Will it survive? I’m betting no.

August 1, 2006 at 11:56 am | Posted in General | Leave a comment

My neighbourhood is getting a new bookstore – making three. Normally, I’d argue that it’d be a challenge for these stores to survive but I think people here prefer books to say, DVDs and CDs. Neither of which have a dedicated shop unless you count Blockbuster and Video Ezy. Under optimum circumstances all three bookshops would do fine but this new store will suffer in this suburb – which tends to prefer quality/ perception of quality – for four reasons:

– No sign/shingle: You wouldn’t even know it was open (or the name for that matter)

– Cement floors: It just looks plain old cheap and doesn’t fit with the style of the suburb at all. If you can’t afford carpet/tiles why not throw some rugs down?

– Decor: The other bookstores have a “homey” feel and in this shop they’ve put up some artwork which is ok but also a couch. OK they get marks for trying but it looks faded and combined with the white walls and cement floors the overall appearance is washed out and unattractive.

-Bookshelves: I don’t have a problem with metal shelves on rollers for the interior of the shop (on that note – there appear to be plenty of books) although, I personally think it’s tacky for the front window display.

I hope I’m wrong and this unnamed bookstore survives, although if it doesn’t and a CD/DVD store replaces it, that’d be great.

Good luck unknown businessman/woman.