The narrative back in the late 80s and early 90s was that big bookstore chains were putting small family-owned bookstores out of business. That was the entire theme of that sappy You’ve Got Mail movie with Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan. I remember when I first saw Books-A-Million, and I still like going into Barnes & Noble. Books, books, books everywhere! It was awesome.
However, with the rise of Amazon, are big book chains in
trouble? Moreover, it feels like smaller
bookstores are making a comeback. People
seem to have reverted to wanting a more intimate feel when they browse since
they can just buy books, if they only are looking to buy rather than engage, on
places like Amazon. Why drive to a large
store for an experience you can get online?
If you want to drive, more and more seem like they want to find smaller
shops where they can engage with the employees on recommendations and trends.
Maybe this is all wrong.
Maybe large chains are here to stay, but I notice even Barnes &
Noble is giving local owners more leeway over layout and promotion. Maybe the pandemic affected all of this and
it’ll revert, but it sure feels like a trend.
What do you think?
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