COMMENT OF THE DAY: WEINGARTEN’S BLACK EYE “Maybe Mr. Alexander could solicit such basic needs tenants for the River Oaks Shopping Center; perhaps a local bakery and a quick-serve restaurant like the Black-Eyed Pea, for example? [Hellsing, commenting on And What About the River Oaks Shopping Center?]
Sign up for the Newsletter
Dropping BEP for a more lucrative tenant such as Barnes and Noble wasn’t a bad decision. Also, the new plan called for two restaurant tenants (one has pulled out as discussed in this blog).
I doubt the BEP or a bakery would want to pay the new lease rates. Of course I’m sure the lease rate may have gone down a bit with the economy, but other retail centers aren’t budging on existing lease rates when renewing contracts.
It will be interesting to see how big box bookstores in general fare now that we are at the dawn of the digital reader age and Harry Potter release parties are a thing of the past.
Do you think that will replace the book? I mean the Amazon Kindle and Kindle 2 has been success in the sales department, but after 30 minutes of using a friend’s I really wanted the real pages in my hand.
I don’t think the big box book retailers are going anywhere. They still have good sales and the e-readers seem to be finding it’s own market versus taking away from the real book market.
Also, places like half-priced books have there audience and aren’t doing that bad either.
Ask Blockbuster and Netflix about big box stores. We won’t be seeing them for long. The book in print will always be welcome, but no more so than the “record album.” I remember hearing the same thing about them. SIGH.
.. or newspapers. I’ve spent a large portion of my life designing for paper. Now, I spend most of non-Swamplot posting day designing for digital. It will not happen this year, but in maybe a decade printed books will be a luxury status item for the well-off.
Resistance is futile… really.
LOL,
Well contrary to popular belief, record sales (yes, the old black disc thingings) are actually quite well. It’s a much smaller market, but there is money from purists and DJ’s. Also, publishing technology has made it so much smaller print editions can be made at lower cost. It used to be you have to publish in large volumes (and sell it) to make a profit.
albums – go the Galleria Best Buy. there is a HUGE selection of vinyl albums now. even Cactus has a decent used selection. Vinyl has made a come back.
and Netflix killed Blockbuster. I can wait a few days for those hard to find Criterion or tv show dvds so I watch all the shows in order.
Miss Vicki is reading Cryptonomicon on her Kindle 2 right now. She says that thing is too cool for words. I picked it up, and I got to admit, it’s a lot lighter than my old hardback copy. Looks neat, too.
kjb434 wrote:
“I don’t think the big box book retailers are going anywhere. They still have good sales and the e-readers seem to be finding it’s own market versus taking away from the real book market.”
=======================================
Within the book industry, there is a widespread belief that Borders is on the edge of bankruptcy (http://www.freep.com/article/20090325/BUSINESS06/903250310). Book sales are in fact declining, I’m sorry to say. (http://www.publishers.org/main/IndustryStats/IndStats/2008/2008_Stats.htm) And more and more of those sales are from online retailers. And since the really big B&N and Borders stores have also depended on CDs and DVDs as part of their product mix, they are now finding themselves stuck with unprofitable store footage devoted to slow-moving skus.
This isn’t to say that a B&N won’t succeed at that location, especially if they close the Bookstop on Alabama. They will lose one customer, though–me.
Love the Kindle, love more the Kindle 2. I also have the kindle app on my Iphone and it comes in real handy when I unexpectedly find myself in line or stuck waiting for a train.
kgb434, I hope a bit of gentle ribbing won’t offend you, but I’m enjoying the irony. You seem to be at the forefront crying “Tear it down!” whenever the subject of a building past its first youth comes up, but it looks like someone will have to pry the books out of your stiff paper-cut fingers.
I love a good tome myself, as proved by the five 7-foot bookcases at home, especially out-of-print and antique books. New releases, however, are Kindle 2. I haven’t been in a bookstore other than the Alabama Bokstop in years – Books-A Million and my favorite alibris.com is too convenient, not to mention cheaper. Also, when I go to Amazon via a link on some of my favorite non-profit organization websites, I support them with my purchase.
Sure, the big box is a nice place to kill time at and drink coffee, but I think I prefer to browse for my books, whether paper or digital, on the comfort of my own deck with my laptop. I spend way too much time inside a large building as it is and I can’t watch my dogs play at the B & N. I get the feeling I’m not alone in this preference.
When did Borders and B&N become big box stores? Wal-Mart is a big box store, Best Buy is a big box store. Whilst Borders and B&N are certainly not boutiques they are hardly in the realm of BBS. I think that they will certainly survive but that their focus will have to change. My small children for example cannot browse for books online but will spend hours looking at books at Borders … and we always buy at least some. Kids will also never be able to use Kindle, as proven by the number of aparently indestructible cellphones mine have been able to destroy.
I love that this thread started with the black eyed pea and now we’re talking about print vs. digital. I’ve got naught to say about the former but love to talk about the latter. It’s interesting to think about how the business and business models of bookstores (and by extension leasers) are affected by the digitization of media, but the underlying problem here is the declining rates of literacy and readership across the globe. Those of us who love to read are probably not in immediate danger of being unable to find a good book, but we may have a harder time finding a good book store in the future. (I’ll put in my plug in for Murder by the Book and Blue Willow Books out on the west side, but I admit I’m a HUGE Kindle fan, too.)
If you’re interested in reading more about recent studies/trends in literacy and readership, I recommend this article:
http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/atlarge/2007/12/24/071224crat_atlarge_crain
Gotta love thread drifts! My original thought was that it would be a shame for the symmetry of the River Oaks Shopping Center to have been ruined mostly for a company chain outlet that may not be able to support itself due to a shift in consumer options. Not that the building could not be used for other purposes; just a bit of irony. Rather like the time Lisa Gray of the Chronicle went to the Alabama Bookstop with a photographer and found none other than Drew Alexander himself shopping there.