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Online options have definitely cut into the brick-and-mortar market, but 'all but killed off' physical stores? Not even close. Furthermore, online options have disproportionately impacted chains. Independent bookstores, however, are doing well as a market niche.
On a side note, I have no idea what your library reference even means. People borrow books from libraries...
But surely you can see how the lending of books...information... is also being accomplished by the internet? To me the internet is a kind of library, very literally. People can even do research completely through the internet at home. Don't you see the massive impact? To me the impact is huge.
The decline of bookstores is also sad. What surprises me is that the magazine stands are just as full as ever. But I have to wonder, do very many people even buy magazines anymore? The internet has so many resources that people used to find only in printed materials. Many newspapers have gone out of business.
What's the proper response? Guess thoughts and prayers didn't work. Wonder why?
Amazon is blamed, but they forget people are leaving religion in droves. They will keep an online presence, but who thinks that is going to last long?
For those that don't know, Lifeway is run and owned by the Southern Baptist Conference.
Who said God was going to keep a company with a bad business model open? The Bible doesn't teach such a mentality.
Brick and mortar book stores went under a long time ago. The only think keeping Lifeway book stores afloat was the unwillingness of some Christians to enter the 21st Century and use Amazon.
Who said God was going to keep a company with a bad business model open? The Bible doesn't teach such a mentality.
Brick and mortar book stores went under a long time ago. The only think keeping Lifeway book stores afloat was the unwillingness of some Christians to enter the 21st Century and use Amazon.
Some people actually prefer the brick and mortar experience.
And now I'm hearing reports of Amazon workers going insane on the job.
Who said God was going to keep a company with a bad business model open? The Bible doesn't teach such a mentality.
Brick and mortar book stores went under a long time ago. The only think keeping Lifeway book stores afloat was the unwillingness of some Christians to enter the 21st Century and use Amazon.
I guess the SBC didn't pray enough to determine what the right business model would be. Imagine that.
The internet has all but killed off the bookstores.
Why should people visit a library or bookstore, when they can find the information so much easier on their cell phone.
Well, libraries will always be around because a) there are still a lot of people who want the tactile sensation of a book in their hands and b) there are people who can't afford to buy books, which have gotten phenomenally expensive save for the bargain bin, and c) libraries are reinventing themselves to be more of a community hub and social center where you can download digital books, get movies and documentaries, learn computer skills, attend lectures and conferences, and a crapload of other things, besides.
I mean, losing bookstores is one thing, but losing libraries, too ... meh.
But honestly, people don't want to read either, anymore. Why do you think Twitter became so popular? Where you have to limit everything to just a couple hundred characters - characters, mind you, including periods, spaces, conjunctions, pronouns, prepositions, and all the rest. Not only is it teaching people to hate reading anything longer than that, it's also teaching people to write horrendously so as to conserve characters.
As such, the ability for people to express ideas is slowly being curtailed, as well, since you can hardly discuss deeper topics in any depth when your so limited. And yet Twitter is thriving while forums like this one are a rarity on the internet because you might have to read posts like mine. I'm quite sure that only 25% or fewer of the participants here actually read my posts because, you know, tl;dr and "walls of text."
If it's longer than microwave food instructions, people wrinkle their nose and move on. I mean, we even have an stupid president whose primary way to communicate with the American people are not press conferences, oh no, it's Twitter.
While I'm sure online sales has cut into profits - and admittedly I buy a lot of downloadable books for my Kindle - I doubt that's the main reason. Unfortunately, though, even somebody who is relatively young, I remember when even a paperback novel was half as expensive as they are now, and hardbound books can be as much as 30 or 40 bucks aside for older books that may already be out of date or no longer relevant. Like anything written by Sarah Palin.
Why trek off to the bookstore to buy the same book I can get online for 3 dollars - and pay for the gas *and* four times as much for the book? And I can even download professional narration for 2 more dollars. Trouble with bookstores is that they have overhead costs, publishers have to pay for marketing, transport, and hundreds of salaries, and manufacturers have to pay for the raw resources and cost of manufacture. And, of course, every last person involved in the process has to make some profit from every book sold - well, except for the people who actually *make* the book, who all get poverty level wages - the whole thing becomes prohibitively expensive for a relative luxury like a book.
And then once your finished reading it, you have to *put* it somewhere - and collections of books can easily fill up a small room within a couple of years if you're a prodigious reader.
Ah well ...
I doubt the closing of this store has much to do with it being a Christian bookstore - but no doubt people leaving religious faith was part of the problem they faced. Just not the main problem.
But I'm not going to shed any tears. No doubt the place was selling all kinds of science-denying propaganda from William Lane Craig, Kevin Ham, the Hovinds, tons of prosperty gospel gibberish to justify the embarrassment of riches owned by the preachers while their congregation is one paycheck away from homelessness, how atheists are evil baby-eating devil-worshipers, and how faith is a virtue and evidence is of the devil - and all the rest of it.
Religion lost a few small oversteps and now the fundevangelist crowd think that they're at war - and thus they've overplayed their hand to such a degree that some of them look like ISIS in Christian clothing.
Oh well ... we will get precisely what this country deserves. I have no doubt of that.
But surely you can see how the lending of books...information... is also being accomplished by the internet? To me the internet is a kind of library, very literally. People can even do research completely through the internet at home. Don't you see the massive impact? To me the impact is huge.
The decline of bookstores is also sad. What surprises me is that the magazine stands are just as full as ever. But I have to wonder, do very many people even buy magazines anymore? The internet has so many resources that people used to find only in printed materials. Many newspapers have gone out of business.
But magazine stands are a lot harder to find as they also have closed up. To just browse a selection of magazines is a trip many take, maybe to a surviving mega book store. And that big store is likely to have a selection of those religious text being railed against. I guess the faithful will just have to accept the counter argument being shelved next to the content that they seek.
Now instead of going to the corner bus stop you have to get on that bus to find a stand. Meanwhile the survivor stand's selection of magazines drops every day, barely larger than the checkout compulsive buy racks at the super market. And the content of the magazines are increasingly pictorial fashion advertisement designed to catch your eye at the checkout line and not editorial content.
Well, libraries will always be around because a) there are still a lot of people who want the tactile sensation of a book in their hands and b) there are people who can't afford to buy books, which have gotten phenomenally expensive save for the bargain bin, and c) libraries are reinventing themselves to be more of a community hub and social center where you can download digital books, get movies and documentaries, learn computer skills, attend lectures and conferences, and a crapload of other things, besides.
I mean, losing bookstores is one thing, but losing libraries, too ... meh.
But honestly, people don't want to read either, anymore. Why do you think Twitter became so popular? Where you have to limit everything to just a couple hundred characters - characters, mind you, including periods, spaces, conjunctions, pronouns, prepositions, and all the rest. Not only is it teaching people to hate reading anything longer than that, it's also teaching people to write horrendously so as to conserve characters.
As such, the ability for people to express ideas is slowly being curtailed, as well, since you can hardly discuss deeper topics in any depth when your so limited. And yet Twitter is thriving while forums like this one are a rarity on the internet because you might have to read posts like mine. I'm quite sure that only 25% or fewer of the participants here actually read my posts because, you know, tl;dr and "walls of text."
If it's longer than microwave food instructions, people wrinkle their nose and move on. I mean, we even have an stupid president whose primary way to communicate with the American people are not press conferences, oh no, it's Twitter.
While I'm sure online sales has cut into profits - and admittedly I buy a lot of downloadable books for my Kindle - I doubt that's the main reason. Unfortunately, though, even somebody who is relatively young, I remember when even a paperback novel was half as expensive as they are now, and hardbound books can be as much as 30 or 40 bucks aside for older books that may already be out of date or no longer relevant. Like anything written by Sarah Palin.
Why trek off to the bookstore to buy the same book I can get online for 3 dollars - and pay for the gas *and* four times as much for the book? And I can even download professional narration for 2 more dollars. Trouble with bookstores is that they have overhead costs, publishers have to pay for marketing, transport, and hundreds of salaries, and manufacturers have to pay for the raw resources and cost of manufacture. And, of course, every last person involved in the process has to make some profit from every book sold - well, except for the people who actually *make* the book, who all get poverty level wages - the whole thing becomes prohibitively expensive for a relative luxury like a book.
And then once your finished reading it, you have to *put* it somewhere - and collections of books can easily fill up a small room within a couple of years if you're a prodigious reader.
Ah well ...
I doubt the closing of this store has much to do with it being a Christian bookstore - but no doubt people leaving religious faith was part of the problem they faced. Just not the main problem.
But I'm not going to shed any tears. No doubt the place was selling all kinds of science-denying propaganda from William Lane Craig, Kevin Ham, the Hovinds, tons of prosperty gospel gibberish to justify the embarrassment of riches owned by the preachers while their congregation is one paycheck away from homelessness, how atheists are evil baby-eating devil-worshipers, and how faith is a virtue and evidence is of the devil - and all the rest of it.
Religion lost a few small oversteps and now the fundevangelist crowd think that they're at war - and thus they've overplayed their hand to such a degree that some of them look like ISIS in Christian clothing.
Oh well ... we will get precisely what this country deserves. I have no doubt of that.
I am so happy to hear that about libraries. I liked them as a kid but back then it really just books. That's wonderful news to me.
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