chrishughes:

I buy books on Amazon all the time.  I can always find exactly what I’m looking for.  It takes five minutes.  And because I have Amazon Prime, it means I don’t pay any shipping and the books arrive two days later, at the latest.

But the problem is I love bookstores.  Independent bookstores.  Small ones, big ones, and all the ones in between. I’m obsessed with the way physical space affects our everyday lives.  I strongly believe in a place people can enter to peruse ideas and to experience beauty in language.

There’s an obvious tension here.  I remember once in college going to Schoenhof’s bookstores in Harvard Square.  They didn’t have the book I was looking for, but they offered to order it for me.  I declined, saying I would just get it on my own online.  And the attendant blew up at me, saying that kids my age were just so ready to jump online to find books rather than actually buying them from the stores that provided them.

And he’s right.  But there’s got to be a way to preserve spaces with books and ideas and also use the Internet to find and buy these books much more quickly and efficiently.

What if we could create a consortium of independent booksellers.  Each pays a small membership fee, and in return, each store receives a machine that can scan and identify the books that the store has in stock.

When someone is online and is ready to purchase a book, use the data from these machines to provide the person information about the closest bookstore with the book in stock.  Give the person the choice to purchase the book now and then go and pick it up in person.  Amazon and the store split the profit for the book.

In the case that the user doesn’t want to run that errand, provide them the option to purchase the book from Amazon, but tip the local bookstore for the amount they would have otherwise made from the book.  This can be opt-in and not at all invasive to the user experience.

What does Amazon get out of this scenario?  First off, they get access to a database that keeps track of all the books that are out there, where they’re located, and how they’re selling.  They can easily identify trends when it comes to what books are moving more quickly and where and then use that information to target existing online users.

Secondly, by enabling independent booksellers to immediately digitize their library of used and new books, Amazon dramatically expands its used marketplace and increases the amount of money it makes off of these used transactions.  Each book in these bookstores now becomes available on Amazon.com, increasing their stock.

Even if only 5% of customers chose to pick up their book in the store and another 5% chose to provide a tip, that would still divert a significant amount of money to independent booksellers.  When you combine that with an additional lift to their used book business from this database, these booksellers might stand to reap serious gains.

…or keep them afloat.

It’s always sad to see the local independent bookstore close shop.  They add such great spunk to neighborhoods.  It would be nice to see people finding innovative ways to keep them in business.   This seems like a good start.  Keep on reading books, they’re good for you.