I love that old ratty phrase “long awaited new book.” There’s going to be a lot more long awaited books in the wings—as the print culture nose-dives like the NYTimes, magazines, paperbacks and pulp fiction in general. The Obama generation doesn’t read books. Email maybe.

"If you live on Capitol Hill and you've ordered books from an online retailer, you have a hand in Bailey/Coy's closing."

Give me a mother-loving break, Paul, while crying a river for Bailey/Coy. Great bookstore, but like most of the failing independent bookstores, the blame is put on individuals making their own economic choices, instead of bookstore owners for rethinking what they do and what they offer.

I worked at Amazon in 96-97 (and got no stock as I was there too briefly, so I'm not some whining millionaire early retiree), and I will tell you what the biggest fucking difference was between Amazon and most bookstores -- then and now.

Amazon would order any book you wanted. You didn't have to go through this whole hassle. They would charge you full price and shipping and tell you it might take as long as 6 weeks. But it was available.

Bookstores have notoriously disliked special orders, stuff they can't get from the few hundred thousand items stocked by major book distributors, and available quickly as part of existing order shipments.

That's because it was a pain to process these by hands. But starting in the 1980s, we had these things called computers, and smart bookstores invested during the good times in making inventory more efficient. Powell's was ahead of the curve both in intershelving used and new books (used book buying is an art in and of itslef), but also on the information technology side.

The fact that they were on the Internet early wasn't because they were all geeks (they did have a great tech bookstore early on). Rather, it was because they understood that inventory + computers = good idea.

So don't tell me that indie bookstores are failing because of Amazon. They are failing because they didn't understand how to both connect and engage their customers, while using technology to their advantage, like every other fucking retail business has to do, independent or chain, to be competitive.

Glenn @2, what you're saying doesn't conflict with what Paul is saying at all.

People vote with their dollars. If Amazon is what they like, Amazon is what they'll get.

Of course indie bookstores are failing because of Amazon. Indie bookstores don't have millions of dollars of shareholder money with which to develop fabulous websites. Indie bookstores can't afford to lose money for years while they eliminate their competition by undercutting them on price. (You mention Powell's but do you actually know how they are doing financially? I think a lot of people were surprised to learn how badly off Elliott Bay is.)

The same thing is happening with record stores, video stores, and all kinds of small retailers. If the majority of people want to shop online or in big box stores, because of price, or convenience, or whatever, that's what will survive.

I think Paul was just pointing out the hypocrisy of people who bemoan the loss of bookstores but don't actually support them with their dollars.

wow. glenn makes it sound like booksellers are lazy, cause if they can't order it from a large distributor they won't (simply not true). but i would like to see a single button pusher at amazon work harder than any of my coworkers.