in either direction based solely on anecdotal evidence. Unless the conclusion is specifically just for one localized area being observed, as opposed to extending those conclusions to all bookstores everywhere.
- cafard 2y agoI don't know. I can name a number of booksellers in Washington that have gone under in the last 30 or 35 years: Olsson's, Trover, Newman, Calliope. Reiter's Technical Books is a shadow of what it once was. At the moment, I would have to go to Arlington for a Barnes and Noble: two in DC closed for reasons I never heard. One in Bethesda that was always pretty busy closed because the landlord wanted it out. I worry about the condition of bookstores. I hope I'm wrong to do so. I'm always