Comments on: Brick And Mortar Is Dead

By: Paul the UnixCentric

Paul the UnixCentric — Fri, 23 Sep 2005 15:11:15 +0000

Sounds like a lot of the mainstream music outlets (like A&B Sound). They never have a damn thing I want, no matter how old / new / obscure / mainstream it may be. And whaddya mean, no whiteboard in your living room? How are you supposed to act nervous and try and hide your EVIL PLANS when the pizza guy shows? :-)

By: heide

heide — Fri, 23 Sep 2005 00:28:04 +0000

That is indeed where that photo below is from. (I don’t have a whiteboard in my living room… :-P)

By: Jenn

Jenn — Fri, 23 Sep 2005 00:21:14 +0000

Yeah, Matt. That was nuts.

Matt and I had gone into Circuit City to try and find “Super Size Me,” which was a fairly popular movie you could get anywhere, really, and it just turned into a mess.

Btw, Cam – do you have that little office set up I got you at your office? :-)

By: heide

heide — Thu, 22 Sep 2005 15:14:16 +0000

They still seem to be doing well with that casual crowd, who aren’t looking for specific books but just want to browse, but yeah, they’re just not for us picky bastards anymore. They still have the special order desks, but if you’re going to that much trouble, you may as well get it online yourself anyway…

On-demand publishing would be ideal, but I haven’t done or seen any research on the practicality of it yet. I’d be happy if just more of those obscure and out-of-print titles were at least available as e-books.

By: Matt

Matt — Thu, 22 Sep 2005 13:51:04 +0000

I totally agree, Cam. I don’t even bother going to book stores anymore. Even Powell’s, which seems to have everything, didn’t have what I wanted the last time I went there looking for something specific. I think that many retailers have decided that they can’t compete on the “long tail” customers, so they’ve given up on carrying anything even slightly obscure. If the bookstores were smart, they would be pushing the publishers to move to an on-demand printing model. Instead of producing physical copies, the publishers would only publish electronic copies of their entire catalog. The bookstores could then print up copies to put on their shelves or, even better, print up an on-demand copy of The Principia in large type with a neon orange cover.

Jenn, remember our experience trying to buy the Supersize Me DVD from Circuit City? It’s not like it was even an old movie.

By: Jenn

Jenn — Thu, 22 Sep 2005 12:50:27 +0000

I’m wondering when stores are going to clue in about those kinds of things…