In the early days of Web commerce, brick and mortar stores were thought to be threatened with extinction. Amazon.com, the pioneering Web bookseller, even turned into a verb briefly: “getting Amazoned” meant having your business taken away by online sellers. Of course, retail stores didn’t go away, Barnes & Noble parking lots are still packed, and holiday sales are up in most retail stores. But it appears the Web has caused one retail casualty: used book stores can be added to the endangered species list. According to NBC: Web killing U.K.’s quirky bookshops, the inroads by eBay and other online booksellers have made the practice of browsing dusty shelves looking for the odd treasure obsolete.
Indeed, the entire process of hunting used books has changed dramatically in the last decade. Now, obscure volumes that might have taken months or years to track down in the pre-Web days can now be found by the dozen. Is a tattered reading copy OK? Or would you prefer a pristine copy with an intact dust jacket? How about one signed by the author? Sites like Amazon and Abebooks.com offer a huge selection of just about every book in or out of print.
Today, trying to locate a book of interest by visiting a small shop would be incredibly inefficient and a probable exercise in futility. The only thing such shops have to offer is their atmosphere and the occasional joy of finding something that you WEREN’T looking for.
Sheridan believes browsing is a platform for discovery, that people mostly come to second-hand shops not always knowing what book they are looking for — or are maybe not looking for books at all…
And Rita Zimnol, who rents a small corner of Prescott’s shop to sell her books, adds another dimension. “If you’re looking online,” she says, “you’re looking for things that you already know exist.
Apparently, that charm isn’t not enough to support these shops. We’ll miss them.
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