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Canwest News Service
Now that you can buy any book you've ever dreamed of online, what's the point of the small bookstore at the end of the street? Nostalgia, sure, but futurist Clay Shirky has a more marketable idea. On his blog this week, he explained: "The local bookstore creates all kinds of value for its community. … Local writers, harried parents, couples on dates, all get value from a store's existence as an inviting physical location, its value separate from its existence as a transactional warehouse for books." Shirky's solution for saving the independent bookstore? Focus on this value. Appeal to the customer who sees the bookstore as a "third place," tweak your business model (experiment with co-operatives or non-profit models) and, for some, take advantage of the recession and the sudden implosion of commercial real estate. One potential problem with this plan: The inventor of the "third place" strategy (i. e., a place you spend time that's not your home or your office) is a little coffee shop called Starbucks.
