The fate of bookstores today – answers
true/false
- Booksellers like to hear the sound of pages turning. T
- Booksellers are reporting a decrease in sales compared with 2011. F: this bookseller has reported a 10% increase
- Booksellers are in tough competition with each other. F: they are in competition with internet sales and digital books
- The Espresso Book Machine is helping to keep customers coming into the shop. T: by giving them books which are not on the shelf of the store
- The machine photocopies books for customers. F: it prints books ‘on-demand’
- You can have a book made while you drink a cup of coffee. F: this is probably true but she says you can print a book as fast as a coffee machine can make a cappuccino
- Other bookshops are not as successful. T: Borders will close 1/3 of its stores
- Amazon has stopped selling paperback books. F: they now sell fewer paperback books than they do digital books, but there has been no decision to stop selling them
- Most people prefer digital books. F: different people prefer different kinds of books (though maybe long term there will be fewer buying physical books)
- This independent bookshop is successful because it is innovative. T: and offers good coffee and had lots of good recommendations