I hope it swings back before all the stores die out, because then people won't be able to go back. You can't shop at stores that aren't there.
I've watched America go from having a Waldenbooks or B. Dalton in every mall, to having Borders and Barnes & Noble as freestanding megastores. The subsequent collapse has stripped bookstores from most towns. If I want to browse, I have to drive an hour -- and the remaining store is so shitty that I rarely bother anymore. They literally stopped separating the new books in each subject area. >_< 3q3q3q!!! Seriously people, if I am avoiding your bookstore, you suuuuuuck.
As a result, reading has dropped dramatically. Online bookstores are where you go when you already know what you want. But you can't really browse them, which means they do a lousy job of attracting new readers. A mall bookstore can put up window displays to entice people to stop as they stroll past. We've lost that, and it is costing us.
And this is before the coming boom in 3D printing and subsequent collapse of the whole widget marketplace, which is much of what drives the whole mercantile nowadays. It'll hit food too, eventually.
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dancing_serpent
Well ...
Date: 2019-07-15 09:18 am (UTC)I've watched America go from having a Waldenbooks or B. Dalton in every mall, to having Borders and Barnes & Noble as freestanding megastores. The subsequent collapse has stripped bookstores from most towns. If I want to browse, I have to drive an hour -- and the remaining store is so shitty that I rarely bother anymore. They literally stopped separating the new books in each subject area. >_< 3q3q3q!!! Seriously people, if I am avoiding your bookstore, you suuuuuuck.
As a result, reading has dropped dramatically. Online bookstores are where you go when you already know what you want. But you can't really browse them, which means they do a lousy job of attracting new readers. A mall bookstore can put up window displays to entice people to stop as they stroll past. We've lost that, and it is costing us.
And this is before the coming boom in 3D printing and subsequent collapse of the whole widget marketplace, which is much of what drives the whole mercantile nowadays. It'll hit food too, eventually.