![]() The costs consist of variable costs such as inventory, employee salaries and benefits, advertising, bank payments, and taxes and second, fixed costs, which include rent and utilities. Overall, a bookstore’s decision to stay open depends on its benefits and costs. Additionally, in an attempt to prevent the spread of Covid-19, many bookstores temporarily closed their shops, causing total industry revenue to decline by 10.8% in 2020 alone, although a small rebound in the near future may occur (“Book Stores Industry in the US”).īeing aware of these challenges, one might wonder how it is that bookstores make a profit. This decline in revenue is due to many factors, namely, rising competition from online retailers and an increasing popularity of e-books. In 2021, the market size of the bookstore industry is $9.5 billion, an amount that had been decreasing at a 5.7% rate every year, on average, starting from 2016. Currently, the US has 17,729 bookstores employing a total of 74,132 workers, with the largest US companies being Barnes and Noble Inc., Follet Higher Education Group Inc., and Books-A-Million Inc. Finally, using this information, one can make conclusions about how bookstores have survived for this long and whether or not they will continue to survive in our current society.įirst, what is the market for bookstores like and how does the bookstore industry work in the United States? Companies in the bookstore industry are responsible for retailing books, newspapers, and magazines purchased from large manufacturers, either domestic or international, and selling them directly to the public through brick-and-mortar stores. ![]() Next, one should look at the economics of owning a bookstore, such as the costs and benefits of keeping a bookstore open. To answer these questions, one must first consider some general information concerning bookstores, such as how many and what kinds of bookstores exist today. So what does the future look like for bookstores? Are they still going to exist 20, 30 years from now? These include options such as downloading e-books, purchasing books online and having them delivered directly to one’s house, or ordering books to pick up at a certain location. Instead, a plethora of other, more convenient alternatives exist. Nowadays, how often do people deliberately walk into a bookstore with the intention of purchasing a specific book? Do they walk past shelf after shelf, navigating through aisles to reach the right section, then sweep their eyes over the spines of each book until they spot the desired title? In a society boasting increasing technological advancements, bookstores are becoming less and less of a necessity.
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