I've ranted about the outrageous retail markups on books in Australia before. Suffice to say that Borders here (which I believe is separately owned, by our biggest bookselling conglomerate, Angus & Robertson) is also on a downward slide, due in no small part to competition from international online sellers.
I've discovered online bookstores in a big way the last year or two (love you, bookdepository!) and I know many, many other Australians who have all but given up on buying books retail. Booksellers are struggling because they can no longer rely on our distance from the world's major publishing markets to charge two or three times what books cost in the rest of the world.
Of course many retailers (not just booksellers) are crying for protection, claiming that the GST exemption on imports gives an unfair advantage to online sellers. But there's nothing unfair about it: consumers are just waking up to the same advantages of globalisation that the retailers have profited from for years. Most Australian retailers have been incredibly slow to adopt online selling themselves, and now they're paying the price. I can't say I'll mourn them too hard.
Not to say I don't support independent booksellers. Inner Sydney is blessed with a profusion of quality independent and 'independent chain' bookstores, that seem to be doing a roaring trade, not like the empty, echoing Borders stores I've ventured to in the last year or so. The independents aren't any cheaper, but they provide things that a major chain can't: either specialisation, or range, or excellent service, or just a better 'retail experience', whatever you take that to mean. Things that add value to the product, making retail markups worth paying.
The coming, accelerating adjustments towards e-commerce and away from bricks-and-mortar retailing will be painful for some bookstores, publishers and writers. But it's an inevitable change, and the ones who can adapt and evolve will thrive. Those who can't will go extinct.
