Interesting. Does anyone know of any comprehensive resource that can give a number for the US? I'd be very surprised if the situation were the same (although if it were it would be a nice pick-me-up), and I'd be interested in speculating on why the US and Britain might be different. Could it be directly blamed on the degree of penetration of Amazon or Amazon Prime?
At least as of a few years ago, physical bookstores were making a comeback in the United States.
Most attributed this to an "enemy of my enemy is my friend" scenario. Amazon stomped Borders and Barnes & Noble into the ground, which meant that in many towns there was no longer a huge chain competitor in the bricks and mortar space. That opened up room for the small indy bookstores to come back.
Edit: this NPR piece claims that the number of indy bookstores in the United States increased 35% between 2009 and 2015.
I mean that’s not true? If buying new is crazy cheap and very convenient via Amazon(etc) doesn’t that necessarily undermine the size of the second hand market? It certainly has for me.
Amazon lists 2nd hand books, and if you pay for Prime, you can get free shipping, I believe. However, I recommend you take a look at Better World Books, thriftbooks, world of books, discover books, second sale; each of these will sometimes sell books, new or used, below the standard prices that Amazon sets and the other high-volume booksellers follow.
There's "crazy cheap" on Amazon, and there's "crazy cheap" second hand, but there's likely an order of magnitude between them.
Annecdotally here 2nd hand books cost around $2, for recent stuff, sometimes less than $1 for age or condition. New ones are $10 - $15.
So new and 2nd-hand are not really "competing" with each other, price wise.
Yes they compete, yes there are many other factors that affect the profitability of 2nd hand stores, but I don't think price-of-new is a major factor (in a decline sense.)
For starters, Americans are reading less and less (and I strongly suspect what they're most reading is utter trash [e.g. the political here-say/Trump fan fiction of the month]. The reason I bring those up is because they are terrible for second-hand because no one cares about Clinton's tell-all book after the first 6 months. These books end up first-hand in the bargain bin or at Costco after the initial hype.
I would be curious about Amazon thought, because there is certainly a thriving ecosystem of second-hand book stores listing their inventories there. USPS plays a huge part in making this possible through the Media Mail class of mail.
Many of the second-hand stores are also British, but you will find almost none of them are Canadian because Canada hates being competitive and as such, does not have a viable class of mail to ship books with, be it it domestically, or abroad.
You can especially see this at your local Goodwill (in the US) - all the hardcover books are of a certain "bestseller" type and many will be clearly never even opened.
Meanwhile actual second-hand bookstores often specialize in something (there was a really good one that specialized in science fiction) - they still have a normal selection of books like a small library, but most of the shelf space is whatever they specialize in.
FWIW, the only thing I've ever bought at Amazon's was an out-of-print book via their network of book shops from when AMZN started business by selling books and other media.
Comments
Interesting. Does anyone know of any comprehensive resource that can give a number for the US? I'd be very surprised if the situation were the same (although if it were it would be a nice pick-me-up), and I'd be interested in speculating on why the US and Britain might be different. Could it be directly blamed on the degree of penetration of Amazon or Amazon Prime?
At least as of a few years ago, physical bookstores were making a comeback in the United States.
Most attributed this to an "enemy of my enemy is my friend" scenario. Amazon stomped Borders and Barnes & Noble into the ground, which meant that in many towns there was no longer a huge chain competitor in the bricks and mortar space. That opened up room for the small indy bookstores to come back.
Edit: this NPR piece claims that the number of indy bookstores in the United States increased 35% between 2009 and 2015.
https://www.npr.org/2018/03/29/598053563/why-the-number-of-i...
I feel like everyone in this thread is missing that these are second-hand bookshops. Amazon Prime isn’t a competitor, and e-books aren’t relevant.
I mean that’s not true? If buying new is crazy cheap and very convenient via Amazon(etc) doesn’t that necessarily undermine the size of the second hand market? It certainly has for me.
Amazon lists 2nd hand books, and if you pay for Prime, you can get free shipping, I believe. However, I recommend you take a look at Better World Books, thriftbooks, world of books, discover books, second sale; each of these will sometimes sell books, new or used, below the standard prices that Amazon sets and the other high-volume booksellers follow.
FWIW, used books (and other items) are also sold through Amazon.
Either way, Amazon pales in comparison to the used bookstore I used to live nearby: McKay's Used Books in Manassas, VA.
Amazon the company also owns AbeBooks, a very decent and large-ish online seller of SH (and even antique) books.
There's "crazy cheap" on Amazon, and there's "crazy cheap" second hand, but there's likely an order of magnitude between them.
Annecdotally here 2nd hand books cost around $2, for recent stuff, sometimes less than $1 for age or condition. New ones are $10 - $15.
So new and 2nd-hand are not really "competing" with each other, price wise.
Yes they compete, yes there are many other factors that affect the profitability of 2nd hand stores, but I don't think price-of-new is a major factor (in a decline sense.)
Maybe it's different in the US, but second-hand books here more implies antiquarian, rare, collector, special interest, niche, not available new.
People aren't going to a second-hand bookshop to buy everyday reading that they could get new from Amazon.
For starters, Americans are reading less and less (and I strongly suspect what they're most reading is utter trash [e.g. the political here-say/Trump fan fiction of the month]. The reason I bring those up is because they are terrible for second-hand because no one cares about Clinton's tell-all book after the first 6 months. These books end up first-hand in the bargain bin or at Costco after the initial hype.
https://news.gallup.com/poll/388541/americans-reading-fewer-...
I would be curious about Amazon thought, because there is certainly a thriving ecosystem of second-hand book stores listing their inventories there. USPS plays a huge part in making this possible through the Media Mail class of mail.
Many of the second-hand stores are also British, but you will find almost none of them are Canadian because Canada hates being competitive and as such, does not have a viable class of mail to ship books with, be it it domestically, or abroad.
You can especially see this at your local Goodwill (in the US) - all the hardcover books are of a certain "bestseller" type and many will be clearly never even opened.
Meanwhile actual second-hand bookstores often specialize in something (there was a really good one that specialized in science fiction) - they still have a normal selection of books like a small library, but most of the shelf space is whatever they specialize in.
I wonder how much book reading has been displaced by audiobooks rather than just “Americans dumb, no like book”.
Basically all my friends including myself consume audiobooks but rarely sit down to read a book.
FWIW, the only thing I've ever bought at Amazon's was an out-of-print book via their network of book shops from when AMZN started business by selling books and other media.
Can you expand on which way you are thinking the US is going and why?
In my experience they're largely gone already, not going anywhere