SLICE OF LIFE: Death of a book store

SLICE OF LIFE: Death of a book storetore

The Demise of BORDER'S
Steve Gilbert | Posted: Sunday, July 24, 2011 8:00 am

Save for the scorching pavement, it was just like the day before Christmas Friday — the parking lot crammed with cars, shoppers stripping store shelves, bins picked over, arms bulging with books.
It would have been joyous, if it wasn’t so mournful.
“Death of a Salesman” could be had for $13, in paperback, but these were the dying throes of “Death of a Bookstore.”

A month from now, the parking lot will be empty and the 14,600-square-foot building will be lifeless.
Who would have guessed that on Oct. 25, 2003, the grand opening of Borders books and Music in Monadnock Marketplace?
The Sentinel headline that day read, “Battlefield is Booked: Area booksellers say they’re prepared to thrive in the shadow of Borders.”

We devoted almost 2,000 words to the pending competition between the incoming corporate giant and the established independent book shops, particularly our own superstore, Toadstool Bookshop.Yet we missed the real competition, the behemoth lurking stealthily in the high-tech gizmos that now rule our lives, the catalysts of the electronic reading revolution.
The Internet was mentioned just once, in passing, in those 2,000 words, and nowhere to be found was Kindle, iBook, Nook, Cybook Opus, PocketBook, etc. They didn’t exist. Sony Reader showed up in 2006 and Kindle a year later.
Yet the Internet and all that it has spawned has traditional bookstores on the run.
“Paperback out, Kindle in,” is how one shopper succinctly described Borders’ demise Friday.

for the full article go to
http://www.sentinelsource.com/opinion/columnists/staff/gilbert/slice-of-life-death-of-a-book-store/article_a32d6e7d-cb47-5f25-ae88-1acdcd6fac9b.html

and a Fitzsimmons illustration:

NO WONDER BORDERS CROAKED.

I own thousands of books; my living room is lined with them, as are 2 "bedrooms" upstairs. I LOVE BOOKS! I cannot pass a Used-Book store without purchasing something. I TAUGHT ENGLISH LIT.

I do not care for the e-book, though I "get" the arguments about pricing, ease of transport, space issues, etc.

I moreso get the other side, the feel of turning a page ("turning over a new leaf" will apparently have to do with deciduous trees for the next generation); the look of a book-cover; the pride and joy in observing one's collection at a glance, each book in its discrete place, even if higgledy-piggledy on the floor next to the bed.

But primarily, I see more Americans out of work, as e-Book manufacturing is done in some distant locale: store managers and clerks; delivery people; printers; cover photographers; paper-mill owners and employees.

Sic semper technology.
But I don't have to like it.

were taken off lease - from all sorts of various libraries. They advertise that their profits go to cancer research at a university hospital (deliberately not named here.)

Their prices are under $4, and the books are in good condition. I like to keep them and fill up shelves - nothing like what you describe - but it is good to sit and read, surrounded by books, with good music in the background.

they had a decent selection of science fiction. Not only the latest releases but older works and books by relative unknowns at the time. As things went on I noticed the selection got smaller and was pretty much relegated to whatever was trendy on the best seller lists. When they stopped carrying new books by several minor authors(who wrote good stuff but it wasn't mainstream), I stopped going to their stores.

I am having a hard time going into mourning over Border's demise.

Still the indies thrived. Now when I visit my favorite indie book store there's real fear - not of big chains but of Nooks and Kindles. The owner told me that his business was down by a third. He listed all the other indie stores that have gone by the wayside and confessed that if it wasn't for the fact that he owned instead of rented the property that held his bookstore, he'd probably have gone under as well.

It happens all the time. A huge meg retailer comes to town, local independent stores are forced out of business and then then the mega store closes.