Remind me why I'm supposed to be supporting independent bookstores?

[susan]

Footnotes:

I sure do love this place.

[Little_Nemo]

Binghamton is the worst book city in New York City. I was there a couple of months ago talking to the owner of a great used book store downtown that was closing because the landlord tripled their rent. She was stunned that Rochester has five Borders and B&Ns. Binghamton has one. Rochester has three Walden’s. Binghamton has one. It has one paperback used book store. It has Fat Cat Books. And that’s pretty much it. There are no other general used or new books stores in the metro area.

The numbers aren’t that surprising; Rochester has five times the population that Binghamton does.

One of the first things you learn in retail is that the profit points are almost never what strike the customers’ eyes. Most of the stock is simply a lure to bring in customers and get them to purchase the high mark-up, high profit items. Car dealerships, for example, make more money off their service areas than from new car sales.

I ran into an example of this Friday. I went to a store that advertised itself as a wine bar/bookstore. The first floor sold wine; the second floor sold used books. But they had an unusual pricing method for their books; all paperbacks were $3.99 regardless of their original price or condition. And their stock wasn’t anything unusual for a used book store. They were selling the same paperbacks that other used bookstores in the city were selling for a dollar or two.

I figured they must make a good living selling wine to people that didn’t want to go to bars but liked the ambience of drinking wine in a bookshop.

[Nava]

In my home town (30,000 inhabitants) there is only one thing resembling a Real Bookstore. That is, one where the owners actually read and where you can order a book so long as you know its ISBN; one where you can walk in, ask the owners “do you have or can you get me any books on XYZ?” and they will either point you to the right shelf or pull out a list of XYZ-related books. Things that you order there may take 3 months or more to come in, though, since they’re a small place.

They and the huge supermarket are the only ones where you’re allowed to touch the books; they’re also the only ones that open on Saturday afternoon. The little store even opens on Sunday morning (they do a lot of business on newspapers and periodicals).

So, where do I go when I’m home and want a new book? The little store, then the supermarket. Anywhere else, might as well use www.gigamesh.com (SciFi/Fantasy specialist, their physical store is in Barcelona and they carry books mostly in Spanish and English but you can order any book in any language - they’re also a small editorial house) or amazon