Bookstores themselves are a good example. Borders and Barnes & Noble put all the local bookstores out of business. Then Amazon put them out of business. Now most towns don't have a bookstore at all.
This is a good example of something that sounds true but is actually not. Private equity put Borders out of business (famously). Barnes & Noble is now private but by all reports (still) doing fine. There are more independent bookstores today (in more towns) than ever before.
Sounds true because (at least in some cases) it is. All the books I've bought in the past 20 years have been online, mostly from Amazon. When I was a kid my town had at least six bookstores that I can remember. Barnes and Noble and Borders came and they were fantastic but caused all the locals to close up within a decade. Then Borders closed and a few years later Barnes and Noble was gone. I go there today and there aren't any bookstores. Nobody thinks a bookstore in a small town is a viable business in the Amazon era, so none have been opened.
Big cities I'm sure still have some, they have enough population to support them even if most people don't patronize them.
I see a fair number of them, scattered around, not even in ultra-populated areas, but the last 3 or 4 times I've stopped in to try and buy things for e.g. holiday gifts, they've had none of the things I was looking for in stock, and they always seem empty.
Some of the ones in the Bay Area were quietly acquired by Barnes & Noble in the last 12 months.
I hope that's not a national trend, but I suspect it is.
On top of that, Barnes & Noble is closing their larger locations, and replacing them with tiny ones that simply aren't compelling if you're looking for something specific.
people give books away here in California with "tiny house" library stands. In a major college town, previously full of specialty and trade bookstores, now very empty.
Comments
Bookstores themselves are a good example. Borders and Barnes & Noble put all the local bookstores out of business. Then Amazon put them out of business. Now most towns don't have a bookstore at all.
This is a good example of something that sounds true but is actually not. Private equity put Borders out of business (famously). Barnes & Noble is now private but by all reports (still) doing fine. There are more independent bookstores today (in more towns) than ever before.
Sounds true because (at least in some cases) it is. All the books I've bought in the past 20 years have been online, mostly from Amazon. When I was a kid my town had at least six bookstores that I can remember. Barnes and Noble and Borders came and they were fantastic but caused all the locals to close up within a decade. Then Borders closed and a few years later Barnes and Noble was gone. I go there today and there aren't any bookstores. Nobody thinks a bookstore in a small town is a viable business in the Amazon era, so none have been opened.
Big cities I'm sure still have some, they have enough population to support them even if most people don't patronize them.
I'm always surprised when I see B&N stores.
I see a fair number of them, scattered around, not even in ultra-populated areas, but the last 3 or 4 times I've stopped in to try and buy things for e.g. holiday gifts, they've had none of the things I was looking for in stock, and they always seem empty.
Some of the ones in the Bay Area were quietly acquired by Barnes & Noble in the last 12 months.
I hope that's not a national trend, but I suspect it is.
On top of that, Barnes & Noble is closing their larger locations, and replacing them with tiny ones that simply aren't compelling if you're looking for something specific.
people give books away here in California with "tiny house" library stands. In a major college town, previously full of specialty and trade bookstores, now very empty.
It's a community called "Little Free Library" or imitators. they're all over my nighboorhood. https://littlefreelibrary.org/
These are common in Tompkins County New York but I've seen them in Montreal and Philadelphia
Barnes and Noble put local bookstores out of business by doing a better job at being a bookstore.
Yes, as Walmart put local retailers out of business by doing a better job of being a department store.