Waterstones take over iconic UK bookshops

[uk 75]

Oxford's Blackwell's bookshop has joined Foyles in London as part of the Waterstone's chain.
With the demise of Motorbooks in Charing Cross Foyles became the only place in Central London where you could browse newly published books on military themes like unbuilt secret projects.
On my last visit I found that as in Waterstones the section had been reduced in size and the mantra "we can order it" substituted.
Blackwell's is going the same way as books have been removed.
The winner in all this is of course Amazon. If I cannot leaf through a book I might as well at least get it cheaper.
In practice I now have so many books that I am restricting myself to old titles found in charity shops (50pence as against £20 in some cases).
I can access the Internet so easily on my phone that this site has made many book purchases unnecessary and I use my own books much less.
Bookshops seem increasingly the reserve of women and their daughters.

 

[Hood]

Blackwell's is finished I think. The university where I work lost its branch a couple of months ago. Only found out the day it was closing. It's shelving had dwindled and dwindled until every subject area was only worthy of one rack whether it was history, science or management.
Never did see many students in it in recent years, online ordering I guess killed it.
Campus now resembles all high streets, no bookshops, no banks, just two hairdressers, a post office, Costa (x3), Greggs, Subway et al and one charity shop.
If a campus with a captive market of thousands of students can't sustain it's commercial area fat chance for any high street. They actually converted a bank to a parcel collection point do deal with the online orders coming in...

 

[Jemiba]

Not just a British phenomenon, I think.
Indeed, bookshops, as we know them, seem to be regarded as for the diehards only.
Even the second best thing after finding it in the shelf, "we can order it", cannot be taken for granted
anymore, not even in the biggest bookshop in Berlin. The self-appointed "Kulturkaufhaus" (culture mall),
that still last year claimed "we can order every available book !", told me this year, that "it isn't on our
list of deliverable books", though it is and was in the publishers catalogue all the time. Well, I haven't tried
it for guidebooks ("how to become rich and attractive in just 3 weeks"), or for vegetarian/vegan cookery books ...
Kind of vicious circle, I'm afraid. Online orders lowered the income of the traditional bookshops, which not only
had to reduce their portfolios, but often their willingness to order for the customer, too, in turn strenghtening online
stores like Amazon ... What's left often are greeting cards and pseudo zeitgeist books for the casual customers.

 

[Orionblamblam]

Campus now resembles all high streets, no bookshops, no banks, just two hairdressers, a post office,

And a suspicious number of "American candy shops?"

 

[CJGibson]

And a suspicious number of "American candy shops?"

Didn't know you were a Private Eye subscriber OBB!

It was looking into that business in 2019 when they were 'souvenir' shops. Until the tourists disappeared.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1159380376286109696

View: https://twitter.com/privateeyenews/status/1159380376286109696?lang=en-GB


Chris

 

[Hood]

Campus now resembles all high streets, no bookshops, no banks, just two hairdressers, a post office,

And a suspicious number of "American candy shops?"

Not so much around here. But we do have Wong's Oriental Mart, selling mostly cheap toilet rolls judging by the window display.