Book stores????

[abunaitoo]

Are there still book stores where you live?????
I live on Oahu, Hawaii. This is the main island of Hawaii. Largest population. Everything goes through here.
Only one book store on island.
We used to have many, many, book stores. Almost on in every mall.
For a while now, we have only one for the whole island.
We have a few used book stores. I think one magazine store.
Most of the general stores have very few magazines or books these days.
I wonder if this could be why our public school test score are close to the lowest in the nation????

[Artful]

You mean book stores like this?

http://www.thenewamerican.com/economy/economics/item/20048-san-francisco-bookstore-closing-due-to-minimum-wage-hike


Thursday, 05 February 2015San Francisco Bookstore Closing Due to Minimum Wage Hike

“Math leads to conclusions that cannot be argued with, regardless of what seems right, fair or just.”
With those words, Alan Beatts, owner of San Francisco science-fiction bookstore Borderlands Books, resigned himself to the cold, hard facts of the city’s minimum-wage hike, a measure he supported and continues to believe “may be very good for San Francisco” (as he told the San Francisco Examiner (http://www.sfexaminer.com/sanfrancisco/borderlands-books-in-sf-announces-closure-cites-minimum-wage-increase/Content?oid=2918723)). Simply put, no matter how good it feels to demand that businesses pay a certain wage, raising labor costs by fiat is guaranteed to cost jobs. In the case of Borderlands, it’s costing the job of every single employee: The store is closing by March 31 in the face of this insurmountable increase in its expenses.

Last year, San Francisco voters — who, like Beatts, thought the laws of economics didn’t apply to good, progressive cities — overwhelmingly voted to raise the city’s minimum wage gradually from $10.74 an hour to, in 2018, $15 an hour.
“You know, I voted for the measure as well, the minimum wage measure,” Borderlands customer Edward Vallecillo told KGO-TV (http://abc7news.com/business/sf-bookstore-becomes-casualty-of-minimum-wage-hike-/502008/). “It’s not something that I thought would affect certain specific small businesses. I feel sad.”

Beatts insists that the wage hike isn’t the only reason he’s closing; competition from online retailers and electronic books, rent increases, and the Great Recession have also taken a toll on Borderlands. Still, despite those challenges, “at the beginning of 2014, the future of the business looked, if not rosy, at least stable and very positive,” according to the closure announcement posted on the store’s website (http://www.borderlands-books.com/), which further stated that last year turned out to be “the best year we’ve ever had.” The only reasonable explanation for the store’s closure, therefore, is the increase in the minimum wage, which jumped to $11.05 per hour January 1 and will become $12.25 per hour in May.

“Continuing to pay the higher wage without any corresponding increase in income will expend the store’s cash assets,” the closure announcement explained. In fact, if the store were to remain open, it would go from turning a modest profit of $3,000 in 2013 to annual losses of about $25,000 beginning in 2018, according to a blog post (http://borderlands-books.blogspot.com/2015/02/how-could-borderlands-stay-open.html) from Beatts.

Beatts calculated that Borderlands would have to increase its sales by 20 percent to cover the wage hike. That, he said, is an impossibility. With so much competition, he noted, it’s already difficult to get customers to pay the list price that is printed on the books; they certainly won’t be willing to pay even more just to keep Borderlands in business.

On the other hand, Beatts believes the adjacent Borderlands Café can withstand the minimum-wage hike because it can raise prices without losing business since all other cafés in San Francisco will have to do likewise. This, of course, largely negates the whole point of raising the minimum wage. If prices are going to rise at the same time, all those newly fattened paychecks won’t have much additional purchasing power.

If revenue can’t be goosed, then the only other way for Borderlands Books to stay in business would be to cut expenses, and the only expense that can easily be reduced is payroll. But, Beatts wrote, “to get the store on a balanced financial footing, I’d have to lay off almost everyone on staff,” leaving just Beatts, general manager Jude Feldman, and one part-time employee. Beatts and Feldman would have to work extremely long hours in order to both service customers and keep up with their current responsibilities, with hardly any change in their compensation. That wouldn’t make much economic sense because, observed the store announcement, “at the planned minimum wage in 2018, either of them would earn more than their current salary working only 40 hours per week at a much less demanding job that paid minimum wage.”

Borderlands isn’t the first San Francisco business to go under because of the wage increase. In October, Valencia Street’s Luna Park restaurant announced it was closing by the end of 2014 “to avoid projected increases in labor costs,” specifically, the minimum-wage hike that was expected to pass the next month, reported Uptown Almanac (http://uptownalmanac.com/2014/10/gavin-newsoms-company-buys-luna-park-will-turn-it-bar-linked-matrixfillmore).

“We’re probably just seeing the beginning of this,” Michael Saltsman, research director at the Employment Policies Institute, told the Daily Caller (http://dailycaller.com/2015/02/02/san-francisco-minimum-wage-ends-bookstore/). “In a relatively short period of time it’s concerning we have a couple stories like these pop up.”

“What we do know is San Francisco is an expensive place to do business,” Saltsman added. “It’s pretty clear that if this minimum wage didn’t go up, this business [Borderlands] would still be open.”

“I think [the minimum-wage hike] will be a major challenge for any small retail business,” Beatts told the Daily Caller — a remark that stands in sharp contrast to San Francisco mayor Ed Lee’s November pronouncement that by demanding that employers pay their employees more, “we can give a well-deserved raise to our lowest-wage workers, and we can do it in a way that protects jobs and small business.” As of the end of March, all the low-wage workers at Borderlands — Beatts himself earned only $28,000 last year — will be out of jobs, and Borderlands will be out of business.

Despite this, Beatts and other Borderlands employees still “support the concept of a living wage in principal [sic] and … believe that it’s possible that the new law will be good for San Francisco,” said the closing announcement. Somewhere, perhaps over the rainbow, there is a land where making something cost more won’t reduce the demand for that commodity, and progressives are bound and determined to find it. The only problem is that they keep trying to foist their pie-in-the-sky policies on those of us in the real world, and we — and sometimes even they — are forced to suffer the consequences.


Yep, between libard business policy practices and internet eating into their sales.... sort of like Movie Rental places - eh

[GRUMPA]

I live veeeeery rural, and thrift stores seem to be all over the place. We live in the poorest county in AZ, but I've been in most of them and noticed most are self help, cooking, or romance novels.

I used to get asked what I'm looking for all the time, now that they know me a bit better they stopped.

I'm the guy that's more interested in how to do things for myself, like how to make your own paint, make your own car polish, and the bizarre like make your own toothpaste from tooth picks type of stuff. I used to have the issues of the poor mans james bond by allen korwin, I think my stepson got those, but it's that type of stuff I want....

[xs11jack]

I read a while back, I think it was in Aug. that a piazza place in the San Francisco area decided to up the employee's wages right away and found out it had to sell 12.00 piazzas for 30.00+ dollars to break even. Don't these people think these things through??? How do they stay in business being so stupid??
Ole Jack

[bubba.50]

one used book store, one Christian book store and one Barns & Noble in my area. at least I think they're all still open.

[starmac]

Maybe their is only enough folks in Hawaii that knows how to read, to support one bookstore. It takes at least three regular customers, you know. lol I just couldn't resist.
I would imagine store fronts just have a hard time competeing with the internet. I would also imagine that some places have higher business costs that hurts too

[TXGunNut]

News flash: if you read books you're a dying breed. I enjoy books, leverguns and single-action revolvers. I understand, trust me. Embrace the future, with the magic of Amazon and other re-sellers you can have a book shipped to your door that your local bookstore may not have been able to supply.
Limited edition? No problem.
Out of print? No problem.
Otherwise obscure or odd? No problem.

[abunaitoo]

I guess books, like the typewriter, is soon to be gone.
But there's still hope. I've heard records are making a comeback is some places.
Friends grandson loves records and VHS tapes. He said CD's and DVD's are to jerky.
There's just something about holding a book while reading it.
I wonder how stupid people will become when books and magazines are no more????

[Artful]

I wonder how stupid people will become when books and magazines are no more????

I hope I don't live long enough to find out.

[shooter93]

We have a couple bookstores but like it has been mentioned it's going to get more difficult for print. I'm sure Amazon has had a huge effect....I do like to hold a book and still buy many when a print version of a novel is 30-35 bucks and 8 or 9 on my Kindle the extra money just isn't there. Newspapers have been going downhill as so many use the internet and several of the magazines I subscribe to want me to get the e-version which I won't do but I'm sure many do.

[blackthorn]

I only buy one book (series) new. This series is just "junk" reading, something to pass a bit of spare time. It produces a new book about 5 0r 6 times a year. We had a local book store that would order a book and call you when it came in. Unfortunately, that store closed so I went to Coles book store and asked if they would set up the same system. They said yes. Everything went OK for a couple of issues and then, while I knew there was a new book out no one called. I went into the store, which is a 25 kilometre drive and asked why I had not been called. The answer was --- well, we did not get any copies of that book in our shipment. They said they only got in what their distributer wanted to send. So I went to Chapters book store and found out they had the same policy, and not only that, they were the same company as Coles! I politely gave them my opinion on their lousy customer service and now I order through Amazon. Ships right to my mail box, and costs less, plus all the time and gas I save by not having to drive all the way into town. Small wonder then that book stores are losing business to internet shopping!

[Geezer in NH]

We in Rural NH use libraries run by our towns, they don't have what you want to read they will get it.

When I want to keep a book it is now Amazon Prime all the way.

[TXGunNut]

Picked up a few books for my library at the Cody Museum gift shop this week; a couple I had been looking for and another by an author I really enjoy (McMurtry). Hard to beat Amazon but sometimes it's nice to wander around a bookstore.

[Frank46]

Barnes and Noble, Books a Million, and possibly another who's name escapes me at the time. Got another book case for my birthday as the two that I have are full. I'm a reader so go nuts when I'll start going through my old Precision Shooting and Accurate rifle as well as Rifle and Handloader magazines. Frank

[dtknowles]

We still have the usual and unusual book stores but none really have enough variety to have many books I will buy. I went thru an audio book phase, books on tape or CD. That was very cool while on the road. I still use the Library a lot, got three checked out right now.

Tim

[TXGunNut]

We still have the usual and unusual book stores but none really have enough variety to have many books I will buy. I went thru an audio book phase, books on tape or CD. That was very cool while on the road. I still use the Library a lot, got three checked out right now.

Tim


Wow, wonder how long libraries will be with us. I was in a university library doing some research, probably 15-20 years ago, and the computers were down. That didn't bother me, I wandered over to the card files and found what I was looking for. Everyone else was staring at blank screens.

[MT Gianni]

I am a voracious reader and travel the western part of Montana. Most communities have at least one used paperback store and the bigger ones have 1-2 book stores. I shop amazon for the ones I can't find but love to browse books.

[GoodOlBoy]

my wife and I are both heavy readers. We once took a vacation trip around parts of Texas that was aimed solely at visiting small mom and pop used bookstores. Unfortunately these places are getting to be few and far between. It is our loss as a society. Amazon is great, but sometimes you need to hold the book and read a bit before you decide on it. I don't go in for the e-readers. I tried it, and I would rather have a dead tree edition any day.

GoodOlBoy

[dragon813gt]

There's a Barnes & Noble. Not sure of there is still a book store in the malls because I don't go to them. I guess I'm part of the problem. I order from Amazon all the time. The local stores never had the books I wanted while Amazon did. I do prefer an actual book. Actually any print on paper is better than a screen. I hate having to use an iPad/laptop to read IOMs and wiring diagrams. And as corny as it sounds, there is something about the smell of a book. You definitely don't get that w/ an ebook.

[salty dog]

It pains me to acknowledge it, but the idea of printing on paper is on the way out. Even the libraries are being forced to head that way because their customers want E books. We have B&N around here, but they are the last of the big stores and even they to are focusing on Nooks and fancy coffee. I can see a day in the future when the term "book store" will be a small shop that can get hard to find copies of old stuff that is too obscure for Amazon.

[GoodOlBoy]

By the way if you want to get MAD about the "reasoning" that it doesn't "Pay" to print books? MOST college text books cost MORE for electronic versions than dead tree editions. It's considered a "convenience fee" by the book sellers. And when you consider you can't resell a ebook at the end of a semester so there's no used book competition with ebooks.... well... there ya go....

GoodOlBoy

[jcwit]

But this is progress isn't it?

[375supermag]

Hi...

Book stores here abouts are few and far between.

Borders closed up a few years ago...by far the best of the chain bookstores, they had a large history section and a well-stocked science section.
Books-a-Million took over their store...total waste. History section is small and there never seem to be any new titles. Science section is miniscule and never changes. Only reason I stop there any longer is to buy my copy of Handloader and an occasional Scientific American or Discover magazine if there is an article on paleontology.

I do shop at Barnes & Noble sometimes, but it is a 30-minute drive one-way from my home. Their military history section is excellent and new titles appear regularly.
I buy most of my books on-line or in the vendor room at military history conventions. I just completely re-did my den last year, including built-in bookshelves in the walk-in closet. The shelves are already full of military history, science and shooting books with more on the way.

I do not care much for e-books. I like to hold a book in my hands and spread several books out on my desk and compare things. You just can't do that with an electronic book.

Two of my favorite places to go are an old-time gun shop with racks of used guns and a used bookstore with shelves full of old books. I usually stay for hours or until I run out of money because I can always find something I "need" in a store like that.

[Artful]

Wow, wonder how long libraries will be with us. I was in a university library doing some research, probably 15-20 years ago, and the computers were down. That didn't bother me, I wandered over to the card files and found what I was looking for. Everyone else was staring at blank screens.

I think Library's will be with us for a long time to come, as the ones here have shifted into the electronic age. Down load E-books from them, get CD's and DVD's and of course they still have books.

[TXGunNut]

my wife and I are both heavy readers. We once took a vacation trip around parts of Texas that was aimed solely at visiting small mom and pop used bookstores. Unfortunately these places are getting to be few and far between. It is our loss as a society. Amazon is great, but sometimes you need to hold the book and read a bit before you decide on it. I don't go in for the e-readers. I tried it, and I would rather have a dead tree edition any day.

GoodOlBoy


McMurtry has a book store less than an hour from here, he's one of my favorite authors but I've never been there. Just picked up another book of his in Cody. Surprised me that I hadn't heard of it. I guess the reason I haven't been to his store is that my impression is the man is a jerk, would rather not confirm it by meeting him.

[TXGunNut]

It pains me to acknowledge it, but the idea of printing on paper is on the way out. Even the libraries are being forced to head that way because their customers want E books. We have B&N around here, but they are the last of the big stores and even they to are focusing on Nooks and fancy coffee. I can see a day in the future when the term "book store" will be a small shop that can get hard to find copies of old stuff that is too obscure for Amazon.


"Too obscure for Amazon"? Amazon is my first stop for obscure, out of print books. I've scored books there that I won't find at book stores or gun shows.