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New cycle of used-bookstore extinctions on the way?
In Southern California, where I visit used bookstores, it seems to me
that about one-half {at least) of the shops around in the early-2000's are gone. In most of the cases I am aware of, the dealers were not on-line and usually did not even have a computer in the store. Simply put, they were charging far too much for low market-value books, and letting many high-market value books go out the door far too cheaply, often bought by customers who would turn around and sell the same books on the net for prices that the dealer should have been asking in the first place. These dealers did not notice the elephant in the room (the net book market) and you ignore the elephant in the room at your own peril. We may soon be seeing a new round of used bookstore extinctions. This time, it could involve dealers who are not entirely net-clueless, and are either selling on the net or at least checking prices on the large net venues. What the dealers I have in mind are NOT doing, though, is making any effort to obtain the high-value books that the customers want. Serendipity buying used to work pretty well for the these dealers. At one time, people regularly brought them high-value books, the sort the dealer could pay one dollar or two for and then sell in the store or on the net for maybe $20 and sometimes far upwards of that. As a result, used bookstore owners were able to keep their stock fresh and interesting without much effort or expense. What is happening now, of course (a large percentage of the general population being computer/net literate), is that far more people with books to sell are checking prices in the internet, and in many instances are selling books themselves in the large net venues. In some cases they are even bringing the dregs and the lees of their accumulations into their used bookstores. Who can blame the sellers for that, since they know that the bookstore owner will far underpay them for high-value items, although the same dealer may pay something close to a reasonable price for low market value items. The result of all this is that the inventories in the stores I have in mind are becoming degraded and stale with regard to just about everything except popular paperback and hardcover novels. I won''t set foot in several of them any more because of the lackluster, boring quaility of their stock. Soon, they may become almost as dismal as those little "paperback trader" shops (which in turn, will probably run out of buiness eventually with improvements and lowered prices in Kindle and Kindle-like devices.). How can "brick-and-mortar" dealers buck this trend? One way is for them to more carefully target the items they know their customers want. Dealers will have to pay more for the books they know they can sell. Is there anything wrong with paying $25 for a book when you know you can sell it for $50 very soon? Sadly, some dealers lack the mental capacity for attempting anything close to that sort of targeted stock-buying. Other dealers are intelligent enough to more effectively target their purchases, but are too lazy to attempt that. They prefer to lounge behind their counters waiting for the serendipity stock acquisitions of a few years ago to return, although common sense should tell them such days are gone. In other words, being now on the net, the bricks-and-mortar dealers I refer to are at least vaguely aware there is an "elephant in the room" but don't have what it takes to use that awareness to their advantage. They will either learn to target their buying more carefully and will be willing to pay prices which reflect the market value for things they know they can sell at a profit, or they will very likely be out of business soon. [Memo from the upstairs office] |
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