Re: “SFBC shutting down”

On Fri, 3 Jan 2025 18:39:31 -0600, Lynn McGuire
<lynnmcguire5@gmail.com> wrote:

On 1/3/2025 4:57 PM, Ahasuerus wrote:

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.

>
I would say that over half of dead tree books that I buy from Big River
are POD (print on demand).  I suspect that MMPB is going away and will
be replaced with POD trade paperbacks for the novelty of them.
>
The real question is, is POD going away ?  The POD machines are
reputedly high maintenance and not totally automated, yet.  From what I
can tell, Big River has over a dozen POD machines across the USA which
cost well over a million USA Dollars each.

The local drug store had one for a few months, but it apparently took
up more space than it was worth. IIRC and understood the signage
correctly, you could write your own book, format it properly, and
print it out. As well as, no doubt, a catalog of books written by
others.

That drug store is going away, which is a great loss. According to the
employee who advised me of this, it is because they lost their lease.
But they didn't have much stock (the parent company is just emerging
from bankruptcy so stock requires cash) and so can't have been doing
much business. Well, except the Pharmacy, I suppose.
--
"Here lies the Tuscan poet Aretino,
Who evil spoke of everyone but God,
Giving as his excuse, 'I never knew him.'"