Everyone but the rich leaving Manhattan, forced out by rents
Headline fixed.
Indeed, low-margin businesses donât really have any business in high-rent areas.
The real question is whether bookstores are a low-margin or negative-margin business. Hereâs hoping on the former.
Obviously, this is Googleâs fault.
I hate to see it, but business is business and the man is going to get paid, come Hell or high water. The reality is that physical tomes are becoming readily quaint. I love cracking a binding as much as the next guy, but the times, they are a-changinâ and books are becoming my generationâs LPs.
LPs to CDs to ⌠ether. Weâre in a state of flux.
A non-volatile storage medium. Itâs very rare, you should have one.
Send in PliskinâŚ
Manhattanâs adults will get the stores they deserve, not the stores their children need right now.
This is actually much bigger than that. I understand what youâre talking about, hell, Iâve been programming computers for thirty years, and developing web applications and websites since the 1990s, Iâve done my part to bring some of that about. But whatâs going on is being caused much more by income inequality and gentrification. For example, here in San Francisco, not only bookstores, but other businesses are being forced out of the city do to rent increases, including service businesses like barbershops. People that have lived and worked here for generations are being forced out because they canât afford to live here. And when I say âhereâ I donât just mean the actual city itself, but the entire Bay Area, because thatâs how big this thing has become. Thatâs why youâll see so many articles these days comparing New York and San Francisco, even in New York publications. Both cities, and the surrounding areas, are well on the way to being completely remade into playgrounds for the rich, and, especially in the case of San Francisco, those rich are overwhelmingly in their early 20s, and very white.
In other cities in the US, youâll actually see that bookstores, even small independent bookstores, are doing surprisingly well. Just do a web search for âsmall bookstores thrivingâ and youâll see articles from all over the country. Thereâs even a huge resurgence of vinyl records for crying out loud. We need to be careful not to chalk everything up to the old âinternet as disruptorâ meme.
I buy lots of physical books, just not in stores.
So whatâs the solution? Maybe we should have rent stabilization for commercial property, especially for benefit corporations.
This doesnât have much to do with rents gone awry in Manhattan, but:
Musical instrument shops where you can actually walk in, have a chat to someone about the pros and cons of a particular item with someone likely to be an enthusiast as well as an employee or owner and walk out again with whatever it is you have decided to take the plunge on are another good example of the kind of business I dont want to see go away.
The only way I know how to follow through on that is to actually go into my favorite store and actually buy something every now and again, even if could get it a tad cheaper online, instead of just taking the âfreeâ advice and then running off to actually buy on the netâŚ
Hmm. As soon as you mention âmusic instrument shopsâ, I think of one which closed down a while ago here in Lancaster, UK, where one could actually walk in, get sneered at by the elitist owner, and walk out again with a grudging purchase ('cos this predates ubituitous online shopping, and there was no viable alternative). Non-musician friends/family going in to buy a gift had it even worse.
Same with the bike shop next door: road bike riders were welcomed, but the owner was openly contemptuous of mountain bikes (Lancaster is on the edge of prime mountain biking areasâŚ).
Same, to a lesser extent, with the specialist sci-fi bookshop: the owner wasnât deliberately rude, but seemed incapable of engaging with âciviliansâ.
If the price of being able to walk in and chat to an enthusiast is already being a hardcore enthusiast, I canât sincerely express surprise, nor regret, at the âlossâ of such places.
[Sorry; that didnât have much to do with Manhattan rents, either!]
In other news, 30-year-olds leaving Manhattan, forced out by 'rents.
I know, I know⌠Theyâre going to have to do their own laundry!
I worked at the UWS Shakespeare & Co in the mid-90âs - right after the B&N moved in two blocks away. I was told by the manager that despite the ârivalryâ, our sales actually went up when the big boys came in; when a customer wanted specialized service and became frustrated with the lack thereof at the B&N, theyâd come to us. Many people in the neighborhood were fiercely loyal and may have even bought more books to spite the conglomerate. If anything, she said, we were more in danger from the landlord raising the rent. I left for 6 months and when I came back to New York, Shakespeare & Co was gone, replaced by yet another drug store. I went to work at the B&N and found lots of nice, knowledgeable co-workers and the same grumpy customers who accused the booksellers at S&Co of being âsnobsâ now came a griped that all of us at B&N were ignorant, blaming the peon with the nametag for âforcing Shakespeare & Co out of businessâ. People are funny.
Itâs a shame books are such low-margin sellers, and itâs also a shame that a great cultural city like NYC canât seem to figure out how to keep culture around.
Do the rich read?
Wow. You have some idea what itâs like to enter a shop where your money isnât green enough. As a woman, Iâm all to familiar with this level of service.
(This is OT, too, but I couldnât help making the observation.)
Well, they own books and thatâs pretty close.
Weâll always have The Strand. Now if youâll excuse us, we have another opera company to close and a bank to put into the first floor of Lincoln Center.
I do find it amusing that the little childrenâs bookstore that was the impetus for âYouâve Got Mailâ is still there but two Barnes and Nobles within walking distance have closed. Of course AOL isnât what it used to be either, so that movieâs not exactly prescientâŚ
Couldnât agree more, no obligation to support a business where they donât get it, especially those muso types can be insufferable.
My point was more along the lines of when you do find a good un, think twice before you buy solely based on best price.
And I have had great service from online music shops as well for hard to find but low cost drum spares, so I know its not a given that online service is non-existance once they have your card numberâŚ
Funny you should mention bike shops, Iâve also been sneered at for naming a top range under 2000 Euro for a new bike!
