Do we help the community bookstore against the retail giant?
Hi!
Most of my past week was spent attending a workshop at Alibaba's campus in Hangzhou. It was definitely an eye opener to visit the heart of China's e-commerce. This campus style of office does not exist in Singapore, so as someone who enjoys experiencing different types of space, it was interesting to explore the design of the campus and feel the vibe of my Alibaba colleagues. I enjoyed walking through the wide spaces, admiring the nice parks, and observing the subtle features to promote efficiency. Personally though, I prefer the office landscape in Singapore for better facilitating life outside of work, and promoting interaction across different companies.
(a snapshot of what the campus looks like - though I find it hard to catch a photo which properly represents the place)
(I also pulled out some time to take a stroll around the famous West Lake)
How can community bookstores survive against retail giants?
I had earlier posted about how I thought , and adjust their spending decisions slightly for this. This week, I want to share two articles touching on this topic.
The first is a twitter thread by a small local bookstore in Kansas - the Raven Book Store. The owner tweets about the competition in price between his store and a large online retail store, how it would be impossible to match prices, and the value which they think their local bookstore brings to the local community.
The second is an opinion by the New Yorker - "Should we pay to enter bookstores?", which discusses the possibility of local stores monetising their intangibles, and mixed reactions among store owners. Some want to keep things traditional, while others are open to exploring new ideas, but without making the experience prohibitive.
While trying to reflect on these, I found myself feeling conflicted about the whole matter.
Lower prices are great. Money is hard to earn, and any bit of savings count. Its quite tough to ask someone to spend more when a cheaper alternative is easily available. However, do we always save from lower prices? The economies of scale needed for lower prices also require tactics that encourage constant and impulsive buying to make up that scale. Flash deals get consumers to buy quickly, marketing campaigns try to make customers think that buying will change their life. We buy things we do not really need, or have the time to properly enjoy, ending up with wastage.
Community is a dream. The idea of the local store creating a sense of community sounds so ideal. I do agree that the local store can bring a wide variety of benefits to the people around it. Getting to speak to the author and meet with other readers deepens the experience of the book far beyond the original price. But, how many stores really do this well? It could be that I am too antisocial or unwilling to try, but I have rarely found any local stores in Singapore that would really justify passing up the cheaper online alternative.
Ultimately, I think a part of the solution is in monetising some of the intangible benefits. Invariably, not all of the benefits of a local store can be directly monetised (such as feeding store cats). However, for those which can be, such as charging small fees for community events, or membership fees for certain privileges, it could help to close the gap with the big retail players, and reduce the price differences to something easier to justify paying more for. In a world with so much competition for our attention, things have to be direct and in the face, and local store owners cannot always count on customers to be properly thinking about what intangibles they bring. They should shout it out, like what the Raven Book Store is doing, reminding people of what they stand to gain, or more importantly, what they might lose.
I still do not have a full conclusion on who deserves more support, the local store, or the large retailer. However, I felt these reads have given me more ideas on how to think about the topic, and hoped to share the same with all of you.
Let me know what you think about all this! Also, if you know of local stores that are doing a good job of creating benefits for our community, please share them with me so that I can check it out and be corrected about my impression of shops in Singapore.
Have a great week!
James
About Ideothetic Flow
Ideothetic Flow is a small passion project following my own attempt try and live life better. Every 2 weeks I share something I find interesting, usually related to mental models which challenge common expectations or ideas.