So, if Borders is for sale due to growing losses, what does this tell us about 'high street' bookselling? Apparently, it's all about the combined threat of internet shops and supermarkets, where the lucrative bestsellers are heavily discounted to an extent that cannot be matched by the traditional mainstream of bookselling - Waterstone's, WH Smith, Borders et al. Presumably, the breadth of stock carried by these specialist shops is not enough to compensate for the cheapness of Tesco on the newest books, and the extra-huge breadth of stock carried by Amazon.
I appreciate the economic forces at work here, and understand that not only Borders is in trouble, but all the other specialist yet mainstream sellers. It is telling, however, that Borders has been the first to collapse to the extent that it evidently has done. Borders is a shop where you are able to buy a book you want from a huge variety on offer, and, so long as the book is in stock, you can purchase it immediately and be reading it in a Starbucks moments later. The internet cannot offer this, so there's an immediate competitive advantage already built in. It has an advantage over the supermarkets in terms of a vastly larger range and - you'd like to hope - a specialist knowledge of books from its staff. These are its advantages, so why the failure and losses? Driving. Typically, almost exclusively in fact, one has to drive to get a Borders store on a retail park at the edge of the city. No problem, you may think, it's convenient and allows the shop a big, cheap space to fill with books and coffee. There is a problem, though, and it's that we also drive to Tesco/Asda/Morrisons, at least once a week. Once there, if we're the kind of mainstream book buyer who only wants cheap chart titles and who keeps the entire publishing industry afloat through our middle brow tastes, then we'll buy our books there. Why on earth not? We absolutely need to eat, so we have to go to the supermarket anyway, so why make a separate trip to Borders?
It occurs to me that the business model that Borders has - of making book buying a leisure activity to be travelled to in a car - is inherently flawed. In a town or city centre, which you can reach on foot or by using public transport, you are far more likely to walk into a Waterstone's or WH Smith simply because you have not made a special effort to get there; you may have been in town anyway for work, culture/leisure or for the much greater choice of shopping offered in the town centre. You may, in other words, be an impulse shopper, just waiting for the marketing geniuses of Waterstone's et al to sell you a book by means of a well written review or well designed display. Granted, you may have already been to a supermarket in the car that very week and picked up the Maeve Binchy you've been hankering after, and this is why all high street sellers are struggling to some extent, but the opportunities for creative bookselling in shops that you don't need to make a planned journey to are innumerably higher than those offered in a retail shed out-of-town.
There's something very depressing indeed about mainstream booksellers doing badly. It suggests that the buying public's mainstream taste for reading is on the wane, that the respect given to books in the general culture is being reduced and ring-fenced around the paltry, ultra-popular offerings of the supermarket. In the event of Borders or any other big chain closing, genuine lovers of reading would thenceforth have to rely more on the web and small independent and second hand shops, thus sidelining the act of reading into a smaller psychological and physical space in our society. It says something bold and cheering that Waterstone's and WH Smith can currently stand alongside H&M and Yates's Wine Lodge, because it says that reading is potentially as important to the culture as wearing cheap, fast-fashion clothes and getting hammered on cheap drink.
The specialist booksellers must fight back with the knowledge, range, atmosphere and immediate purchases that their competition cannot offer. Unfortunately for Borders, I believe that this fight must take place at the civic heart of our society and not on a bypass retail park.
I'll tell you why I have given up on Borders, though I walk past a branch most days. I like to buy CDs - jazz and classical. So I like to listen to a sample through earphones. And I can't hear my lovely music for the blare of fucking pop music coming out of their bloody coffee bar. Such sodding incompetence.
Posted by: dearieme | March 28, 2007 at 12:52 AM
Personally I can't stand the out-of-town sheds, which derives in part from the fact that I'm a non-driver, and in part from the fact that they're just rank. But I agree that the high street branches like Waterestones are the 'canaries down the mine' in terms of the cultural significance of reading. The really depressing fact is that, in terms of 'art music' (both 'classical', 'contemporary', and some 'serious popular'), the canary died many years ago. You can't buy a decent score or recording from the vast majority of high streets, but even more worryingly, you won't find the medium discussed in many an arts column and late night TV show. I don't actually think that the canary is dead, I just think it's been removed and placed elsewhere; and the people who control retail and the media don't want to see it. (Maybe I've stretched the canary metaphor...but you know what I mean!)
Posted by: Andrew Mellor | March 28, 2007 at 05:34 PM
You say.."keeps the entire publishing industry afloat through our middle brow tastes". This reminds me of an anonymous quote I remembered from years ago..."Were it not for the philistines, the arts would perish along with their starving practitioners." So I hold back the groans when I see a person purchase a trash romance novel knowing quite likely their patronage allows for the store to carry other more obscure titles which might appeal to the Filter^ crowd. And hope is not lost. Next time you find yourself in San Francisco, take the time to go to Green Apple Books (http://www.greenapplebooks.com/) It is a store to warm the hearts of those of us who have non-general tastes. They do not carry bestsellers, even for the person who is lost and there by mistake. That said...I fear there are not enough of us around to keep such stores in business. Nor do we take the trouble to go there very often to purchase. Truth be told, the cost of immediacy is generally too high when it comes to books. Most of us have a collection of reading material on our shelves we have not yet gotten to in spite of good intent. So waiting a week for the Amazon purchase is not a high cost.
Posted by: Colleen | March 30, 2007 at 11:33 PM
Correction: I see Green Apple DOES now carry a few best sellers! (Seems I haven't been in there in a bit.)
Posted by: Colleen | March 30, 2007 at 11:38 PM
I like the sound of Green Apple Books, Colleen! I take your point about the high cost of keeping a good range in a store just to catch the impulse shopper. And yes, for truly specialist titles, Amazon's waiting time really isn't that bad. I think, therefore, that the future of high street bookselling lies in lowering costs, by whatever means. Smaller shops (in the UK, Waterstone's have already announced their intention to reduce floorspace by 10%) and perhaps relocation into slightly cheaper areas of the high street/town centre could reduce rents. Building a good web-based business alongside physical shops would, perhaps in the longer term, lead to cross-subsidy with dominant web sales funding the continuation of a high street presence that would benefit the brand (again, Waterstone's have finally woken up to this and have dumped Amazon as their webshop provider to become independent). Also, as this is still a growth area in the UK, more deals with coffee shop concessions would surely help allay costs, as well as providing a more conducive book-buying environment (and trumping the web, to boot). As I said before, I think there is a future for the high street but it takes imagination. With current levels of innovation, it's only right that market share is being eroded at both ends.
Posted by: Matthew Whitfield | March 31, 2007 at 12:23 PM
Borders is not a bad place to shop or work I know this because I was a mulita media seller for 2 yeas and there management team is the best in the woodlands. It would be sad if Borders was to close after all the time and effert that went to remodleing there cafe to puting in a paperchase.
Borders will always be the best and like it or not it may stand the test of time.
Posted by: Kyle | March 21, 2008 at 05:14 PM
Borders is not a bad place to shop or work I know this because I was a mulita media seller for 2 yeas and there management team is the best in the woodlands. It would be sad if Borders was to close after all the time and effert that went to remodleing there cafe to puting in a paperchase.
Borders will always be the best and like it or not it may stand the test of time.
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