How Baltimore’s independent bookstores are thriving in the age of Amazon

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From The Baltimore Sun:

What if the pterodactyl had refused to go extinct? What if you moseyed down the 6000 block of Falls Road or the 1700 block of Aliceanna Street and found a brontosaurus sitting on the corner?

In a sense, when you walk into the Ivy Bookshop or Greedy Reads — or A Likely Story in Sykesville or Red Emma’s in the city, or too many other independent booksellers to mention — that’s exactly what you’re seeing.

For the last decade, pundits have decried the imminent death of the publishing industry and in particular, of brick-and-mortar book bins, which peaked in the 1990s at about 3,000 stores, according to the American Booksellers Association. The stratospheric rise of Amazon supposedly had placed the indies on life support, just as eBooks were thought to be killing off physical volumes. The statistics were grim — from 1995 to 2009, the number of independent bookstores in the nation fell by a staggering 43 percent. Later, the highly visible shuttering of behemoth Borders Books in 2011 lent credence to the gloomy prognosis.

But not only did the independents refuse to die, they rebounded and even experienced a growth spurt. In 2018, the ABA has 1,835 members operating 2,470 locations — a 31 percent increase in companies and a 49.6 percent increase in the number of physical stores in just nine years.

“The urban legend about indie bookstores being an endangered species has been hard to break,” said Oren Teicher, the association’s chief executive officer. “Amazon remains a fierce competitor, but we’re hanging on. Physical bookstores are not going away.”

. . . .

Teicher said buying books is different than shopping for other consumer goods.

“Book purchases happen by discovery,” he said. “The overwhelming majority of books are bought because you find them on the shelf of a bookstore or a library or because they were recommended by someone you trust. Interacting with the physical book is very important. You need exposure to the product to make the sale.”

Link to the rest at The Baltimore Sun and thanks to Nick at The Digital Reader for the tip.

The best part is still ahead of me – I haven’t experienced my ‘good old days’ yet. ~ Luther Vandross

PG says Oren Teicher demonstrates astounding perspicacity. Nobody buys books online because they can’t interact with the physical book first. What a fool PG has been because he didn’t realize that.

Finally, an explanation of why Barnes & Noble’s sales are booming and Amazon is facing bankruptcy. Authors can say goodbye to those monthly ebook royalty payments from Seattle because they’re going to dry up any day now.

If posting is a little thin today, it’s because an obsession is growing in PG’s lizard brain.

Go fondle a book. Just one. Well, maybe two, but then I’ll stop. This time will be different. I won’t wake up in a strange hotel room, lying on the floor surrounded by open hardbacks I don’t remember buying.

8 thoughts on “How Baltimore’s independent bookstores are thriving in the age of Amazon”

  1. WalMart must be really chastising whoever signed them up to sell ebooks and ebook gift chards instead of expanding the pbook sections.

    Have any of these folks even thought of correlating the decline of B&N with their improved prospects? If they did, they might be better positioned to deal with a potential B&N collapse.

  2. “Book purchases happen by discovery,” he said. “The overwhelming majority of books are bought because you find them on the shelf of a bookstore or a library or because they were recommended by someone you trust. Interacting with the physical book is very important. You need exposure to the product to make the sale.”

    This link is already 5 years old, and back then it said that about 50% of Amazon purchases are people who know what they are looking for (and who apparently do not need to touch the book first.)

    https://www.forbes.com/sites/suwcharmananderson/2013/02/20/half-of-amazon-book-sales-are-planned-purchases/

    This also 5 year old link expands on that and tells us…

    Two years ago, 35% of book purchases were made because readers found out about a book in bricks-and-mortar bookstores, the single-largest site of discovery. This year, that figure has dropped to 17%

    http://www.shelf-awareness.com/issue.html?issue=1844#m17713

  3. These articles never seem to get around to addressing whether or not the stores are profitable. I’m assuming they are, given that several of the bookstores noted in the article have been open for several years, but is the pursuit of filthy lucre such a forbidden topic?

    I’m also curious if the analysis of Data Guy will ever find its way into a wider public, given how so much of the sales in genre fiction now goes unrecorded.

  4. What these B&M hagiographers fail to understand is that the retail environment for all products has irrevocably changed and that pretending that the tide of change is over is only setting the survivors up for further failures.

    There is real value to consumers in B&M stores but that value is not the same for every single business and every single shopper. A lot of lost business was lost because of economic hardship and some of it may return with the improving economy but not all. Consumers have learned new values, new shopping habits, and new spending habits.

    And many businesses have relearned some of the basics of retail, that they are a service industry and that self-service does not negate the need for customer service and that service can be both a value add and a draw.

    Like this:

    https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/03/business/retail-walmart-amazon-economy.html

    On the other hand, breathing a sigh of relief that the worst is over and thinking they can go back to doing what they always did is a prescription for disaster.

    Right now I’m wondering just what kind of sharks are going to show up looking to eat B&N’s market share if they implode. That is still a billion dollar slice of the market becoming instantly up for grabs. Well positioned independents will grab some, BAM and Half Price in some areas, too. Amazon undoubtedly.

    But there will be others. Indigo has signaled their intent. Maybe Hudson news will look to expand out of their airport niche. Maybe some foreign players will look to try their luck.

    Whoever they turn out to be, they won’t be satisfied with B&N refugees; the independents might find themselves targeted if they aren’t prepared.

    The biggest storm yet might still be coming.

  5. While I wish bookstores well, and do believe that frontlist books, children’s books and nonfiction especially benefit from a physical presence, the article seems unaware of new-ish and ever-evolving ways of discovering books. These include Look Inside the Book and daily newsletters, usually with ads paid for by authors, offering ebooks that are on sale, free or low-priced as first-in-series.

    I find new books and new-to-me authors all the time, online.

  6. So much has changed and books aren’t some special exception. The number of BM stores necessary for all supplemental purchases will be much lower than what we’re accustomed to.

    Even our cities have been expanded with big commerce in mind. It’s just not neccessary anymore. A couple of specialty stores for the kids section, magazines maybe, some frontlist stuff superfans will want every edition of should suffice. If they’re indie, even better!

    I consider a real live trip to stores an event now, even Whole Foods since I get delivery. The exceptions are home improvement stores, because that’s still fun to browse. Even then, I usually shop online first to see what’s what.

    Books are great, but they fall under the same category as almost anything else that we buy when it comes right down to it. Less BM, more online.

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