Independent Book Stores - Casualty of Retail Experience Evolution
The demise of independent book stores gets a fair amount of coverage in the literate press. In the Bay Area, we’re witnessing the passing of Cody’s Books, a formerly venerable Berkeley institution whose fortunes collapsed over the last couple of years.
The death knell for independent book stores has been tolling for at least 15 years, beginning with the rise of Barnes and Noble, and then Amazon. Oh, and supposedly, people don’t read.
I find much of the discussion misleading. While the cheaper prices that Amazon and Barnes and Noble are able to provide are one reason for the demise of the independent bookseller, I would argue that the bigger reason is that independent bookstores misunderstood their potential role in the world of retail. They stuck with an outdated 20th (19th?) century notion of being a collection of shelves filled with books, and didn’t embrace the 21st century reality of providing a distinct experience that connects with their customers.
I find this frustrating because I love book stores, and I particularly love independent ones. But I find it shameful that the tenor of the discussion around these failing stores places blame on the customers who no longer shop there (or who never did, and not on the owners who aren’t working to figure out how to adapt to thrive. I can guarantee you that Cody’s never engaged in any type of research to understand what their desired audience wanted from the book store experience—I’m sure they believed they understood their customers, because they were their customers! (Of course, this is true only if their desired customers were aging Boomers… Cody’s never bridged to the younger generations that now make up the bulk of Berkeley.)
Also, Cody’s held on to outdated thinking that a store is a collection of items on shelves. That is simply no longer sufficient—you will never compete with the Web’s infinite shelf space, and the deeper discounts that such volume allows them to provide. Apart from the occasional book signing, Cody’s never took advantage of their physical location to provide a literary experience. Why not learn from the success of Borders or Barnes and Nobles? Cody’s never offered comfy chairs or coffee. It never tried to be a destination. It just did the same thing it always did, which proved quixotic when it was clear the world around them was changing.
As such, I find it hard to feel bad about the demise of Cody’s (or any other independent bookseller). And it depresses me to see them talked about as if they’re charities that warrant “saving.” There are many ways book sellers can evolve to create a desirable literary experience that keeps customers coming, attracts new customers, and moves product. I continue to think a huge untapped opportunity for independent booksellers is to connect customers with one another. As such, I’m curious to see what happens with Indiebound, the next generation of BookSense (the national marketing program on behalf of independent bookstores), to see if they’re able take advantage of “the social” to re-stoke people’s passion for their local independent bookstore.
There are 6 comments on this idea.
these stores, and record stores for that matter, could benefit greatly by hiring 1 more employee: the tech/web guy. He could put all books on half.com, ebay.com, buy.com and more and these so called “indie bookstores” can remain in business through online sales. In fact, the book world would see a resurgence.
I was just thinking about this topic applied to ALL industries. There is far too much, ‘well the Internet took our customers…’ chatter going on.
Business must evolve. This is one of the basic rules of Capitalism.
Sure, the Internet has made it much more challenging and has forced the evolution, but isn’t it your responsibility as a business leader or owner to look forward and think about what might affect your revenue models down the road and adapt or adjust to solve for that? Customers will go to the business that meets/exceeds their needs. Blaming the customer for a failure to evolve is showing an inherent lack of understanding of the economic reality of life in a Capitalistic system. The customer will go where they find value. Thanks for the post, Peter.
Whenever I think about bookstores, I’m always reminded of my favorite: a used bookstore that was retrofitted into an old house. What was once the living room held magazines, picture books, art books, etc. The kitchen; cookbooks. SF&F was in the darkest corner of a cramped basement that felt almost like a tomb; the experience was exactly as I’d imagine hunting for a lost text in a forgotten castle.
I agree! You might find Book People interesting as an example of a local bookstore that really knows what it takes to survive in the Amazon age. (Although they could stand to have more comfy chairs, as I discovered waiting in line for six hours during a book signing!)
sir jorge—that’s what BookSense does (not terribly well, perhaps, but that’s the idea).
Cody’s had chairs (at least their second-to-last location did) and were right across from a Peet’s, so they didn’t exactly need coffee in-store. What else do you mean by a “literary experience”? What I look for in an indie bookstore is knowledgeable staff and recommendations and a lot of well-stocked shelves.
Sure bookstores need to understand what their customers want and evolve, but what if the only route to profitability is evolving right out of their core business? Presumably Amazon and BN stay afloat through profits from DVDs and other things. Does every little bookstore need to become a movie store (or cafe or whatever) instead? Maybe it’s just not economically viable to run a small bookstore anymore?
I’ll mention two favorite indie bookstores that are still doing okay (I think) and are worth your time—Kepler’s in Menlo Park (rescued from bankruptcy by investors a few years ago) and the Regulator Bookshop in Durham, NC.
I’ve been thinking of writing a similar article based on wine. Wine, like books, has been increasingly commoditised.
I read this recently on a wine website in Ireland,
“From a retail point of view, it has become more evident that alot of customers don’t appreciate the differences between a specialist wine shop and your run of the mill supermarket. While I very much hope to stay on working in the wine business, I have strong concerns that shops such as mine will struggle to survive as the large multiple retailers continue to use alcohol as a loss leader.”
The key issue here is blaming the customer for their lack of understanding. Successful businesses need to go beyond the “understanding and serving customers” to creating customers, and eventually legions of fans.
You just need to look to Gary Vaynerchuk on WLTV to see how he has mastered this approach.
Lar
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