Sometimes I miss things, even though the information is there on my writer's loops. I don't read all the posts and then I'm literally "out of the loop."
On January 1st it was announced that the largest speciality bookstore in the United States - Murder Ink. in New York - was closing its doors. What a shame. They cited a rent increase and falling sales, due to chain bookstores and the internet, as the reasons.
A sign of the times, I guess. Such a shame.
Diana
Thursday, January 11, 2007
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It's always a sad day when another small bookstore has to close its doors.
ReplyDeleteIndependent stores need a local customer base, unless they also have a successful mail order division.
Being a specialty store makes it even more difficult.
Personally I only buy from the chain bookstores a couple of times a year. They simply don't carry what I want--often older, even out of print books on whatever subject I'm researching. For those I turn to all the on-line options. I would say that 99% of the dozens and dozens of books I purchased last year were never even sold in the large stores. If they were it was for only a brief time period, since chain stores can't keep anything but best sellers in stock for more than a few months.
Now let's see what happens in the next few years as electronic books and reading devices become more main stream.
Linda