Bookstores End of The Road?

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It looks like it. I bought these books for $1.50 each at a dollar store recently. The last time I went to the nearest mall, I entered the bookstore only to find it looking like Sears. It has scarves, handbags, coffee mugs, clothing for new born babies, pyjamas, slippers you name it.

Why are books found in dollar stores now? I don’t know how the publishing industry works, but warehouses come to mind because millions of readers still prefer turning pages, rather than scroll down an e-book. Publishers need space, so there must  be a system of disposing unsold books, to accommodate new print-runs. Before bookstores became Sears, they had books that were 50% or 70% off. Book discounts have disappeared. Now we buy them from dollar stores at $1.50.

Maybe dollar stores are a distribution point now because warehouses have more unsold books than before, thanks to the internet. Maybe book publishers decided to bring books to the masses at $1.50. I don’t know if it would work, because the masses are young people and they live for, and on the internet.

The end of the road for bookstores is here because some of them have the CLOSED sign already. Maybe they opened online stores which proved to be more profitable. People who used to read before going to bed, touch and scroll their phones and laptops now.

If bookstores have reached the end of the road, what will happen to reading and writing? I don’t know the number of films I’ve seen with parents saying: Get an education boy, and get a J-O-B. Is one of them Friday, starring Ice Cube and Chris Tucker?

By: Nonqaba waka Msimang.

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