A city of 250,000 with no bookstore

[23skidoo]

I don't care if you're a technophile who sleeps with your Kindle under your pillow. Or if you think books are "too expensive". If this story doesn't make you at least a little bit concerned, or sad, there's something wrong with you.

Laredo, Texas, population 250,000 now has no bookstores at all.

http://www.cnn.com/2010/LIVING/01/22/laredo.books/index.html

To be fair, I don't know if this includes used bookstores or not. But still.

And before you say "well what about Amazon", wait till you read the whole story. Amazon is great if you already know what you want to buy, or know what to look for. There is a difference between that and walking into a bookstore and seeing the books actually there. And public libraries aren't always an option for increasing literacy, either. I bet half the people you might see in a B&N or Indigo wouldn't be caught dead in a library.

As for Laredo I can only hope someone sees a business opportunity and moves in. I refuse to believe everyone in the United States is really willing to leave their cultural literacy to things like Kindle that rely on technology that could render today's e-books unreadable in 6 months. Or that can be altered remotely (I will never trust Kindle after the B.S. Amazon pulled with Nineteen Eighty-Four).

Alex

 

[Robert Maxwell]

I think we had a thread about this a few months ago. There are advantages and disadvantages to both models. At Amazon, you are almost sure to find exactly what you want, but you have to wait for it to arrive. At a local bookstore, you can really explore and find things you never would've considered otherwise--and then you can just take it home.

Personally, I don't spend much time in bookstores. I almost always buy my books online. It should be nice to have the option, though, for people who want it, but it's not going to happen if there isn't a big enough market for it.

 

[Amaris]

Yeah, where I used to live, the population is about 75,000 now. Our little town which is situated right next to them, has a population of maybe 10,000 at most. There are no bookstores in either. In fact, the nearest bookstore is 30 miles away. The nearest used bookstore I believe, is 15 miles away. There are thrift stores, but the books they carry are worn, damaged and often they're vanity books that never made it to full press, or even just a few old pop culture books and diet books. It's terrible. I love books, and I can't even go browse in one any more, just to see if I find something new to enjoy.

 

[Kegg]

I could not live in such a town. I just don't feel right if I can't wander into a bookstore and look at the books for a couple of hours before belatedly making up my mind to buy the book that first caught my eye. I just get some peculiar satisfaction about standing in a bookstore, surrounded by books. It's a reassuring feeling, I've done it all my life and it's a nice little bit of continuity.

But then I couldn't live in a town without a cinema that shows foreign films. I have very boring, very dependenable and no doubt tiresome wants.

Even still, Amazon is invaluable because sometimes there just aren't books or movies that I want that are at bookstores. If I want a book on topic X, say (a biography of Khubilai Khan, to use a real example where I scoured a dozen bookstores in Dublin to no avail) a quick Amazon search does the deal. And I assume most people that go into a bookstore have a vague idea of what they want - even if it's as simple as a good book for the kids or an entertaining read. Search engines are a friend, I think.

 

[Amaris]

I could not live in such a town. I just don't feel right if I can't wander into a bookstore and look at the books for a couple of hours before belatedly making up my mind to buy the book that first caught my eye. I just get some peculiar satisfaction about standing in a bookstore, surrounded by books. It's a reassuring feeling, I've done it all my life and it's a nice little bit of continuity.

But then I couldn't live in a town without a cinema that shows foreign films. I have very boring, very dependenable and no doubt tiresome wants.

Even still, Amazon is invaluable because sometimes there just aren't books or movies that I want that are at bookstores. If I want a book on topic X, say (a biography of Khubilai Khan, to use a real example where I scoured a dozen bookstores in Dublin to no avail) a quick Amazon search does the deal. And I assume most people that go into a bookstore have a vague idea of what they want - even if it's as simple as a good book for the kids or an entertaining read. Search engines are a friend, I think.

Amazon is a great asset, particularly for me as I scour places for science books. Every thrift store I visited in a 10 mile radius (we have quite a few thrift stores) and the closest I got to a science book was about the science of ghosts. I was not impressed.

 

[bigdaddy]

I could not live in such a town. I just don't feel right if I can't wander into a bookstore and look at the books for a couple of hours before belatedly making up my mind to buy the book that first caught my eye. I just get some peculiar satisfaction about standing in a bookstore, surrounded by books. It's a reassuring feeling, I've done it all my life and it's a nice little bit of continuity.

There are these places... they are called libraries....

 

[SiorX]

That's staggering. I can't believe there isn't a prime business opportunity there. People make fun of Texan stereotypes, but there must be thousands of people there who'd use a bookshop.

My home town has a population of just under 9k, and we have five bookshops, and three second-hand bookshops, all of which have been in business for years.

 

[Spot's Meow]

And public libraries aren't always an option for increasing literacy, either. I bet half the people you might see in a B&N or Indigo wouldn't be caught dead in a library.

Why would this be?

There are several bookstores around me because I live near two large universities, but I very rarely buy books there, or even go to have a look. The first issue is that I don't have time to read personal books right now as I am in graduate school. Beyond that, books are just too expensive.

Also, I've found that when I pick out a random book that looks good and start reading, I rarely end up actually liking it. I guess I am very picky. I love my Agatha Christie novels and own all of those but I have little desire to venture beyond them. I used to, when I was a child and teenager, but lately it's been harder for an author to grab and keep my attention. So, I am always reluctant to spend so much money on something I probably won't enjoy much.

I also used to hang out in bookstores more often when I was a teenager, looking at all of the interesting stuff. But now I just find it so boring. I don't like shopping around in general, I like going to a place knowing the exact item I want and then leaving.

Which is why I buy books almost exclusively on Amazon. It's cheaper and I don't have to leave home - really it's perfect.

That sucks that bookstores are disappearing for the people who want to go to them, but libraries are always a great option. I'd rather see a greater appreciation and support of libraries than have a whole bunch of bookstores everywhere.

 

[firehawk12]

In Canada, it's just cheaper to order online. And it's not a trivial amount either - it's sometimes 30-40% cheaper. If that's the case in the US, it's not surprising that bookstores will go out of business. Whether that's publishers gouging consumers at bookstores or online retailers finding a way to charge less through volume, I have no idea.

What's worse is all these people who go to the bookstore, use their iPhones to scan in a barcode and then order the book online. That's probably a jackass thing to do.

 

[Mr. B]

This story came up a while back. Some rinky dink bookstore in the mall is shutting down. A big box Barnes & Noble is supposed to be open within two years. Apparently it would have been open sooner but there were real estate issues.

 

[RoJoHen]

I don't like libraries because the books always have those annoying plastic covers taped onto them. Plus I prefer paperbacks, and the libraries around me only carry hardcovers.

That said, I love wandering around bookstores. I almost never buy anything, but I just enjoy walking around looking at stuff.

 

[CaptainCanada]

In Canada, it's just cheaper to order online. And it's not a trivial amount either - it's sometimes 30-40% cheaper.

In my experience the savings become fairly negligible once shipping is accounted for.

 

[Kegg]

There are these places... they are called libraries....

Actually not a big difference for me. It was libraries mostly when I was a child, and I part-timed (very ineffectually, truth be told - lazy kid goofing off reading the back covers) in a library once.

 

[cardinal biggles]

In Canada, it's just cheaper to order online. And it's not a trivial amount either - it's sometimes 30-40% cheaper.

In my experience the savings become fairly negligible once shipping is accounted for.

I don't know if it's the same deal for Canadian customers, but in the U.S. both Amazon and B&N offer free shipping on orders $25 or more, so as long as you don't need next-day or anything, once you pass that threshold (which, let's be honest, doesn't take much), shipping is a non-issue.

As a B&N employee, I have to say their decision to close the Laredo B. Dalton's was foolish, and is bad PR, regardless of the fact that Laredo will have a brand-new, full-size B&N by 2012.

In regards to some of the comments about libraries, (I'm a librarian, too), while libraries are great community resources, they can't do everything (and more often than not lack the funding). A library might be a better alternative for your kid's report on Khubilai Khan, but it's not where you want to be when the new James Patterson thriller comes out, unless you enjoy waiting lists.

 

[Admiral Shran]

I live in a town of about 38,000 and there are six bookstores, two comic book stores, and two libraries. I couldn't imagine not having any of them. I love to be in bookstores and libraries, surrounded by books, even if I never read any of them. It's comforting, IMO.

Whenever I want to buy a book, I always check out my local bookstores first. I only buy them online when the stores don't have them. I like having the ability to just buy it and have it instantly. I also like to keep the money in the local economy as much as I can.

(I will never trust Kindle after the B.S. Amazon pulled with Nineteen Eighty-Four).

Seeing as how I have never used Kindle, and never will if I can help it (I like traditional books too much), I have no idea what happened here. Kindly explain, please.

 

[FreezeC77]

I haven't been in a non-used bookstore in probably over 5 years. I prefer Amazon and just ordering what I want, I use the used bookstores locally (and there are 2 or 3 I go to semi-regularly) to peruse and look for books I hadn't heard of or maybe books someone recommended, but I'm not sure about.

I don't go to Best Buy and look around the DVD aisle to find something to peak my interest, If I do go it's because they have something specifically I want that's cheaper then what I can get online.

I don't even go to Gamestop anymore to browse around the video game selections and maybe see if there's used stuff that interests me since you can do all that online now too.

 

[cardinal biggles]

(I will never trust Kindle after the B.S. Amazon pulled with Nineteen Eighty-Four).

Seeing as how I have never used Kindle, and never will if I can help it (I like traditional books too much), I have no idea what happened here. Kindly explain, please.

The Reader's Digest version is that Amazon had Kindle versions of George Orwell's 1984 and Animal Farm up for sale. When they found out that the publisher did not have permission to publish them digitally, Amazon not only took them off the website, but they also wirelessly removed them from the Kindle of every user who'd bought one. Users were rightly pissed, with some claiming it was a violation of Amazon's terms of service, and Amazon caught a lot of crap in the press for it.

Read more here.

 

[eastman23]

In Canada, it's just cheaper to order online. And it's not a trivial amount either - it's sometimes 30-40% cheaper.

In my experience the savings become fairly negligible once shipping is accounted for.

I don't know if it's the same deal for Canadian customers, but in the U.S. both Amazon and B&N offer free shipping on orders $25 or more, so as long as you don't need next-day or anything, once you pass that threshold (which, let's be honest, doesn't take much), shipping is a non-issue.

The threshold for Chapters and Amazon.ca is $39 up here.

This is pretty sad. I'm usually wandering through a bookstore at least once a week even if I don't end up buying anything.

 

[Admiral Shran]

(I will never trust Kindle after the B.S. Amazon pulled with Nineteen Eighty-Four).

Seeing as how I have never used Kindle, and never will if I can help it (I like traditional books too much), I have no idea what happened here. Kindly explain, please.

The Reader's Digest version is that Amazon had Kindle versions of George Orwell's 1984 and Animal Farm up for sale. When they found out that the publisher did not have permission to publish them digitally, Amazon not only took them off the website, but they also wirelessly removed them from the Kindle of every user who'd bought one. Users were rightly pissed, with some claiming it was a violation of Amazon's terms of service, and Amazon caught a lot of crap in the press for it.

Read more here.

Thanks.

 

[T'Girl]

Yellow pages shows thirty remaining book stores and other businesses that have book departments.

People never take anything CNN says seriously.