INTHEBLACK August 2024 - Flipbook - Page 27
SNAPSHOT: A TOUGH MARKET
Photo by Zarlow Photography/iStock Editorial via Getty Images.
The number of bookstores in Australia declined
by an average of 3.5 per cent per year between
2018–2023, with a total of 1670 businesses in
2024. Bookstore revenue has decreased by
6.3 per cent to A$1.6 billion in the same period.
In comparison, Mainland China has 73,517
bookstore businesses as of 2024, while
the US has 43,688, Canada has 1094 and
the UK has 1041.
Source: IBISWorld
Above: New Edition in Fremantle, Western Australia,
is an independent bookstore founded more than 30 years ago.
EXPLORE
for less than my members can buy them,
but they do not carry the range the
independent bookstores carry.”
A 2016 essay by social scientist Ross
Honeywill, How Mark Rubbo Killed Borders
Books (Mark Rubbo, Joe’s father, purchased
Readings in 1976), illustrates
the power of passion over price.
On 21 June 2003, the launch day of
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix,
battle lines between the two stores had
been drawn.
“This was the first serious test since
Borders opened and Rubbo was aware
of its significance,” Honeywill wrote.
“As expectations grew, doors
opened on either side of Lygon Street
in inner city Melbourne. Readings’
in-store events for kids and parents
came alive, and in the dizzying
theatrics of the morning Rubbo sold
a staggering 400 copies before 11am:
at full retail price.”
“Over the span of the whole day, more
than a thousand customers chose not to
cross the street to buy precisely the same
book at half-price. While denying it, this
was a symbolic blow to Borders. And they
just did not get it. ‘Why would someone
want to pay full price for a book we will
sell them for half-price? We are Borders,
for God’s sake. What is going on?’.
“What was going on was loyalty.
Real loyalty.”
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