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February 27, 2011
The closing of the Borders chain of stores and those of Angus Robertson---as many as 200 Angus & Robertson and Borders bookstores could be sold off or closed---is due to the bankruptcy of the parent company in the US. It's ironic because people in the past have bemoaned the replacement of the local and the quaint by outposts of the big, homogeneous and increasingly global chains. Others welcomed them.
Will the demise of the Borders and Angus Robertson chains lead to a resurgence of independent booksellers?
The failure of AR and Borders will not see a resurgence in the independent book retailer market, given the shift to buying books online because it is far cheaper to do so. Bricks and mortar shops just can't compete on price. The Australian dollar has risen in value in recent months and consumers are turning to the internet to buy books at much lower prices. We pay way more for books than countries like the USA, due to consumers in Australia being both gouged by local distribution networks, and government protection of the Australian publishing industry.
Most of the online trade is presumed to be flowing towards Amazon in the United States and the UK's Book Depository website. The latter offers free postage to Australia.
Bricks and mortar independent booksellers selling and physical books will become a specialist niche (eg., older, hard-to-find books) in a marketplace increasingly shaped by the big discount stores--- Big W, Target and Kmart--- for those who desire a luxury product.
Intensifying competition is lead not just to price reduction but also to a round of creative destruction. Companies that are unable to cope with the demands of consumers in the internet age should be wiped out. Books, magazines and newspapers will be around and be profitable, but online distribution will shrink the independents businesses, and they will need to downsize physically and increase their online presence to be competitive.
The electronic book age is dawning. The smaller independent bookstores, who have historically struggled to compete with the large chains, may be able to begin to benefit from the expanding e-book market--eg., by teaming up with Google Editions, or rather Google eBooks.
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Yes I really can't see any reason why people would want to buy books at a shop, even if prices were identical (and online prices will almost certainly always be cheaper apart from the odd shop clearance sale). Online outlets have much more variety, the book you want is probably in stock (not just 1 million copies of the 20 titles the shop has on promotion that month) and it's much easier to browse. I can spend hours on Amazon, and end up buying things I never even knew existed, with a good chance of being satisfied because I've read a selection of reader's reviews.
Thanks for the tip about Book Depository - I'll check it out.