Re:Plano man keeping Blockbuster alive
by artificial on Monday July 11, 2022 @12:24PM
(#32058230)
This reminds me of smaller bookstores prior to the era of Borders and Barnes and Noble dominance. pours one out
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Smaller bookstores are actually doing pretty okay these days: https://www.wbur.org/onpoint/2020/02/18/indie-bookstores-com...
Mostly because Amazon decimated corporate chains, which freed up more market for independent stores.
Though independents are still a pretty niche business. Around where I am there are certainly far fewer of them than there were before the big chains became dominant.
I don't know. I'm in a pretty redneck county and even here there are dozen independent bookstores.
Most of them are tied to a coffeeshop though. But if you check your local map you might be surprised.
Re:Plano man keeping Blockbuster alive
by pessimizer on Monday July 11, 2022 @04:34PM
(#32061438)
Even the article said there were 10-15 bookstores in a place that had 35 of them in the 70s.
How are they still in business, by the way? It seemed like they were just a Starbucks location with a ton of overhead, I thought we'd seen the last of them when pandemic shut everything down.
I loved B&N by the way, more computer-related books than WaldenBooks, but not as many as Borders.
Re:Plano man keeping Blockbuster alive
by munificent on Monday July 11, 2022 @01:33PM
(#32059090)
> How are they still in business, by the way?
They've broadened out into being general "gift stores". My local Barnes and Noble has a large toys section (mostly LEGO and educational stuff), board games, puzzles, music (lots of vinyl), stationery (fancy journals).
It's essentially "stuff introverts like" in a nice space.
Re:Plano man keeping Blockbuster alive
by jabroni_salad on Monday July 11, 2022 @04:17PM
(#32061224)
Around the time of the pandemic they implemented a strategic change to have local management arrange the store rather than auctioning shelf placement to publishers like most other retailers do. This has actually made B&N pretty nice to browse compared to a few years ago.
Because "Starbucks with overhead" is a surprisingly effective business model apparently; though if you go into one you'll notice that there are a lot more chotchkeys for sale near the front of the store (even LEGO lol).