Are Bookstores Dying Out?

Riddle me this: can you name an independent bookstore in your area? How far from you is the closest Barnes & Noble? To be honest, I cannot even answer the first question. I know there’s a small bookstore–used books, I believe–on the drive to my PCP’s office. I don’t even know its name. The closest Barnes & Noble is about 16 miles from my house. If there are any other bookstores nearby, I don’t know about them. This raises an interesting question: are bookstores dying out?

I’m sure that my American readers at least remember the closure of the Borders bookstores back in 2011. Today, it seems, Barnes & Noble is struggling as well. The corporate giant Amazon has stolen many of this classic bookstore’s customers, and not without reason. Amazon is, overall, more convenient than traditional bookstores. After all, you can shop from home, get a hold of some indie and harder-to-find books not offered at brick-and-mortar stores, and you can buy a lot of other necessities and luxuries while you’re at it. But is Amazon the only reason for the decline of stores like Barnes & Noble? Certainly not.

First of all, Amazon is far from the only mega-store that includes books in its inventory. Every physical Target store seems to have books as well as those found on the website, and Walmart recently entered the eBook industry by teaming up with Rakuten Kobo. (To be honest, I don’t really find the latter a big threat, considering the pathetic book display at my local Walmart.) Of course, none of these hold the same sort of weight as Amazon, but they are contributing factors.

Second of all, eBooks and audio books have changed the game. Yes, eBook sales are not holding quite as strong as when they were first introduced. However, audio books are on the rise, especially thanks to services such as Audible. Both formats have made electronic book consumption much more convenient than buying books at a physical store or even ordering physical books from online stores. Why wait a couple weeks or even a few days for a book that you can instantly have on your phone, tablet, or computer?

Finally, and perhaps the saddest factor of all, is that people just aren’t reading as much as they used to. I’m not sure about other first-world countries, but the United States has certainly hit an all-new low in regards to our disinterest in books. In fact, a recent Jimmy Kimmel segment showed that no American they asked could name even a single book truthfully or with any confidence in their answer. (Maybe it was just camera shyness, but it does illustrate the current reading crisis in the United States.) However, a recent study from Pew Research Center reveals that 1 in 4 American adults admit to not having read a book in the past year.

To be fair on that last cause, it probably isn’t just disinterest which has caused this decline in reading. As the study points out, many factors such as education level, race, and economic status also play a role. These factors also point to a larger cause of the decline in both reading and the survival of bookstores: the economy.

Economic disparity and hardship cause potential readers to spend less on books. Let’s be honest, even the most diehard book worms are going to choose food and shelter over books, if it comes down to that. An opinion article from The New York Times has also suggested that mega-stores like Amazon are crushing the life out of bookstores like Barnes & Noble with their lower prices, which are only meant to lure customers in so they will buy non-book products from them as well. The worse the economy gets and the more one-sided the competition gets, the more likely bookstores are to go out of business.

Do I really think bookstores are dying out? It’s possible. I personally shop more at Amazon than at Barnes & Noble. (Although, when the price is lower, I need a specific edition, or I just want the bookstore experience, I certainly go there.) I’ve even found myself buying directly from publishers more often than traditional bookstores. The times, they are a-changin’, and it’s getting harder for bookstores to keep up.

Do I think that their death is an inevitability? At this point, no. Nostalgia has begun to play a huge part in shopping habits lately. Hopefully, that will be enough to send people back to their favorite bookstores. (Unless their favorite store was Borders. Unfortunately, those people are out of luck.) The push to buy locally might also give bookstores a boost. Only time will tell. Until then, the entire bookstore industry will be on the rocks.

What do you think? Are bookstores doomed? Are they being crushed by the economy and corporate giants? Or can bookstores make a comeback? Leave your thoughts in the comments below.