Posted on 07/22/2006 10:02:02 PM PDT by KneelBeforeZod
As independent bookstores scramble to compete with chain stores and online retailers, one small Marin County bookseller found a way to survive. He got rid of the books.
"The space was so small that people sitting in the cafe were practically on top of the bookshelves," said Gary Kleiman, who founded BookBeat in Fairfax in 1999. "You couldn't get to the books."
SNIP
His strategy is just one way independent bookstores in the Bay Area and across the country are adapting to the changing marketplace for books. Today, fewer than half the books sold nationwide are purchased in bookstores, according to industry experts. Such competition has forced some stores to close, while fewer new ones have opened.
Meanwhile, small, independent bookshops like BookBeat are coming up with inventive survival strategies: selling fancy coffee drinks, reading glasses, greeting cards, posters -- even hats, if the store's in a sunny enclave.
SNIP
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
the liberal cows have come home...
after infecting the schools with an absence of the 3 R's, now they are reaping the results of no emphasis on thinking or reading.
people want their books to be like MTV.. quick flashy and easy. liberals who spawned this generation can't figure out no one longer has the brainpower to read their intellectual phonies like chomsky
So, last fall, Kleiman jettisoned seven bookcases from the center of the cozy, wood-paneled shop -- keeping just those along the walls -- and gave most of the store's 4,000 books to charity.
He also built a stage, where musicians play three to four nights a week, got a beer and wine license and began offering free wireless Internet access.
Now BookBeat is mostly a virtual bookstore. Instead of stocking a large inventory of new and used titles, Kleiman offers next-day service for most book orders. Customers order books by phone, then pick them up at the store. And, unlike online retailers, there is no shipping charge, since books are ordered in volume from nearby distributors.
Now you got online bookstores, pirate copies, etc.
I remember when a Harry Potter book came out in the UK. They were posting chapters by midnight Eastern time.
And as far as Chomsky goes, the bright side is that more and more people have better things to do and/or are apathetic.
However, I do wonder that a coffee house is a type of restaurant... Except for the clueless and Stalinists, most thinking people had Chomsky's number a long time ago.
About around the time people started waking up to the lies and omissions of the LSM.
Put the barristas in Hooter's outfits?
I buy books off of the internet. When I want to read up on a subject, I'll query froogle. Often I can order 4-5 used books plus shipping for the price I can buy one new one in a retail outlet.
I rarely go into a retail book store these days, although I do visit half-priced bookstores.
In the last 24 hours, I've read 4 or 5 books. Some classic fantasy by Zelazny.
And I'm only 27. I think I read and reread about 5-10 books a week. I also listen to audiobooks when I don't have time to read, or when I'm driving. History non-fiction, and scifi/fantasy.
By the time I was 8, I had read all of the 34 Wizard of Oz books.
Oh you are GOOD!! At eight I was still reading "Goosebumps" and the "Fear Street" series by RL Steine. I graduated to Stephen King at around fourteen, fifteen I think.
It's most likely because I went to en English type boarding school when I was five years old. And they didn't let us play that much so we would read a lot.
I have a soft spot for bookstores; I hope they do well.
Americans. They don't read books, but want to be seen with them.
Clearly you are the exception and not the rule.
Glad to hear it too! ;)
YOu and coconutt2000 need to get together ;)
On FR, it isn't surprising. This site will attract more informed people but it is not the rule that people your age want to be informed or dare I say, able to be informed. I suppose public school education takes its toll ... .
I think around 8 I was reading the detective Brown series. By 10 I was reading James Michener, some adult horror, as well as popular young adult fiction like the Hardy Boys. I think I read L. Ron Hubbard's "Battlefield Earth" in fourth grade, and the Asimov's "Foundation" series in either third or fourth or fifth grade.
I have to read. I can't stop. I'm addicted to books and blogging. FR satisfies my need to access new information. I think Jim Robinson probably thinks my account is trying a denial of service attack because I'm hitting refresh every few seconds when things are slow on FR. Baen's webscriptions satisfies my need to access new books. If I'm not rereading what I already have, I'm hunting on Baen's web site for new books to read. And when I'm not reading, I'm listening to talk and news radio, or audio books.
Oh Lord... I'm a junkie. I need an intervention.
See #17. ;-)
And when I'm jumped up on coffee... Sometimes I read a book, listen to an audio book, and watch Fox News at the same time, with frequent stops in my reading to check up on FR to see what the world is writing about.
I'm still in highschool (public school unfortunately) and I read all the time. Mostly Sci-Fi/Fantasy. I'm currently working through Go Tell the Spartans by Jerry Pournelle. I'm also reading Rise to Rebellion (a Novel of the American Revolution) by Jeff Shaara. AND I'm reading a school-assigned summer reading book, Beowulf.
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