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Used bookstores become more popular
STATES CHRONICLE – Since Amazon was founded in 1994 it slowly took over the books market sector but now finally bookstores make a successful comeback.
Amazon is the world’s largest online retailer. However, it started as an online bookshop and only later has started selling a wider variety of products. Even as a simple online bookshop, Amazon has been quite successful as it offered customers the possibility to order their books online and have them delivered at their doorstep.
Moreover, many products were cheaper or Amazon offered better deals than traditional bookstores which in time became less and less popular and were seen, especially by young adults, teenagers and children as very old fashioned, or as stores in which only older people would enter.
Of course, the decline of the bookstores happened at the same time and mainly because of the increase in popularity of e-books – which Amazon sells by the thousands and which young people tend to be less reluctant to buy and read.
Used bookstores are now making a comeback and are very popular among people touched by nostalgia and by those who appreciate the feel and smell of paper. Moreover, these bookstores offer a great diversity of books, even some which have been out of print for many years now. Moreover, there is something one can never get in front of a computer on a website, which is the browsing experience you get into a bookstore.
However, probably the main advantage of used bookstores is their cheap prices. Owners say that they have better profit margins than bookstores selling newly printed books, therefore the business seems to be quite profitable and more and more entrepreneurs are investing in used bookstores either for the money or for the books or maybe for both.
But for the business to strive, besides good prices, you also need to have great management skills as well as a very good location for your bookshop. A startup with multiple locations has a starting price of $85,000.
However, since Amazon is still easier to reach, many used bookstores are selling their products on the third party marketplace of the online retailer.
All in all, it looks like used books are indeed making a comeback from various reasons: they are cheap, some of them can no longer be found on the market, they are more appealing to people who love the touch of paper and a bit less harmful to trees for eco-friendly readers who are not attracted to e-books.
Image source: www.bing.com
