Another US bookstore chain bites the dust

Wisconsin: This fall, at a moment when retailers traditionally look forward to reaping holiday profits, the owner of the fourth-largest bookstore chain in the US surrendered to the forces of e-commerce. Book World, founded in 1976, sold hardcovers, paperbacks and sometimes tobacco in malls, downtowns and vacation areas across the Upper Midwest.

It had endured recessions, the expansion of superstores like Borders and Barnes & Noble, and then the rise of Amazon. But the 45-store chain could not survive the shifting nature of shopping itself, and so announced its liquidation.

“Sales in our mall stores are down this year from 30-60 per cent,” said Bill Streur, Book World’s owner. “The internet is killing retail. Bookstores are just the first to go.”

As e-commerce becomes more deeply embedded in the fabric of daily life, bookstores are undergoing a final shakeout. Family Christian Stores, which had 240 stores that sold books and other religious merchandise, closed this year, not long after Hastings Entertainment, a retailer of books, music and video games with 123 stores, declared bankruptcy and then shut down.

“Books aren’t going away, but bookstores are,” said Matthew Duket, a Book World sales associate waiting for customers in the West Bend, Wisconsin, store.

Here is one way to measure the upheaval in bookselling: Replacing Book World as the fourth-largest chain, Publishers Weekly says, will be a company that had no physical presence a few years ago. That would be Amazon, which having conquered the virtual world, has opened or announced 15 bookshops, including at the Time Warner Centre in Manhattan.

Bookstore sales were $684 million (Dh2.5 billion) in October, off 4.6 per cent from a year earlier and down 39 per cent from a decade ago. “There aren’t many businesses that can survive a 20 to 30 per cent drop,” said Streur. “Closing was the last thing in the world I wanted. But reality sets in.”

It was an abrupt decision that surprised even his 300 full- and part-time employees; a few said that at least some of the stores — especially those that catered to tourists — seemed to be holding their own. Book World had opened a store in Jefferson City, Missouri, just a few weeks before.

But a search for buyers for the chain or even some of the stores came up short. The chain swung from a profit in 2014 to breakeven in 2015 to a loss in 2016. “There was nobody interested in buying us,” he said.

Since Amazon dominates online book sales even more than it dominates other online retail, its coffers will likely get a boost from Book World’s demise. Glenn Butts, a flight instructor browsing among the bargains in West Bend, said he bought books “50 per cent in person, 50 per cent online”. In the future, he said, “it will probably be all online”.

The biggest bookstore chain is Barnes & Noble, which has been struggling for many years and has closed about 10 per cent of its stores since 2011. Its most recent pivot was to go back to its roots and concentrate on bookselling.

Books-a-Million, taken private by its investors in 2015 after its market capitalisation plunged, is ranked second. Half Price Books, many of whose books are secondhand or remainders, is third.

“The age of the physical chain of bookstores is behind us — unless you don’t need to be profitable,” said Daniel Goldin, the owner of Boswell Book Co. in Milwaukee, the sole surviving descendant of a local chain that began in 1927. “You can never save enough money through centralisation to be able to compete with Amazon. Instead, you have to go in the other direction — be so rooted in your community you can turn on a dime.”

That is what Michael Bauer hopes to do in Minocqua, a town near the Michigan border. He owns a gift shop where he sells a small quantity of children’s books, local guides and cookbooks. When the Book World across the street announced its demise, he saw an opportunity.

Bauer signed a contract to buy the Book World building and its fixtures for more than $300,000. He hopes to open it as a new bookstore, which he will run with his fiancee, by March 1.

“I like tradition. I like antiques,” he said. “I think it’s important for kids to read, and do it the old-fashioned way.”

But he is aware of the challenges. “I don’t think there’s any doubt that Amazon, Walmart, all those places made it more difficult for a single store,” Bauer said. “But if you work hard, and provide a good product, you will exist.”