The Man Who Took on Amazon and Saved a Bookstore | Hacker News Reader

The Man Who Took on Amazon and Saved a Bookstore

forbes.com

89 pointswyclif23 comments

Oh please. I go to that bookstore all the time, and I can assure you it's not the "digital printing press" that keeps them afloat. I've never seen a single person mention it or use it.

What they are doing, and which the article really skims over, is constantly offering things that you simply can't find at Amazon. They have a comprehensive, well curated staff review section. Their "New Fiction" and "New Non-fiction" is filled with carefully selected books that people wouldn't be able to find just from looking at the NYT Best Sellers list. (Indeed, their NYT Best Sellers rack is given less than prime real estate.) They're constantly holding book signings, poetry readings and other such things to engage the community (which the article mentions quickly, in fairness). And they also have a floor dedicated entirely to used books - the only general used book store in all of Harvard Square.

The competition that Amazon crushed, B&N, Borders, and the like - they tried none of those things.

This bookstore didn't do anything more special than actually work hard to beat Amazon. Oh, and they also picked a location literally across from Harvard Yard, filled with a constantly rotating customer base with a penchant for reading. That helped too.

I'd like to see a chain really try to differentiate itself from Amazon through similar hard work - picking places where people obviously want to buy books, and offering them a great bookstore that differs from Amazon in scalable, consistent ways.

> This bookstore didn't do anything more special than actually work hard to beat Amazon. Oh, and they also picked a location literally across from Harvard Yard, filled with a constantly rotating customer base with a penchant for reading and lots of disposable income. That helped too.

WordsWorth had similarly prime location and a relatively early online bookstore, IIRC. They also tried things like the Curious George tie-in. Didn't save them. The Harvard Book Store's survival is more unusual than you think.

P.S. They didn't pick the location to compete with Amazon. They were there (under previous ownership) since before Jeff Bezos was born, I believe.

The Curious George thing was confusing; it was hardly even a book store at that point. I'd argue it probably hurt them more than it helped them. But fair enough. A few bookstores have shut down around there, including ones with similarly legitimate differentiation (like that rare book store around the corner.)

Sorry, I didn't mean to imply that they picked the location to compete with Amazon. In this case, I mean "beat Amazon" to be synonymous with "surviving." Perhaps "coexist with Amazon" would have been a better way to put it.

That's the thing. In another era, I'd say that the Harvard Book Store was nothing special, but set against the carnage that has been the Boston-area bookstore scene, they're doing something right. I agree it has little or nothing to do with the digital printing press, but whatever it is, it's something a lot of other bookstores didn't crack.

Okay, this I'll believe.

I was immediately skeptical about the "printing press" mentioned in the article. Amazon has a ton of free, out of copyright books available directly for download on their site. No printing required and I don't have to leave my house.

I've used that press for a book once.

But, I will agree, I don't think I know anybody else who ever has.

Hi borski.

Really? You did? How was it? And could you get a feel while doing it for how popular the option was?

Hi sbisker. :)

Yes, I did. For an out-of-print math manuscript from Cornell. It was quick, easy, and it's sitting on my bookshelf as we speak.

To be honest, it didn't seem that popular, but I heard about it from a friend (hence how I found it, though he'd never used it), so it wasn't unknown either.

P.S. I miss you, boy.

As an avid fan of Harvard Bookstore, I can say you're 100% right.

They also host philosophical society there on a quasi-weekly basis, and great people show up for quality discussion. The last time I went was for the machine intelligence chat, and who did I see across from me? Richard Stallman, ready to share his take on AI.

Harvard Bookstore is quality, that's why they're thriving.

(One more tip, they don't carry technical books, which are the ever-changing ones that I would normally order on Amazon. Good move on their part.)

Do you happen to remember what Richard Stallman said?

He was part of the conversation, not a speaker, so he wasn't necessarily talking about one theme.

Washington has at least three independent bookstores that seem to be doing well: Kramerbooks (Dupont Circle), Bridge Street Books (Georgetown), and Politics and Prose (Chevy Chase). Politics and Prose in particular does the "staff picks" and "new fiction/nonfiction" well. I think that they have natural constituencies, though I don't get to Bridge Street often enough to say what its is.

Kramerbooks has a cafe/restaurant attached to it that's responsible for much of its success! http://www.yelp.com/biz/kramerbooks-and-afterwords-cafe-wash...

It's a great place to bring a date, b/c you can get there early and look through the books (which are wonderfully curated, I agree!). Plus, your date will think you are smart and sophisticated!

Agreed, though I've been married long enough for the smart & sophisticated thing to have been pretty well seen through.

P&P has a cafe. Yet with $5 in caffeine & sugar giving one 45 minutes table rent, I doubt that brings much in.

For what it's worth, a lot of what they print on the book machine isn't one-offs from Google books; instead, it's small print runs for self-published authors, professors' course materials, and the like. As to seeing the machine in use, it depends when you show up, but on weekdays during academic sessions, they're pretty active with it...

I love the Harvard Bookstore, but the Cambridge neighborhood (or maybe Boston more generally?) may be a bit unusual.

Cambridge also supports an outstanding independent bookstore focused on books in foreign languages (Schoenhof's[1]), a small poetry-only independent bookstore right around the corner from The Harvard Bookstore (Grolier Poetry Bookshop[2]) and a used bookstore with a focus on scholarly books (Raven Books[3]).

Raven is newer (the Cambridge branch opened only in 2005), and both Grolier and Schoenhof's are less well-stocked than they once were (I've been visiting Cambridge more or less yearly since around 1992), but they still exist. Comparable places in so many other cities are just gone.

Edit: Reading the commenters who live in Boston talk about "the carnage" in their local book scene makes me think "the grass is always greener". Where I live (NYC) I only notice the dead or dying bookstores, but Boston always seems relatively thriving when I visit.

[1]: http://www.schoenhofs.com/

[2]: http://grolierpoetrybookshop.org/blog2/

[3]: http://www.ravencambridge.com/

I still prefer going to bookstores like to aimlessly peruse than to efficiently click through links and read Amazon reviews. It's also a much needed respite from a digital display.

Furthermore, there's a nice comforting feeling being physically around others who appreciate reading.

/gettingold

This is truly excellent!

As we are finding with photographs, there is still a desire for people to have physical analog manifestations of things they look at and read. There is a quality (not so hash on the eyes) and convenience (no batteries, cords, worrying about getting them wet, etc) to these things that technology has not yet replicated.

What is also great here is the use of on-demand creation. The Espresso book machine is the 3D printer of printing; there no longer seems to be a need to make these things in huge quantities and let them sit in warehouses. Well, maybe there was when people were buying more print books (citation needed) but there seems to be a market for which that is not the case now. It also seems like the price point seems to be reasonable enough that people might pay for physical on-demand printed books.

Great stuff!

I'm curious about one line in this

"Imagine for a moment what it would feel like if people walked into your company and used the lobby to call your competitors and buy their products. That’s standard consumer behavior in a bookstore. People browse, find a book they like, pull out their smart phone, and order online."

If this is the case why don't stores like B and N just offer free WiFi and add an affiliate link to anyone going to Amazon. It would let you get some profit from people buying on their phones in your store. My impression was you can more or less redirect/adjust the traffic of anyone on your Wi-Fi. Is there some ethical or logistic reason why Best Buy and B and N don't do this?

I know from personal the experience the reason why I peruse a book store and then buy from Amazon is simply the price. Having it available instantly instead of waiting the 3 - 5 shipping turn around is nice and all, but it isn't worth a markup of almost 25 - 40% over what I pay on Amazon.

I love book stores, and there have been quite a few that I've been to where I've found books that Amazon simply didn't have and bought them, but overall the price is too great of a difference to simply ignore.

An excellent example of embracing the changing technological landscape and providing new value in addition to it. Now if only Hollywood would realize this, stop mourning antiquated ways of doing business and provide new value with the amazing technology that is available.

I used to love local, independent bookstores.

Then, when I wrote and published my own book, and learned a lot more about the industry, I realized that the current book publishing and distribution model makes no economic sense (unlimited returns!!??) and is fated to die.

Support your public library. Support online competition to Amazon. But the brick and mortar bookstore, except for a very, very few, is history. Don't mourn it. Create a better, different tomorrow.

"If you live in Cambridge and neighboring communities, you can order online and get any book delivered the same day by an eco-friendly Metroped “pedal-truck,” or a bicycle, as I like to call them. Beat that Amazon."

Here's how: any book, ever published, in 60 seconds or less. Kindle.

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