Local book shop closes - where do you buy your books from?

[Peter T]

Borders was an excellent book shop. They covered everything that you could view at a library, Waterstones or Smiths, and all under one roof. I will miss it.

 

PS.Does she come from Lymm??????

[Eagle]

She is probably not on one of the borders.

[Wingnut]

C.F. wrote:

 

One of my friends had the same experience and emailed Borders about the problem,

 

Congratulations and welcome to the club. I also have a friend who speaks to me and makes me do stuff.

[Geoffrey Settle]

Well let?s look at the results so far (29/12/09). As a community we prefer to buy books on-line even though we appreciated what Borders had to offer.

 

Do the results indicate a growing trend for other groups or is it that the WWW population are on-liners and therefore favour Internet purchases?

 

8 On-line purchases ? 72%

2 from 2nd hand book shops ? 18%

1 local bookshop ? 9% ..... 1% rounding

 

There was only one person who thought that Borders was useless because it played music (not very loudly in my opinion) and why shouldn't it. Afterall it wasn't a library it sold CDs, DVDs etc as well as having a coffee shop ? it was a try before you buy.

 

The assertion that the owners are idiots is in itself idiotic ? they set their stall out clearly, offered a good atmosphere and the store was usually quite busy. The staff were helpful but at the end of the day they appear not to have been, as a group, managing their cash flow.

 

Many respondents (okay it?s only 11 but then other polls on here only get that many) have spoken well of Borders and stated that they liked the product and yet they have also expressed a preference to shop on-line.

 

With the continued growth in on-line purchases will the impact be seen on a wider variety of products and will the shopping experience continue to evolve resulting in further closures or will the herding instincts of shop-alcoholics save the shopping emporiums?

[Eagle]

Geoff, the WWW community are obviously "On-Liners" because we are ermm, on line.

[Geoffrey Settle]

But it doesn't follow that their book purchases are e-business ones.

[Peter T]

Eagle, you beat me to it. Geoff, your survey is not really a cross-section of the public. But the posts were interesting.

[disgusted]

With the continued growth in on-line purchases will the impact be seen on a wider variety of products and will the shopping experience continue to evolve resulting in further closures or will the herding instincts of shop-alcoholics save the shopping emporiums?

Won't spread completely because it can't.

 

Purchases like books and music are easily done online, and with no real downside.

 

Clothes shopping online has all the same pitfalls that catalogue shopping always had (apart from speed), but I would imagine for all that has been far more successful among men than women, who seem to see shopping as a leisure activity. So catalogues will lose market share to online much more than high street stores.

 

Then we get to the men's section, big electricals and sports/leisure stuff. How many of us would rather click a mouse than go down to Curry's or American golf to play about with the stuff first?

 

Online shopping will of course increase, but stores still have a place if they get their market right.

[Carmina Fothergill]

Very sad. WHY do some people not adapt to the way some things are?

 

I did. I went elsewhere. So did my friend. And probably quite a few other people. That's adaptation to an unsuitable environment.

 

Incidentally my friend tells me Bookland in Warrington started doing this as well, and he didn't buy anything from their computer section because of the distraction. Bookland has also closed down, of course. But the music in Borders was much louder and more of a nuisance.

 

Just which part of the shop was noisy???

 

The part selling books.

[Peter T]

Very sad. WHY do some people not adapt to the way some things are?

 

I did. I went elsewhere. So did my friend. And probably quite a few other people. That's adaptation to an unsuitable environment.

 

Incidentally my friend tells me Bookland in Warrington started doing this as well, and he didn't buy anything from their computer section because of the distraction. Bookland has also closed down, of course. But the music in Borders was much louder and more of a nuisance.

 

Just which part of the shop was noisy???

 

The part selling books.

 

WHY didn't you speak to the manager if you thought that the music was too loud???

More and more shops have music (if you can call it that) playing. it's a sign of the times.

Soon you will have no-where to shop if you are put off by music.

[Carmina Fothergill]

WHY didn't you speak to the manager if you thought that the music was too loud???

More and more shops have music (if you can call it that) playing. it's a sign of the times.

Soon you will have no-where to shop if you are put off by music.

 

Yes, that's a good question. Maybe I should have done. On the other hand, in a store that's part of a chain the staff usually have no choice. Such things are directives from head office. And their head office took no notice when the matter was raised with them.

 

Incidentally I have raised this in the past, but with no effect. For example I once shouted it to someone in a shoe shop in Manchester (the whole `conversation' had to be carried out in shouts because the music was so loud) but with no effect. It's some kind of modern madness. That why I think it serves them right when they lose customers and shut down.

 

On reflection, though, I should have made a distinction in my earlier posts between the company and the staff who have to work there. My term `idiots' was aimed at the people who decide to run a shop this way, not the unfortunate people who have to work there. They have my sympathy.