The administrator of Angus & Robertson last night announced the closure of another 42 Angus & Robertson stores.
These closures present more opportunities for newsagencies located near the closing stores, as many of us are finding with stores located near the closing or closed Borders stores.
There will be short term and opportunistic deals on fixtures and stock. Then there is the longer term opportunity of playing in the book space. As many newsagents are finding, books can be excellent for attracting new shoppers as well as building basket efficiency from existing traffic.
It is not often that we have an opportunity to spread into new areas. The decline of the A&R network is an opportunity every newsagent should assess.
Small Business Minister Nick Sherry recent speculated that alomost all book stores will be gone in 5 years.
He’d be quite wrong.
It’s quite clear that book publishing and retailing is changing, but its a trend within a cycle, not a complete rout.
There are still many people who enjoy reading books made from paper and the same people still prefer the experience of browsing in a book store. These people will be viable market segment for much longer than 5 years.
There is still an opportunity for savvy newsagents to have a profitable book section in the store
Picked up a great book display stand from Borders, another revenue stream will be supported with this.
I got a couple of fixtures from Borders last week thanks to a tip from mark. On A&R, yes, books present us an opportunity more so than shops which only sell books. I am expanding my range.
KMc, you are right that book stores will be around for more than 5 years, but they will be niche stores, not the big retailers we see falling everywhere.
I heard a good discussion on the radio the other day about eBooks. Why would someone pay $50-60 for a paper book when the same thing is $15-20 on a Kindle? It just does not make economic sense to most people these days. The ‘feel’ of paper is no longer enough.
Jim,
I agree – the book retail industry is getting closer to becoming a niche industry each day.
KMC,
The same argument about people liking paper has been made for vinyl records and other products. People get used to the new technology and the old fades away. The same applies for physical store purchases. How many stores now sell CDs compared to 5 or 10 years ago? And of those store, how many have reduced their range and space allocation?
@Jim, not sure what books you buy for $50-60, but it’s not just about the feel of paper.
For me, a part of it is the effect is creates when on a bookshelf. Especially the book series that create a design when all the spines are lined up.
And $15-20 on a kindle still seems expensive. . . , you can get paperback for less online, it’s just the shipping costs which are a rip off.
Aaron,
The $15-20 is not the price range for e-books equivalents of cheap paperbacks. The exception to this is clearance stock.