The Future of Bookstores

Recently I made an interesting observation in how my shopping habits have changed. I love to read and I love hanging out in bookstores. When you find a good book and a comfortable chair and simply relax with the smell of coffee in the air, you can spend hours reading. Most bookstores today have great children’s areas as well, so our family frequents many of the big bookstores.  But over the past few years, I’ve noticed that we really don’t buy anything at the bookstores. We pick up a kid’s book every now and then, but for the most part, we just hang out and discover books.

Now, I either order books for my Kindle, or I choose to order several at a time from Amazon or one of the other online retailers at much cheaper prices than the store offers. I simply can’t bring myself to pay full retail price for books. I try to buy a few books from our local small family owned bookstore, but most of my purchases are now online.

So here is the question for you to think about: Can bookstores stay in business considering all the new electronic reading devices? Can they afford to keep such high inventories of books when people can order books online and have them shipped overnight cheaper? What are your thoughts? Leave a comment and let me know what you think

Mike

I am a former design engineer who now pastors Cornerstone Community Church in Galax, Virginia. I'm passionate about following Jesus and I love technology. I've been married to Jennifer for 28 years, and we have three adult children.

You may also like...

1 Response

  1. Ronnie says:

    Hey Mike, I am right there with you. I was very reluctant to try the Kindle because I love to have the book in hand. However now that I have a Kindle I wish all my books were on it. I too enjoy just browsing a book store but now I do it mainly to look and later buy them from amazon at much lower prices. Times are changing and when the book stores close of course the other outlets will increase prices. I do believe that digital downloads will soon surpass the print sales.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *