Are Bookstores a Dying Relic?


Books aren't going away, but have you noticed that bookstores are quickly disappearing. When I was little I remember going into a Barnes and Nobles or a Borders almost once a week, however, this tradition was short-lived as most of my regular stores began closing down due to becoming bankrupt. The main company responsible for the liquidation of these bookstores is Amazon.


Amazon has slowly been dominating many industries, taking over the majority of the purchases in that industry. In 2014, Amazon was responsible for 64% of new printed book purchases, but 67% of new online/ e-book purchases. I can only assume that since then these numbers have continued to rise. Amazon has been a useful provider for consumers as you can easily order your books online along with clothes, batteries, and anythi
ng else you might have needed eradicating your need to travel to multiple stores to run a couple errands. According to the Census Bureau, book sales are down by 4.6% from a year earlier and 39% down from a decade ago leading to the liquidation of stores such as Borders and Book's World.

The only way stores like Barns and Nobles has been able to continue selling is by turning back to the foundation of bookstores which are the physical books themselves and the feeling of having and reading a book. Unfortunately, bookstores being able to turn a profit is already behind us with stores like Amazon, and Walmart which can sell these books for cheaper.

What do you think the age of bookstores is completely over?

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/28/technology/bookstores-final-shakeout.html
https://www.businessinsider.com/why-bookstores-are-doomed-2013-10
https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2014/05/amazon-has-basically-no-competition-among-online-booksellers/371917/

Comments

  1. AnonymousApril 8, 2019 at 9:23 AM

    In the age of technology it seems like bookstores have been hit with a double whammy. You have online shopping competing with bookstore prices, and Ebooks threatening the existance of physical copies of books all together. Off the back of this I agree with what you said, the only way bookstores can remain economically viable is if they prey on the one niche they have, "the feeling of having and reading a book". In the future, I see bookstores becoming rarer, and more like monuments. The store, and the feel of being in it, is more marketable than the books themselves.

    ReplyDelete
  2. AnonymousApril 14, 2019 at 12:25 AM

    Any kind of in store shopping is quickly becoming a lost art. Innovation truly springs out of people's laziness, and so online shopping is a quicker and easier alternative than getting up and driving out to go to a store. I know personally there have been many times when I was thankful I could just order something online instead of having to go to the mall and browse through many different stores. But I do miss bookstores as I also have memories of going to Borders and just skimming through books. I guess we have libraries for that but it's just not the same. It sucks that all these little things that make us human and give us a sense of purpose are going away and becoming automated. It raises the question of if we lose the ability to do things for ourselves, how much of ourselves are we losing in the process?

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Cost of Inelastic Goods

Image
Many goods that are inelastic in terms of demand are ones that are essential or, in other words, necessary to one's self. There are several examples: basic foods, gasoline, or even medicine. I was interested in how producers can manipulate the prices of these goods and how the total revenue can change over time because those goods are inelastic. The first example I thought of was insulin. Considered inelastic because, without it, those who are diabetic might physically suffer, I looked at the price trends in the past couple of years. Just as I predicted, the price has been rising dramatically in the past decade or so as producers are taking advantage of the consumers' essential need for this good. There are about 7.4 million Americans that use insulin and many struggle to pay the costs of this increasingly expensive drug. So, while rising prices benefit insulin manufacturers, those same prices come at a serious cost for patients as the demand for insulin is inelastic. Other...
Read more

The Economics and Psychology of Gambling

Image
As gambling around the world continues to increase, governments are starting to see these often self-destructive habits as a way to get money from their residents. Gambling has been seen as immoral and manipulative on the part of casinos, as well as pitiful on the parts of the people that gamble all their money away. It is seen as immoral and a “lazy way” to make money that isn’t even assured to get you anything. So what keeps bringing people back to the card table or slot machine? There are many theories about why someone would continuously gamble any money that they make to the point of landing themselves in debt. In many cases, the gamiling becomes an addiction, though many professionals have reservations on calling it that, that gets increasingly hard to kick. It is irrational for someone to continuously lose money and keep going back only to lose more. Or is it? The utility that some get out of gambling may feel like spending the money is worth it. As far as recreational ...
Read more

The Hidden Monopolies of the World

 Monopolies are all around us in the world, and not all of them are  obvious on the surface level like Google and Facebook. For example, you might be searching for hotel rooms and browse multiple "competing" sites like Travelocity, Trivago, or Hotel.com. What you most likely do not know however, is that all three websites are actually all owned by the same company; Expedia group. This illusion of free choice is used to hide the fact that Expedia essentially hold a monopoly over the industry and all hotel bookings actually go through them. These fake competitors which are all owned by Expedia Group controls 75% of the US online travel agency industry, Similarly, apple fans and Microsoft fans stubbornly stick to their respective brands of computers; not knowing that the laptops all come from the same Chinese manufacturer. Throughout all types of industries such as the ones listed earlier and others such as smartphones, supermarkets, beer, and even sunglasses, hidden parent co...
Read more