“Unless a miracle happens, we’ll close at the end of June,” Judy Christenson, co-owner with daughter Jen of Imagine That! Children’s Bookstore , Riverside, CA told the Business Press. They have owned the bookshop since 2003, when they purchased it from Karen Rosenburg, who had run it since the mid-1970s.
“Times have really changed,” Judy added. “When Karen started 30 years ago, there was nothing like it and there was no Internet and no big chains. Today we don’t have the school business anymore because of the budget cuts and we can’t make it on just walk-by traffic sales anymore.”
“The concept of pleasure learning and reading isn’t there anymore,” said Jen. “These days, parents will buy their kids a $3.99 drink at a coffee shop but pass up a $3.99 book. It’s truly a sad commentary on our society today. . . . We love books. If we won the lottery, we’d keep the store open just as a hobby.”
Blame the library
>>”These days, parents will buy their kids a $3.99 drink at a coffee shop but pass up a $3.99 book.
Yep, that is why bookstores are closing. Parents buying their kids coffee drinks. I for one don’t see this trend. I do see lots of parents that go to the library to get children’s books. Maybe that is who should be blamed for this store closing. But we would all feel better if we could just blame Starbucks and Amazon.
libraries and bookstores are not in competition
Kids love both libraries and bookstores…they love books, period (at least the ones that I know do). Borrowing books from the library is a wonderful and exciting experience; owning books is an equally wonderful and exciting experience, with the addition of the fact that you can keep the books. They are not competing with each other for children’s minds and souls.
Starbucks and Amazon, i.e., big-box stores, however, are a different matter. They are competing…for your money. Indie coffee places, indie bookstores, indie home/hardware centers, indie linen stores, indie appliance stores, etc., are an altogether different thing.
Nobody feels better or worse by blaming the chains, they exist and their bottom line is simply profit. You can choose to shop there or to shop local. Your choice!
Maybe…
One of the problems is that the kids actually want their $3.99 coffee drink but they don’t want the book, whatever price it is?
I’m sorry their shop is
I’m sorry their shop is closing, but even five years ago it they should have realized that they were investing in a failing business model. Looking at their website, it seems like they set up a really nice place for children and it’s too bad they couldn’t capitalize on that.
Also, I have to think the $3.99 book is a myth. I just checked Amazon and Barnes & Noble and couldn’t find any legitimate $3.99 books.
I can’t feel sad for these
I can’t feel sad for these bookstores closing when it seems obvious to me that they are stuck in the past and more interested in whining and blaming everyone and everything EXCEPT their own failure to adapt to the market.
curious
Why is it that when a bookstore closes the hook is always that all bookstores are closing?