Louisville has a kick-ass bookstore. I like visiting the place once a month or so They run local author forums. The staff READS in a way that makes me and my goal of a book a week or 20K pages a quarter look like a lightweight. I went in a month ago and said I was reading Alone Together and had a 10 minute conversation on how the internet is creating a bigger demand for long form readers and people are joining the in-person book club because people are starting to get burnt out on social media. Good luck having that sort of interaction in anything other than an independent establishment that invests in its employees. They also carry magazines, foreign newspapers, local schlock, NYT highbrow and will order just about everything and anything that they can get an ISBN number from. I've intentionally bought from them rather than Amazon because they earned my patronage. The one drawback is that I have to go there on the way home from work and getting in and out during those times is a bit rough. They also do partner projects with the Library. They used to run a writer's forum to help kids write better school papers but I an not sure they do that any more. After all if they are in the library they might end up buying books as well as borrowing. Bookstores can and do compete. They have to offer something that a website can't: people. That requires investment in your staff, the community and building more people reading books.
For new books, My local bookstore of choice sounds similar. Lots of author events, patrons can place review slips on the shelf under their favorite book, two cats, specializes in mystery and politics but will buy whatever. My second favorite bookstore is mainly a leftist-activist art gallery / stationary store that stocks verso books and publishes local pamphlets and stuff. In the past 10 years, I've bought maaaaaybe $12 worth of stuff from BN that wasn't last minute gift shopping. Usually I wandered around and then left empty handed. I spent probably $250 between the two local shops last year. The community part of this is key for any sort of small, independent business anymore. You can't get away with simply being the only place in town that has $ITEM, because amazon definitely has $ITEM for cheaper. The owner of our independent hardware store passed away recently. I've heard a fair amount of talk about how one of the various local non-profits should step in and buy the place if his family decides to close shop. I'd absolutely throw them some money to do that. It is a community space just as much as it was a business. Probably more the former than the latter, as Rod would regularly knock down prices when writing out the receipt just because he felt like it. And then you could mill about talking politics/sports/homebrew for however long you liked. -- Rod Ernst Get the community part right, and I'll pay you a good deal more than I'd be willing to pay elsewhere.They have to offer something that a website can't: people. That requires investment in your staff, the community and building more people reading books.
Whoever decided these were the golden years should be strung up by the ears.