Will bookstores and stationery stores share the same fate?
I was saddened to learn that the last bookstore in Laredo, Texas – a city with the population of 250,000 – closed its doors shortly before Christmas. Timothy Egan, from the New York Times Opinionator, reports that this sad event coincides with the fact that on Christmas day, Amazon.com sold more digital book downloads than physical books. Granted, most people don’t shop on Christmas day, but one can only speculate what this means for our society. Timothy Egan argues that it “raises two issues: what the loss of bookstores does to communities and what the brave new publishing world will mean to authors and readers.” I believe that Mr. Egan would concur with Thomas Jefferson who in 1815 wrote to John Adams that “I cannot live in a world without books.”
If this is the fate that lies ahead for bookstores, what does it foretell for independent stationers whose business is already under assault by dot.com companies masquerading as stationery companies; suppliers who now sell directly to consumers online; and event organizers for the National Stationery Show who now see social networking as their savior for declining attendance? I wish the “true” leaders of the stationery industry step up and say “In the best interests of the consumer, the craftspeople and designers we are proud to sponsor, and the many fine stationers who merchandize our products professionally, we do not intend to compromise our standards of excellence.” Unfortunately, I suspect this will not happen anytime too soon.
The sad reality is that the true craftsmanship that goes into making fine papers and the labor of love that goes into creating exquiste designs and new font styles has been usurped by digital mercenaries flogging vastly inferior products to an unsuspecting public that assume Google search results will point them in the direction of fine stationery. Indeed, there are many printing companies now selling their wares to the public who can’t even print in a straight line. In fact, I recently came across a vendor introducing a new line of letterpress stationery when she couldn’t even spell stationary correctly. She seemed angry when I suggested that it might help her sales if she could spell the product properly.
I know it may seem silly to suggest it, but wouldn’t it be nice if “quality” rather than “quantity” were the mantra of the National Stationery Show. Or perhaps, “correspondence” rather than “tweeting” or “communication” rather than “promotion.” It might be a far smaller show, but dealers and vendors would rejoice and, the consumer, would most certainly begin to realize that paper is not stationery.
Richard W. May
Founding Member Stationers Guild