Re: “SFBC shutting down”

On 1/3/2025 5:19 PM, Garrett Wollman wrote:

In article <vl9mo7$3fsk$1@dont-email.me>,
Lynn McGuire  <lynnmcguire5@gmail.com> wrote:
 

I am surprised SFBC lasted this long.  I have not ordered a book from it
since the early 1970s.  I think that “Dune” was the last book I bought
from it.

 I wrote a blog post more than a decade ago about how the book-club
business model no longer made any sense, and I am quite surprised that
it took the private-equity investors so long to come to the same
conclusion.

Certain business models can take a long time to be phased out. For example, telegram services are still not quite dead (see this list of companies -- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Worldwide_use_of_telegrams_by_country). AT&T shut down its 411 service just 2 years ago -- see https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-11-08/at-t-to-end-411-directory-saying-farewell-to-telephone-operator-era
I wonder how paper books will fare over the next 50 years.