tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13593902.post4507517581941396455..comments2024-02-11T09:55:50.468-08:00Comments on The Eastside View: Out of businessCharles Sherehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10480432901356490235noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13593902.post-88492612719695899932009-10-03T23:31:30.315-07:002009-10-03T23:31:30.315-07:00Charles I was about to ask you how Sonoma County w...Charles I was about to ask you how Sonoma County was getting on in the light of what's happening to the rest of California. You've given me a hint. http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/oct/04/california-failing-state-debtJohn Whitinghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16170335248108710190noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13593902.post-10771958638819452112009-09-28T18:21:07.878-07:002009-09-28T18:21:07.878-07:00As a bookseller, I have the same dilemma.
When ...As a bookseller, I have the same dilemma. <br /><br />When I retired from my first career in civil service in 2001 (5 years late, it turned out, because of a health coverage snafu), I determined to be a used (rare) book seller; but just as I was making that decision, the internet blossomed, killing the open shop model. Now we sell 99% of everything to distant buyers around the world, for higher prices than we'd ever have gotten "at home" but we don't know any of our customers, and we serve no local good. And we lust after higher and higher priced stock, since this is where the interest is--everyone can find the common book in abundance, making it virtually valueless. And the internet has made every Tom, Dick and Harry an instant "bookseller" complete with first edition guides and computer inventories. <br /><br />As a young high school student in the early 1960's, I made the pilgrimage to Cody's, and bought my first copies of Camus, Kafka, Bergson, Cummings, Eliot. Where would I find them today? Cody's and Barnes & Noble are gone, as are 90% of all the other bookshops, both new or used. But do today's kids care? --apparently not, as they traipse about with their laptops under their arms, and "set up" in Starbucks or the local coffee shop. At least coffee can't be "transmitted" over the WIFI. <br /><br />We still have Monterey Market, and Berkeley Bowl. And for the more enterprising, there are still farms and ranches within an hour or two of home. <br /><br />I studiously avoid shopping centers, big-box retailers and goods manufactured in China. (WalMart, is, after all, just an outlet for Chinese goods.) <br /><br />Just another reminder of how powerless we've been made by the consolidation of capital and the means of production.Curtis Favillehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06213075853354387634noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13593902.post-20761567579228047912009-09-28T17:26:41.788-07:002009-09-28T17:26:41.788-07:00So sad. You have my sympathy--I hate losing these ...So sad. You have my sympathy--I hate losing these places. <br /><br />If we tilt our heads slightly, and think about the cost being for a book AND keeping a place we want to visit in our midst (and all that implies), the big-box 'discount' starts to seem more like a surcharge we can't afford.Giovannahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16421483187094188495noreply@blogger.com