http://www.christianitytoday.com/gleanings/2017/february/all-family-christian-stores-closing-fcs-liquidation.html
Another set of stores closing today.
I saw this coming both Milwaukee area locations closed last year. They significantly downsized this was only a matter of time.
Weird how, twelve or fifteen years ago, no one would have seen this coming.
Having worked for a Christian publishing company in the past (only a couple of blocks away from Christianity Today, who published the article, as a matter of fact), I cannot help but wonder if it is indicative of more big names closing.
Quote from: kphoger on February 27, 2017, 09:25:39 PM
Weird how, twelve or fifteen years ago, no one would have seen this coming.
Having worked for a Christian publishing company in the past (only a couple of blocks away from Christianity Today, who published the article, as a matter of fact), I cannot help but wonder if it is indicative of more big names closing.
MC Sports is also closing all stores.
Aeropostale and The Limited are leaving the building as well.
Quote from: Brandon on February 28, 2017, 06:08:05 AM
Quote from: kphoger on February 27, 2017, 09:25:39 PM
Weird how, twelve or fifteen years ago, no one would have seen this coming.
Having worked for a Christian publishing company in the past (only a couple of blocks away from Christianity Today, who published the article, as a matter of fact), I cannot help but wonder if it is indicative of more big names closing.
MC Sports is also closing all stores.
I actually meant big names in bookselling, especially Christian bookselling.
Quote from: kphoger on February 28, 2017, 12:57:01 PM
Quote from: Brandon on February 28, 2017, 06:08:05 AM
Quote from: kphoger on February 27, 2017, 09:25:39 PM
Weird how, twelve or fifteen years ago, no one would have seen this coming.
Having worked for a Christian publishing company in the past (only a couple of blocks away from Christianity Today, who published the article, as a matter of fact), I cannot help but wonder if it is indicative of more big names closing.
MC Sports is also closing all stores.
I actually meant big names in bookselling, especially Christian bookselling.
Bookselling, to me, means Barnes & Noble and Books-A-Million. I equate those Christian stores on par with the little Catholic gift shops I see from time to time and wonder how they stay in business.
Borders killed of many of the independent bookstores in the 1990s. In turn, Barnes and Noble and Amazon killed off Borders.
Quote from: kkt on February 28, 2017, 04:10:04 PM
Borders killed of many of the independent bookstores in the 1990s. In turn, Barnes and Noble and Amazon killed off Borders.
With people reading books on Kindle and other tablets, makes you wonder how long bookstores will be around. They'll probably go the way of video and music stores.
Quote from: golden eagle on March 06, 2017, 11:55:37 PM
Quote from: kkt on February 28, 2017, 04:10:04 PM
Borders killed of many of the independent bookstores in the 1990s. In turn, Barnes and Noble and Amazon killed off Borders.
With people reading books on Kindle and other tablets, makes you wonder how long bookstores will be around. They'll probably go the way of video and music stores.
Thats why they have coffee shops, sitting areas etc.. Keep people in there
LGMS428
Quote from: jwolfer on March 07, 2017, 12:30:01 AM
Quote from: golden eagle on March 06, 2017, 11:55:37 PM
Quote from: kkt on February 28, 2017, 04:10:04 PM
Borders killed of many of the independent bookstores in the 1990s. In turn, Barnes and Noble and Amazon killed off Borders.
Yeah, but do they really do the sitting around drinking coffee thing better than Starbucks?
With people reading books on Kindle and other tablets, makes you wonder how long bookstores will be around. They'll probably go the way of video and music stores.
Thats why they have coffee shops, sitting areas etc.. Keep people in there
LGMS428
Quote from: golden eagle on March 06, 2017, 11:55:37 PMWith people reading books on Kindle and other tablets, makes you wonder how long bookstores will be around.
Dead tree formats are still alive and well (more so than CD, and possibly DVD too) - sales growth has slowed, but not really declined. Just that people use the internet to get them (just as they do with CDs and DVDs).
You don't get the heft of a book, the feel of the paper - reading is far more kinethestic than listening or watching and so the printed word will survive longer than optical disks.
But, for years (even pre-Amazon), Christian book shops' main profit spinner was the tat, rather than the books (or CDs and DVDs). This has helped them survive longer than their secular equivalents. Bumper stickers, bracelets, fridge magnets, etc - what would we do without it? Absolutely nothing different.
Another big bonus of physical stores going is that, as well as the tat that people keep giving me as small gifts to my annoyance, the terrible books that become bestsellers would find it harder to get people to buy them as they can't take over large expanses of stores and push more orthodox (little-o) books to a small area. Not good for publishers or stores or the authors of such books, but good for pastors trying to stop their flocks eating junk food and poison. That said, I was given a fairly large gift card for an online Christian book store as a gift, and I looked and there was still dominated by schlock - there's better retailers out there (and more local ones), but this was the go to one for the ladies in my church and (while many of the books were merely not my cup of tea, or not my level, rather than bad) and it had all the problems of physical stores with an over-reliance on the junk books and not that wide a selection of pleb-level commentaries (I'm not expecting academic books in there), heavy-weight theologians' accessible books, etc. In the end I brought 10 copies of a children's resource (that I could claim back the value of) that I thought would be more suitable for what I was to use them for, and then missed the return date and didn't really care too much as the gift card was almost as worthless to me as the cinema ones I got a couple of years before that didn't work.