Legacy Bookstores Still Struggle To Adapt

Every other day you see a story from some legacy industry about how the modern world is decimating their cushy income model, about how they've failed to react and adapt to what their customers have been demanding, and how the government should step in with some laws in some area to protect their income stream. Why adapt when you can lobby government so you don't have to?

Today I read another one, this time about the decline of independent bookstores. Before I go into specifics I'd point out a basic balancing principle of the capitalist system is in the power of consumers to choose where and when they purchase an item, as well as how much they are willing to pay for it. If your product or service has some toxic conditions attached like DRM, many will go elsewhere. If consumers feel your product is too expensive, or of poor quality they will go elsewhere.

People have long bemoaned the demise of the high street in favour of retail parks and superstores. I am one of them. It used to mean that every town and city had a unique character. It now means that every town and city has the same carbon copy stores. The reality is that the large superstores provide value for money that small independents simply can't. The reality is that consumers are choosing to shop in the superstores to get that value for money. The reality is that independents simply can't compete on mainstream products.

This is all in the physical brick and mortar world, we've not even included the internet and technology into this equation. The internet has been a HUGE revolutionary and equalizing force in many industries. It has not only allowed small outlets to compete side by side with huge corporations, but has allowed some products to be delivered in digital format direct to the consumers device, allowing them to consume content in new ways.

In short, times have changed. In the case of books, less people are reading for pleasure now due to there being a much more varied range of things available to us to use our free time. I used to throw myself into a new Star Wars novel for 3 or 4 days to complete it. Those days were full days, as in every free waking hour well until the wee hours, then picking it up when I got home from work for another 6 hour stint. This was before I'd heard of the internet and before I had a PC. It was also before I had regular updates in email, Identica, IRC etc as well as audiocasts to catch up on. That's only the beginning of the alternate uses of time, and only the online (or "sitting at the PC") ones. Even people who do read for pleasure find their time limited, their attention spans taxed on real life issues.

That's people who grew up in an era when reading for pleasure was still a niche but socially valid thing to do. I grew up with the family TV, and 4 TV stations, some radio stations and the ability to play tapes or records. That evolved into games consoles, many more channels and CDs, then DVDs. People who grow up in an internet era with gadgets littering their homes, and constant Facebook, Twitter etc are very unlikely to develop the love for reading. They like stories, they just want them in short complete bursts like action movies.

All of this means that the people who do read for fun are not being replaced in the same numbers with the newer generation, and people do die. They also lose interest, or have real life dictate how much time they can put to that hobby. It may turn into a single book per year, where they used to be regular library readers. This means the target audience for novels as a whole are shrinking, before we even start to look at the formats, pricing, availability, quality and convenience.

Time moves forward and people's consumption habits change, they evolve to expect different things. When I started working I'd have to choose a couple of tapes to take to work with me, as that's all the pocket space I could afford. This meant my Sony Walkman had a limited choice of music to and from work until I got back home. If I got bored of the tape that was in, my only options were whatever I'd chosen to bring with me, or in most cases, whatever was left in my pocket for months as I hadn't taken the time or effort to actively choose anything different. Now you can take your entire CD collection in one device that fits into the palm of your hand, and all at CD quality.

When I grew up it was important to catch something as it was broadcast, as there was no catch up or on demand service. You miss it, you miss it. If you're lucky it was repeated. There were of course videos to time shift but that wasn't perfect. Now you can watch anything, anywhere, anytime. This means you no longer have to build your life around a TV schedule but have your TV viewing habits build around your schedule.

I was skeptical but curious on the concept of an ereader when I first heard of them. I was of course judging the quality on my experiences of a regular PC screen. Not until I saw an ereader with my own naked eye that I "got it". I was instantly sold. An ereader has the same convenience values as an mp3 player in that you can carry your entire collection with you in a single device, with no real drop in quality.

Yes, there's a romantic notion of having the hiss of vinyl or the feel of real paper under your fingertips, but those aside, for most people the digital world is a wonderful world thats vastly preferable to the analog world. If it wasn't, mp3 players wouldn't have taken off, ebooks would never have taken off, DVDs would never have taken off etc. Digital is perfection, an identical copy which is immune to daily wear and tear damage. For some, the fact that it is perfection means it's less appealing; the imperfections are part of the character and digital is just too clean.

Technology has changed how we expect to be able to consume entertainment media especially. Most of us prefer a digital library, whether to stream from a service, or own ourselves and transfer to our devices. Physical objects not only take up space, but add extra inconvenience into the mix.

It used to be that if I wanted a new album I'd have to visit a brick and mortar store to buy a physical object, assuming they had it in stock. I also used to have to visit various stores to check for exclusive editions of that album. That's not counting stuff that wasn't available in the UK for whatever reason the publishers decided was valid. When I wanted to play it I had to physically find that object and put it in the player. This meant that if I found myself at a mates house and the discussion got round to "oh I got the new X album" I couldn't just play it, it was at home, and I wasn't.

Even those who do read for pleasure are increasingly choosing the convenience of ebooks over paper books. They are also seeing the value disparity in how much something costs, compared to how much it's sold for. People understand physical costs of producing an object, storing and delivering those onjects en masse to stores. They understand that a companies investment is tied up in it's stock until it's sold. A digital download is simply one small file on a server that'd duplicated when a new copy is sold. There are no factories, no raw materials, no stockpiling requiring limited and valuable warehouse or shop floor space.

Often entertainment media companies are selling something different to what consumers are buying. A company pumps out CDs, books, DVDs etc, they sell products. Consumers buy experiences when they want to experience them. It may be subtle but there is a difference. One is a vehicle for the other.

When you buy a novel, you don't buy it for the paper but for the ability to read those words whenever you like, and let those words capture your imagination as you experience the story. The physical format you use is an irrelevance. The same applies to movies and games. After you put the disc in the machine and hit the power button, your relationship switches to the TV, where that experience plays out either in passive (movies) or active (games) form. The case the movie came in, the booklet if there was one, the cover etc are all irrelevant packaging that can be put aside while you enjoy the experience you paid for. You don't buy a DVD to have it sit on a shelf unplayed, you buy it to enjoy the movie.

The legacy industries are all struggling with the modern world, because their vehicle has been derailed by modern technology and people's widespread use and acceptance of it. Time and again we see them blame everyone else and refuse to adapt. This story brings out all the same arguments:

• Rapid rise in ebook sales
• Competition from online retailers

Competition is a good thing, it's the balancing factor that protects consumers from being screwed. When sectors manage to sew up every avenue for customers the result is always that the customer is screwed. A rapid rise in ebook sales says "business opportunity" to me, not "oh woe is me, my business is dead". If you won't or don't adapt to what your customers want, you deserve to go out of business. That's the bottom line in a capitalist system.

There's also another point at the top of this story about "membership to the Booksellers Association" having fallen. the internet has destroyed many gatekeepers in many industries. There are plenty of writers associations who appear to be money grabbing parasites who demand payment for "being accepted" into an obsolete model and little else. There was a time where you had no choice but to join associations like this. Times have changed in that plenty of people don't need or want to, and get on just fine without them.

Superstores are "stack um high, move um fast" outlets, so they only do the most popular mainstream movies, novels, games, albums etc. This leaves the more obscure stuff out in the cold. This would mean rare stuff, but very expensive as they could only order in tiny amounts, or even special order just for you and take weeks to arrive. Independents used to be the only savior for that, until the internet, so even that use case is obsolete.

In summary; times change. Your customer base has shrunk, and has largely evolved how they want to consume your content.