Watkins Esoteric bookshop, Cecil Court

Cleaver

lemonjelly wrote: »

Not a personal thing or anything Cleaver, & it may be just how I am reading it, but it seems that your post on this thread is quite inconsistent in comparison with the posts you've made on the GAME thread.

It appears that you accept that indie bookstores can have merits, & there are additional benefits to being able to go into a bookshop, & have that tactile relationship both with the goods & the seller, whereas that doesn't appear to be your view on GAME stores. I'd have thought that the common identity thing would be transferrable?

Erm, yeah, you may be right there.

However, the way I see it (and I may well be very wrong here) is that a computer game shop, generally, sells most (if not all) of the titles available for available consoles. There isn't really much personality, uniqueness or slant you can put on a computer game shop. Whether I'm in the game section of HMV, Gamestation, Game etc. I seem to see pretty much the same shop. Really, putting games on the internet seems logical.

Maybe I just have a more romantic image of bookshops. The owner could chose from literally millions of books to stock, and therefore can stamp a 'personality' on their shop.

Having said this, I fully appreciate that staff in a games shop can give valuable advice and guidance, so you make a decent point.

fc123

lostinrates wrote: »

tell us how its looking. It looked so sorry round there even when times were booming IMO.


Anyway, I'm missing Lodnond desperately at the moment, I'm really keen to find some reason I HAVE to go down...

and I wanted to go clubbing last night, which surprised me. I think I'm well enough to, but not sure where a chubby old bird who might need to sit down could get in, not where it would be my ...cup of tea. I'm not sure I ''do'' queues either....maybe I'll just stick the radio on in the kitchen with all the lights except the cooker hood off. How the mighty have fallen.....

Come and see me and say 'Hi'.:D

lostinrates

Sir_Humphrey wrote: »

Ray's Jazz was still there last time I looked a couple of months ago (it moved floors about 18 months ago).

Sounds of the Universe and Honest Jon's are still going AFAIK.

Beano's in Croydon has finally succumbed.

I did notice that the Opera shop further down towards Trafalgar Square is falling victim to pr****ty de*****ers.

Good to know about Ray's. Never heard of ...''Croydon'' (joke for the Sarf crew )

blueboy43

vivatifosi wrote: »

Back onto the subject of Charing Cross Road, the antiquarian booksellers also have an internet leviathan - in the form of Abe Books - that is changing the model for second-hand book selling. However in the case of Abe at least the stores themselves get a virtual shop front, rather than the Amazon model where Amazon is the dominant retailer on its own site.

Sadly Abe books has just been bought by Amazon. I say sadly as I don't like the dominant retailer taking out smaller, niche, innovative players.

I don't hold much hope for any book shops bar maybe ones on a University campus or near a University. The same goes for record shops. How many under 25's do you know who buy physical CDs from the high street ?

The ones surviving rely on 30-45 cash rich men, who don't mind spending £50 in one go. The same goes for the specialist Jazz shops (older audience).

Who is going to replace these customers ?

blueboy43

Cleaver wrote: »

Erm, yeah, you may be right there.

However, the way I see it (and I may well be very wrong here) is that a computer game shop, generally, sells most (if not all) of the titles available for available consoles. There isn't really much personality, uniqueness or slant you can put on a computer game shop. Whether I'm in the game section of HMV, Gamestation, Game etc. I seem to see pretty much the same shop. Really, putting games on the internet seems logical.

.

I think one thing that GAME does is allow old games to be 'traded-in' - a bit like record shops of my youth.

I guess many of the console providers are wedded to the idea of physical games as they have seen what happens to the record companies once the physical moves to the digital download. Not sure how long this approach will hold out.

SingleSue

I love book shops.....but I also love Amazon.

We have two second hand book shops and one book shop selling new books and me and the children are addicted to going in all of them to see what they have. Both 2nd hand stores are massive and we get lost going round all the different corridors, up to the attic and down in the basement...and we have spent a pretty penny between us too.

The shop selling new books sell them for full price mainly but it does also sell interesting local books and does a very good line in childrens books...youngest has spent the most there out of all of us.

I also use Amazon an awful lot for books, usually buying second hand rather than new but I do take a look in the new released for my particular genre for new authors or authors I haven't usually read...if I then like that new author, I will then look in the 2nd hand shops for copies of their other books.

Books are a huge part of my life and something I have not been willing to give up although I now read and sell on to buy more whereas before, I would read and keep.

lemonjelly

Cleaver wrote: »

Erm, yeah, you may be right there.

However, the way I see it (and I may well be very wrong here) is that a computer game shop, generally, sells most (if not all) of the titles available for available consoles. There isn't really much personality, uniqueness or slant you can put on a computer game shop. Whether I'm in the game section of HMV, Gamestation, Game etc. I seem to see pretty much the same shop. Really, putting games on the internet seems logical.

Maybe I just have a more romantic image of bookshops. The owner could chose from literally millions of books to stock, and therefore can stamp a 'personality' on their shop.

Having said this, I fully appreciate that staff in a games shop can give valuable advice and guidance, so you make a decent point.

Thanks for not taking my comment personally

I think your point is more about the corporate element of shops/shopping nowadays. Too many stores are identikit stores (mcdonalds-ized). The idea behind it is that you feel comfortable whatever branch you go into, as it is familiar. I suppose the idea stems from when the company was first set up, & worked well, you want to transfer the same kind of atmosphere to other branches you open. However, in doing so, it becomes a little...sterile.

However, it is also bland. It has no character, no identity. & for many, in the long term, it puts people off. I suspect that is part of why, every so often the real big companies re fit all there shops.

I recall a GAME type shop which also had some dungeons & dragons style game set up ( a big one, with loads of pieces) as a kind of war game centrepiece in the store. Every time I passed, there was always a crowd in the store - not necessarily buying, but definitely chatting. It was quite a social. Did quite well, until it was bought out by a faceless corp.

A shop with character will draw people in & make itself part of the community.