Traditional Bookstores are Doomed-Becker

 

 

The traditional bookstore is doomed by e-readers and online sales of hard copy books. I use the word “doomed” in the same sense that online digital sales of movies and music have doomed movie rental stores, movie theatres, and stores that sell albums of music. Doomed does not mean that these stores will quickly, or ever fully, disappear, but that they have received deadly blows from Internet competition.

Joseph Schumpeter, an outstanding economist in the first half of the 20^th century, originated the term “creative destruction” to describe new technologies and other forms of new competition that wreak havoc on older and established industries. The process is creative because it provides consumers and producers with more effective ways of satisfying their wants. The process is at the same time destructive because it greatly reduces the value of services and products provided by older industries.

Extreme examples of creative destruction from the 20^th century include the complete substitution of cars for horses and buggies, movies with speaking for silent movies, and computers for typewriters. Less extreme are the large reduction in clerical and secretarial staffs caused by the development of computers and the Web, and the sizable reduction in demand for milk and eggs induced by better information on the health value of low cholesterol diets.

A similar creative destruction process began for bookstores with Amazon’s development of online book sales that offered huge inventories of books, convenience of purchase, speedy deliveries, online reviews of books, and various other services that made it more efficient and often cheaper to buy books online rather than in bookstores. Sales of books online started slowly, but they have accelerated as consumers became more familiar with the process of buying books (and other goods) online. I first started using Amazon at my summer home since it is not near any bookstore. Discovering the convenience of buying books online, I now buy online all year, although I still enjoy visiting bookstores.

Effective online readers, like Amazon’s Kindle, and Apple’s iPad, are only a few years old, but they have become big hits since they can be used both to purchase books online, and to read books in digital form. Hundreds of books can be stored digitally in a single Reader that weighs less than a couple of pounds. They are especially valuable when traveling, but are useful when reading in bed or eating, and also with traditional reading when seated on a comfortable chair. They are particularly useful for individuals with weak eyesight since print size can be easily adjusted. This is why digital readers will appeal eventually even more to older persons than to others, although mainly younger persons are the ones who so far have bought digital readers because old persons are less familiar with digitalization.

I do not expect bookstores to rapidly disappear the way the production of silent movies virtually ceased once talking movies were created. However, I do expect an accelerating decline in the number of bookstores as many close down due to bankruptcy and excessive losses. Some bookstores will continue to exist to cater to men and women who like to browse among physical copies of books, and because some owners of bookstores get great pleasure out of selling and being surrounded by books. Many bookstores that survive are likely to combine selling hard copy books with that of other products. For example, university bookstores usually also sell clothing that have the university logo, computers, greeting cards, snacks and coffee, and other goods that cater to students and faculty. Other surviving bookstores might combine selling of hard copy books in physical facilities with online sales of hard copy books, and online sales of digital books.

The decline of bookstores, theatres, laundries, and other retail industries with physical facilities illustrates a trend that runs counter to older ideas about the effects of economic development. The process of development has been presumed to cause a substitution of market activities for home production. For example, households in poor rural societies have not only grown their own food, but also made much of their clothing, washed their clothes, baked their bread, and cooked from scratch their other food. As countries underwent economic growth, many of these productive activities left the home and migrated to the marketplace. Factory-made clothing was substituted for clothing made at home, and bakeries and laundries developed to make bread and sweets, and to wash, clean, and dry clothes.

Further technological developments,however, such as small motors used in home washing and drying machines, and small machines that cooked bread easily at home, shifted many activities back into the home, and thereby saved on time and energy spent in the shopping process. The online digital revolution is a further major step in this trend of returning activities to the home. Time and effort are saved, for example, when instead of going to movie theatres, consumers both order and download films online to be viewed at “home”, either on television sets, or increasingly on computers.

From this perspective, what is happening to bookstores is not unusual. “Books” are still read at “home”, but increasingly they are also purchased at home, and not only in hard copy form. Digital books are a true revolution, but their effects on bookstores are only a small part of a broader technological development that has brought important activities into the home.

 

 

Comments

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Ya that's true but bookstores will continue to exist to cater to men and women who like to browse among physical copies of books, and because some owners of bookstores get great pleasure out of selling and being surrounded by books.

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What we need is regulation to ensure a steady easing of the industry from traditional bookstores to online ones. In trying times like these, the last thing we need is to just let the free market go wild.

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There really is no doubt that many indie bookstores have closed, and even the big chain bookstores have been cutting back, closing stores, and firing people.

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Well nice post..I really appreciate bookstores, and books, and can't imagine having to deal only with ebooks...

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Je ne connaissais pas ce livre que je vais lire bientôt quand mon Anglais sera meilleur :)

Dans cette perspective, ce qui se passe aux librairies n'est pas inhabituel. "Livres" sont toujours lus à la «maison», mais en plus ils sont aussi acheté à la maison, et pas seulement sous forme imprimée. Les livres numériques sont une véritable révolution, mais leurs effets sur les librairies ne sont qu'une petite partie d'un plus large du développement technologique, qui a apporté d'importantes activités dans la maison.

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Those who are on the go and have less time to read prefer the audiobook format than the traditional hard copy. This is why audiobooks from Audible selling briskly today, and I think, for more years to come.

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A society cannot reap the rewards of creative destruction without accepting that some individuals might be worse off, not just in the short term, but perhaps forever...There are many reason for doomed of traditional bookstore..

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