Saturday, August 7, 2010

Whooops, sorry.....

Judy, the sister of my pal Wes, came in to the store yesterday. We were talking books, and suddenly she produces a NOOK, and says, "Oh, I'm sorry. I probably shouldn't have shown you that."

I shrug it off, then later in the conversation, she produces a Sony Reader, and laughs, "Oh, I'm sorry. I probably shouldn't have shown you that."

I figure this is going to be a new sport. Let's torture the bookstore owner by showing him our digital reader. Ha, Ha.

I used to mock banish people for mentioning the W word; (shhhh....walmart). Or the B & N word: (quietly, now....barnes and noble.)

Or I'll break into my customers and employee conversations with a menacing tone: "You aren't talking about Video Games are you? You know better than to do that in MY store...."

Seriously, what can I do about it?

There's a great post over on Rocketbomber blog, where he talks about how bookstores aren't about efficiency any more than sex is about procreation, most of the time. He says it better than that, and it's worth a read.

All I can do is play out the game, you know. Try to figure the angles. Keep selling to those who enjoy bookstores and want to keep them around.

2 comments:

RDC said...

Imagine how printers must feel. The critical level is when enough books are sold in electronic format that the size of and cost effectiveness of print runs are serously impacted.

Anonymous said...

Printers have had a terrible time since the Gutenberg press.

Cost of entry has always been too cheap, and virtually any moron can open a 'print shop'.

The majority of all books printed never see sales to cover the cost of the run. Today in the online world an egotist can pay for a micro-run of his 'classic'.

Want to make money in the print biz? Run a union shop, and get union monopoly biz, preferably for a public sector contract.