December 23, 2009

Indie Book Stores

It is getting harder and harder to find an indie book store - they have a tough time competing with the big chains and Amazon.com. And when stores like Target and Walmart listed some of the bestsellers for about $10 for the holiday season, it makes it even harder for these stores to show value add. I love indie stores. They are all so different with different layouts and selections. That is part of the fun of browsing.

So imagine my delight when I stopped in at Nicola's Books and found the place packed with shoppers. Not only were all these people buying books, but they were willing to pay extra to support a local book seller. How does the store add value? They provide free gift wrapping, you get a free book for every $100 spent and the staff is knowledgeable and can recommend books for "a son who is 14 years old and likes edgy books". Love that!
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2 comments:

Maria said...

Reports say more kindle books were sold than old-fashioned books over the holiday. Marketing guru, Seth Godin says that the bookstore is dead. He's a writer himself and says that books are souvenirs now... most read online.

I think this is a case of "news of my death are greatly overstated". Nothing ever dies is my experience, after hearing that LANs would kill the modem in 1980's... and modems went on to their heyday. I suppose modems are kinda dead today, but still ship in most laptops regardless!

Curious about your journaling workshop... are you teaching it??? :-)

Happy New Year!

Big hug, Maria

11:48 PM
Elizabeth said...

Agree with you. "They" also said that radio was dead when the TV came out. I find it really hard to believe that more kindle books were sold. Maybe that is a US only stat - but still find it hard to believe. Don't get me wrong - I really want a Kindle. Covet it in fact. Been waiting for Amazon to work out kinks and DRM issues. In the meanwhile love books in my hands - the heft, the smell, the texture of the paper - oh I could go on and on!

The workshops were taught by an artist whose blog I follow. Will post about it later this week.
Hugs, E

12:19 PM

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