About nine months ago, our local Borders bookstore was one of the first locations of the company to close during their attempt to restructure after filing for bankruptcy protection. Another business finally took over the building a few weeks ago, an enormous discount liquor store. The only remaining “big box” bookseller in the area, Barnes & Noble, is a bit more of a hike for us, but still not too bad of a drive. We visited that store last weekend.
We hadn’t been in a bookstore since shortly after our Borders store started their liquidation process, so we were a little shocked at what we found at Barnes & Noble: a decided lack of books.
Our closest Barnes & Noble is one of the huge, two-story “anchor” stores at a large mall, and I would estimate that books only occupy roughly one-third of the available floor space. On the lower level, the area just inside the front door had several racks of severely discounted hardbacks but then you had to travel clear to the other side of the vast space before you stumbled over another book. Around the cash registers, bookmarks, stickers, key chains, and other small trinkets filled numerous carousels. An entire section of the first floor was dedicated to greeting cards, with at least half a dozen rows of displays.
Blank books—diaries, journals, day planners—took up a significant amount of room, as did calendars and coffee mugs. The café area took up a great deal of space, as did a huge area dedicated to board games and other toys.
Because kids need more shiny distractions.
Barnes & Noble is in the process of rolling out 3,000-square-foot “playroom boutiques” at select locations, which will expand the toys and games area even further. A full quarter of the floor space displayed music CDs and video games.
The second floor of the store wasn’t any different. The newsstand area took up an enormous amount of space, as did an area dedicated to the Nook device. Where there were actual bookshelves with physical books, the shelves were so widely spaced that you could drive a tank between them, where before you could barely squeeze by without bumping butts with a fellow shopper.
I think the writing is on the virtual wall. While bound paper books may be around in mass quantities for a while longer, I think the physical books mostly consist of used books already in circulation, coffee-table art books, and collector editions with special bindings like Barnes & Noble’s beautiful, leather-bound “BG Classic Editions.”
I’ve embraced the concept of ebooks. Waterproof cases for ebook devices rendered my previous argument in favor of paper books moot (my favorite time and place to read is in a steaming hot bath). It won’t hurt my feelings not to have to dust shelf after shelf of books, or pack them if we should ever decide to move house again. I won’t miss having to make hard decisions as to which old books to get rid of in order to make room for new ones.
What I will miss is the bookstore experience of leisurely browsing the stacks, grabbing a volume, and curling up in an easy chair in a quiet corner of the store to read a few chapters before buying. I’ve noticed that the library decorum of speaking in whispers that used to exist in bookstores has vanished along with the books.
It’s an exciting time for the rapidly changing publishing industry, and I’m glad I’m part of it, but I have to admit to a certain degree of wistful nostalgia for the good old days. But then, I still miss vinyl record albums. 🙂
Unfortunately as my reading tastes changed book stores have become less and less relevant for me. Even for browsing as I buy 95% e-books.
Not a single bookstore (save the GLBT store) in my city carries any m/m romance or anything with the word gay in it. I don’t live in the deep south or the wild’s of South Dakota as you’d imagine. No, a largish city in liberal Canada. When I asked an employee once why, I was told they didn’t know if they should put GLBT books in a gay section (which would offend the GLBT community who claim segregation) or in the romance section (which would freak out the straights supposedly) so they chose not to put them anywhere but would be happy to have you buy them off their website. Gee thanks.
So in my city (once you get past the toys, magazines, coffee mugs, etc.) there’s not all that much I’m interested in browsing. In a larger city like Toronto I can find yaoi and GLBT or m/m romance books but as a rule, I hate to say it, they’ve lost their luster for me. Oh well, times they are a changing.
Jaye
You’re not the only one who misses the old style bookstores. I used to visit them (especially the smaller family owned bookstores) in the winter, curl up with a coffee and go through various dust covered books that I hadn’t read since university. I even have a decent collection of paperbacks including all genres. Now bookstores are just another excuse for mass marketing to the gullible public. As indicated in your article, there is everything in these stores BUT books.
I love vinyl but ran out of storage space so when I moved 10 years ago my cousin drove from Washington, D.C. to pick up the 1000+ vinyl records I had collected over the years as well as the record player. Now she’s enjoying all of my jazz albums. 😀
I know exactly what you are saying. Chapters and Indigo are our big box stores in Canada (one company, two names, go figure!) and they have the same layout. Lots of floor-space, but it’s filled with calendars, diaries, agendas, notebooks, children’s toys, magazine racks, a Starbucks, and a few tables of remaindered hardcovers.
I keep a list of want-to-buy books on my Blackberry, but even the mass-market paperbacks are hardly to be found, much less the LGBTQI and erotica titles. I rarely made a dedicated trip to the bookstore anymore, and just stop in while I’m at the mall, or when there’s an in-store only sale.
Tam has said what I was going to say. I used to love browsing book stores, but since I started reading (almost exclusively) gay books, I hardly ever go to book stores any more.
Borders in our city used to have a small shelf of gay stories, but they didn’t sell any of the authors I enjoyed. (This Borders has also gone now.)
I still love visiting our local library, though. I love looking at the larger picture books, or browsing through the history section. I hope libraries never disappear as some of the book stores have.
I miss our Borders terribly–they used to have poetry slams and mic nights with local struggling artists–it was an amazing place–you browsed, drank coffee, bought the occasional book and visited with friends. I remember when I got my kindle thinking–wow, now I won’t have to haunt borders for bargains. Never did I realize that in time I would never haunt Borders again–not by choice but by the band of the almighty dollar–the same dollar I was now giving Amazon–so sad really, my reading choice added to the demise–something to ponder really!
The writing is on the wall. I have no less than 3 coupons with various deals from Chapters. They used to only give discounts on books, now it’s on everything. I also got in the mail a $20.00 GC for being a faithful card carrier. Since I got the Kindle app on my iPhone 4 months ago, I’ve read 2 paperbacks (besides review ARCs). It’s just too easy to carry around hundreds of books now. They want to stay alive so they have to carry more than books. It’s a chicken or egg thing though. I also got tired of waiting for new releases to become available. Also in some stores, the romance section has been steadily shrinking in size.
I think eventually the business model for physical bookstores will evolve. There are music stores now, where you can browse the CD racks, but if you want to buy something, you have the option of plugging into a kiosk and downloading it directly to your device.
I can see bookstores following that lead and become showcases. They can have shelves with one or two copies of each book for people to thumb through, but if when they want to buy, they can plug-in their ereader and take it home.
I like that idea Diane.
When I read your descriptions of bookstores I’m consumed with jealousy 😀 . For several years studying Polish literature I was a regular at the bookstores. And it has never been a place to sit, drink coffee and browse the selected book. When you entered to the store you was lucky, if you have found the right book (often it happened that the book after you have come to the bookstore does not yet appeared) and quickly went to the cashier, because they began to look at you suspiciously if you prowl too long around the shelves. God forbid, do not ask the seller of the title because in most cases they had not the faintest idea about literature. The exception is the only Polish monopolist in the “market culture” – there are a few sofas to sit, but they are always occupied. GLBT books I can count on one hand – and I assure you, these are not romances. In addition, books in the past two years has doubled its price. Discounter books you could only find on secon-hand shops and online auctions. Every year, surveys shows increasingly falling interest in reading and how Poles rarely buy books but to me its no wonder. I could write more and more, because I consider it all when I was thinking about buying ereader. I bought Kindle – and do not regret. If I never set foot in a Polish bookstore I will not regret it. Libraries are different matter 😀
I used to love bookstores. Wandering in, browsing and dreaming, Maybe buying if I had saved enough of my allowance.
Now, I find them frustrating. My publisher used to have a whole 4′ shelf section in romance. Now they are only on the shelf if it’s a Lora Leigh completist item. None of my publishers can get into bookstores. My favorite horror publisher went belly up, leaving me without Keene or Smith.
I only wander in if I am looking for something particular, I find it and leave
Dutch book stores aren’t that bad. They do have a lot of books, certainly the independent or smaller chains are very good. Helped by the fact e-book reading isn’t so widespread yet.
Buying book over the internet is becoming more popular so I think even here the book stores in their current forms are going the same way as the dodo
I miss Borders greatly, but I have already switched to Half Price Books for their selection. The market for secondhand books is still around.
I finally figured out why I’m so against ebooks. If you buy a paperback and you end up not liking it, you can sell it to someone else. You buy an ebook that turns out to be a lemon, you can’t resell it.
Ebooks like paper books are just another format. I think stores will change but there is room for both. The smarter store would improve upon browsability and make themselves a destination. I miss Borders. They had comfy chairs to sit and browse.
The closest B&N has now eliminated the comfy plush chairs and left only the hard-back/seat monstrosities. They are apparently *discouraging* the leisurely shopper.
I still visit once in a while to see what’s out there that I wouldn’t normally look at….. e.g. I recently bought a coffee table book on the history of British royalty. But otherwise, it’s simply to buy the daily planner that I need.
I do miss it as I love the smell of books. :geek2:
I have always preferred having a bound book in my hands to read (I do not yet own a ebook reader).
I still buy paperbacks to keep & reread, but will probably buy an e-reader also, partially because of the demise of bookstores. I still plan to buy favorite authors paperbacks, but times change.
There were several Borders near me. The last one closed in September and now BAMM has opened in it’s spot. I went there today and had a grand time!