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Did you see this in the NYT? The story is about bookstores generally, and the one opened in Nashville by author Ann Patchett, but it also mentions that the St. Marks bookstore in the Village is in trouble - maybe some of you would like to buy a Christmas present there?
I sure hope bookstores don't go out of business in NYC, especially local independent ones. This whole Kindle thing and the computerization of the world does have some bad effects, I'd hate to see us all only use Kindle type things for books. It's actually fun to come in and have food in places like this while reading a book, it's fun and makes for a good part of an urban atmosphere to have a bookstore around.
the problem i find with local book stores is they are generally not competitive. while i like to support local stores as much as i can i refuse to pay more for most things that require no support after the sale . i have a barnes and noble across the street from us and unless you spend the money to become a member you pay list.
i used to have the same issues with the local vitamin shops.unless you bought a membership you didnt get the same price you could get everyday on line with no membership.
certain things i dont mind paying more for locally but other things i just wont buy locally if they are over priced. like the buggy whip stores and photomat booths certain buisnesses are just doomed by technology too. with those downloading books now the local business plan may not work anymore. look at tower records and blockbuster and what happened to them as technology moves on.
Last edited by mathjak107; 11-21-2011 at 03:56 AM..
I sure hope bookstores don't go out of business in NYC, especially local independent ones. This whole Kindle thing and the computerization of the world does have some bad effects, I'd hate to see us all only use Kindle type things for books. It's actually fun to come in and have food in places like this while reading a book, it's fun and makes for a good part of an urban atmosphere to have a bookstore around.
alot of the issues they bring on themselves too .by allowing the public to hang out and read whatever they want they turned themselves into a free library.
i remember the old local candy stores and the signs" no reading the magzines"
we have a local barnes and noble across the street with a starbucks in it.people sprawl out and take up seats and tables and read and work on their laptops like they are in their livingroom. new customers buying something cant even sit.
the problem i find with local book stores is they are generally not competitive. while i like to support local stores as much as i can i refuse to pay more for most things that require no support after the sale . i have a barnes and noble across the street from us and unless you spend the money to become a member you pay list.
i used to have the same issues with the local vitamin shops.unless you bought a membership you didnt get the same price you could get everyday on line with no membership.
certain things i dont mind paying more for locally but other things i just wont buy locally if they are over priced. like the buggy whip stores and photomat booths certain buisnesses are just doomed by technology too. with those downloading books now the local business plan may not work anymore. look at tower records and blockbuster and what happened to them as technology moves on.
I agree with you about wasting money in some areas of life - but I think there are some things where your wallet isn't supposed to be the over-riding factor. If you've ever lived somewhere where there isn't a news-stand around, or a shoe repair shop, or a market, you'll know what I mean about needing to support locally. Also, if you're comparing a local bookshop with, say, Amazon, remember that your local bookstore, even if not discounted, is part of your local economy. If you buy from Amazon, you're undermining your own tax base.
And, lastly, always remember places like The Strand, which is a local store WITH discounts.
99% of everything i buy through amazon ends up coming from someone local and im taxed. if prices were close i would buy local from brick and mortar places . i resent the fact that i have to pay to join a club just so they charge me the price the item should be.
i would be more sympathetic if they told me they cant discount because their overhead is to high.
Last edited by mathjak107; 11-26-2011 at 04:08 PM..
Yeah st marks book store is deep trouble, cooper union wanted to charge the book store 40k of months rent. With all of these hey yall and hella yeah and all sorts of accents moving towards nyc the end result is landlords charging outragous rents, a good example is st marks book store. Another thing is technology, with so many people buying kindles, ipads and nooks there is no need to buy paper back booka anymore and in the end result book stores will loose business, publishers will lay off workers from printers suppliers who ship the book. Sad.
most of what we all do for a living can be obsoleted at any time. technology and world class products from other countries requires you to be sharp and forever changing gears to survive.
photomats,buggy whip companies,blockbuster ,record stores etc all saw technology drive them further and further into survival mode and some are gone..
but thats life and we all benefit from those advancements.
no one likes to see jobs driven away but those that arent proactive and creative are doomed to have it happen. others will take this technology and create new oppertunities for themselves.
think of how many jobs were lost with the invention of electricity. one man could do the work of 100.
but we were creative,inventive and proactive and new industries,new jobs were created to replace the old. the greatest growth we had was during the creation and invention of new ideas spawning the industrial revolution.
as much as we all love the corner bookstore its days are numbered..many publications stopped even printing hard copies of magazines.
the only thing that matters to consumers today is getting the best value for our hard earned ,in short supply dollars. we want the best products the world can offer and we want it at the best possible price.
those that can do that survive ,those that cant die off.
while we would all like to support the local business the fact is our priority is supporting ourselves first. consumers have to maximize every dollar today and we have to worry more about buying the goods and services we have to and less about supporting someone elses income because they are local.
people travel to other states just to save a few bucks in sales tax or they drive miles to save with coupons. very few are going to spend more for anything these days .
want a real story about survival and what im talking about ?
im in the wholesale electrical supply business and what could be worse than home depot opening right behind us. with billions in buying power we saw no way to really compete on the bread and butter items.
we were going to move somewhere else or maybe even shut the location down but then we put our collective heads together and decided to pull the business in a much more technical direction.
while home depot were old time wire,fixtures and pipe slingers we moved more into factory automation, motor controls ,variable speed control drives ,custom panel building and engineering services.
we still sell all the things home depot does but we bring them to market as a by product of selling all the technical things we sell rather than as our primary focus. instead of marketing those items to contractors like home depot we targeted industrials,hospitals,institutions ,commercial customers.
we combined our new found technical business additions with the old products of yesterday and found a new customer base that wanted a combo like that to be their partner.
we went into those areas of our business where home depot wasnt and we used their power to draw customers to the area into building a bigger customer base for what is we do. rather than try to compete head on we smartened up and rode their coat tails.
we sold motors so we realized lets sell water and sewage pumps too. every moment a pump is turning its wearing out its parts by design.. what a perfect business, selling an item that by design had to be repaired or replaced . we sold and repaired pumps and eventually we turned manufacturer and now crank out the POWERFLO brand of industrial and commercial pumps which we match with energy saving variable frequency drives to control them. they are sold country wide now.
its all about changing gears and when home depot handed us lemons and threatened to put us out of business we made lemonade. today that move by home depot which we embrassed turned us into one of the biggest players in our industry instead of driving us away or out of business.
we are a big employer in long island and brooklyn today with offices in florida, ct and ohio and we owe it all to proactive, creative thinking and the fact a competitor was going to drive us out from a business that saw its day end...
Last edited by mathjak107; 11-27-2011 at 05:00 AM..
Yeah st marks book store is deep trouble, cooper union wanted to charge the book store 40k of months rent. With all of these hey yall and hella yeah and all sorts of accents moving towards nyc the end result is landlords charging outragous rents, a good example is st marks book store. Another thing is technology, with so many people buying kindles, ipads and nooks there is no need to buy paper back booka anymore and in the end result book stores will loose business, publishers will lay off workers from printers suppliers who ship the book. Sad.
Cooper Union actually wanted to increase the rent to $20K/mo (not 40K). They came to an agreement with St Marks Bookshop where the rent will be $17500/mo for a year and a debt of $7K that St Marks owes to CU will be forgiven. After the year is up, my guess is they will have to renegotiate.
It's crazy what's happening to small businesses in NYC. There are so many businesses in the East Village that are being forced out by greedy landlords. There is a vegan bakery on St Marks place that has been in turmoil with their landlord as well as a little hat shop on East 7th St that is being forced out because the landlord keeps bringing bogus court actions against her. It's just crazy what's happening in the East Village. It seems that the landlords would prefer a row of McDonalds, Starbucks, and banks rather than small businesses that make the neighborhood what it is.
Cooper Union actually wanted to increase the rent to $20K/mo (not 40K). They came to an agreement with St Marks Bookshop where the rent will be $17500/mo for a year and a debt of $7K that St Marks owes to CU will be forgiven. After the year is up, my guess is they will have to renegotiate.
It's crazy what's happening to small businesses in NYC. There are so many businesses in the East Village that are being forced out by greedy landlords. There is a vegan bakery on St Marks place that has been in turmoil with their landlord as well as a little hat shop on East 7th St that is being forced out because the landlord keeps bringing bogus court actions against her. It's just crazy what's happening in the East Village. It seems that the landlords would prefer a row of McDonalds, Starbucks, and banks rather than small businesses that make the neighborhood what it is.
I had over heard and also read the rent was supposed to be 40k or around that amount but for now the rent is around 20k. Yes it is sad. Its not only the landlords but its also the clientel that who moved into those areas that want a particular service. Yes the east village is a mini Wisconsin. I. Know these hick chicks who moved to nyc from Tennessee and lived in a rat roach infested apt in the east village paying nearly 3000 a months rent. Crazy. To them paying 3000 a months rent was more important then living in a backwards society of the south.
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