Bookshops - the endangered species

This week I actually heard someone say:

'What we do is go into town, look for what we want, and then order it online off Amazon - it is so much cheaper.'

I am not sure if they were talking about books specifically, but I think books is probably one of the hardest sectors hit. And the person saying it was in the just over 60 age bracket.

This is going to happen more and more. The question is - how do you stop it? At the moment the poor terrestial bookshops are taking all the brunt. Waterstone's answer seems to be to try and control all costs centrally and allow no scope for the people on the shopfloor to help it win the battle.

I drove past Waterstone's window in Lancaster city centre. I think all of its windows had a huge poster in it. One of the posters was advertising the two for one Annual (like Beano, Blue Peter, etc). The other was advertising an e-reader. What sort of creativity is that? It is obviously cost-effective but it is no fun for the bookseller who might enjoy window dressing. Nor is it very enticing for the customer.

Then the hub is another initiative trying to make Waterstone's more streamlined and cost effective. I am not sure it has done this. What it has done is taken the onus away from the publisher to ensure its books are in the right Waterstone's at the right time, and put it onto the Hub. In effect adding a middleman who I don't suppose has such a vested interest in getting the books to market, so much as squeezing a bigger discount from the publisher.

Books aren't lines of shampoo or toothpaste. They are more like individual seeds. Sow some in the right place and they will flourish, sow some in unsuitable shops and they will do nothing. It is the skill of the sower to get this right. There are over three hundred Waterstones and therefore at least 300 tenant farmers with willing hands to get a good yield from their crop. If there is just one big farmer in head office who does all the selection then you are going to end up with just a few types of books - the Golden Delicious, Granny Smith and Braeburn of the book world. Soon the public will forget what a rich variety of apples there once was.