The Travel Bookshop
When the Travel Bookshop, star of the film Notting Hill, is to close, then we know independent bookshops are in trouble.
– Travel Bookshop to close in two weeks
It was one of four independent bookshops closing or about to close.
– Indie opened by A A Milne’s son to close after 60 years
– The Harbour Bookshop may be saved
– Derwent Bookshop latest indie to shut
– High street “a goner” says Cumbrian indie owner
– Pritchard’s fourth indie in a week to close
We all like a bargain, but at what price cheap?
Cheap food has a high price, rape of the planet, pollution, farmers going bust, farmers comitting suicide.
Cheap clothes come from sweatshop factories with appalling working conditions.
Who takes the hit when a book is being offered at a discount? The bookshop, the publisher, the writer?
The biggest hit is being taken by independent bookshops. Best-sellers are their bread and butter. Take away the best sellers and they go out of business.
There used to be six bookshops in Guildford. Now we are left with Waterstone’s.
It used to be worth a visit to Guildford just to visit Thorpe’s at the top of the High Street. Sadly Thorpe’s is no more, driven out of business by the greedy local council demanding too much in rent. The property now sits empty.
Waterstone’s have killed independent bookshops across the country.
The recent Aleph debacle in Waterstone’s has illustrated something is very wrong. How can they not know a well known author has a new book out, then fail to display once released? Waterstone’s gets passed around like a manic game of pass the parcel. The latest to be in charge when the music stops is James Daunt.
– Paulo Coelho unknown author
– Paulo Coelho in Waterstone’s and the author the publisher forgot
– James Daunt discussing how bad is Waterstone’s
To run a good bookshop is a labour of love, you have to love books, but you also have to be able to make a living, pay the rent, keep the wolves from the door.
In Lincoln it is worth the walk from the top of the High Street up through The Strait and Steep Hill to the Castle and Cathedral to visit Readers Rest, a quirky secondhand bookshop. This is how bookshops used to be, but they are now a rarity.
September 15, 2011 at 6:17 pm |
So Sad. But there are still some that survive in London. The trouble is, business rates/water rates/ insurance/ are ridiculous for small shops, and they really can’t afford to operate, and many that do only do as a labour of love.
Councils don’t seem to be able to determine that there is a real requirement for local shops and businesses and sell out to big chains time and time again.
September 16, 2011 at 1:23 pm |
Yes Pandora, and bad planning by corrupt and incompetent planning officials who do the bidding of developers.
They fail to understand that it is the independent shops that make a town, that it is the independent shops that recycle money within the local economy.