The End of an Era: Major Bookstore Chains Face Final Shakeout 📚

Bookstore Chains, Long in Decline, Are Undergoing a Final Shakeout<br />“The age of the physical chain of bookstores is behind us — unless you don’t need to be profitable,” said Daniel Goldin,<br />the owner of Boswell Book Company in Milwaukee, the sole surviving descendant of a local chain that began in 1927.<br />“Books aren’t going away, but bookstores are,” said Matthew Duket, a Book World sales associate waiting for customers in the West Bend, Wis., store.<br />Glenn Butts, a flight instructor and pastor browsing among the bargains in West Bend, said he bought books<br />“50 percent in person, 50 percent online.” In the future, he said, “it will probably be all online.”<br />Still, he had his regrets.<br />“Sales in our mall stores are down this year from 30 to 60 percent,” said Bill Streur, Book World’s owner.<br />“I don’t like doing things online, so I won’t be buying books there,” said Susan Briggs,<br />a former substitute teacher buying a collection of Emerson essays in Mequon.<br />Family Christian Stores, which had 240 stores that sold books<br />and other religious merchandise, closed this year, not long after Hastings Entertainment, a retailer of books, music and video games with 123 stores, declared bankruptcy and then shut down.