A daunting future for Waterstone’s

David

Good article. Waterstones is a weird place, it feels horrible and I don't really like going there at all. Stephen Fry unfolding from the pages to read to me is another horrible thing to contemplate.

Mary queen of shops

well with people like you who needs enemies, not waterstones obviously. Yes amazon may be cheaper, and maybe you can get a cheap Jordan autobiography from Tesco or asda, but surely there is room for a bookshop on the high street. Or are we all to rely on amazon to give us the knowledge that waterstones offers - I don't think so. Waterstones issue is HMV. HMV have been so tied into their own ruined world they have forgotten what a gem they had with waterstones. Thankfully the Russian can see the possibility in waterstones and will hopefully succeed.

Gawain

What asinine drivel !! Books and bookshops are one of life's few real pleasures and many of us take real pleasure in browsing around a bookshop. It is an efficient way of discovering new authors and trying out new things. Amazon is for unimaginative internet junkies who are happy to have corporate America pushing product down their throats to boost their share price. HMV nearly ruined Waterstones. I for one hope that Mamut and Daunt can restore good bookshops to the high street. Without them we face a lobotomised, amazombied future.

Nick

Of course Amazon are the main problem but not the only one. The list of reasons for Waterstone's losses is pretty accurate. The staff are inept at selling books because they're not given any responsibility. (No one said they were unintelligent - Anna Baddeley doesn't) The Hub is a disaster. The 3 for 2 campaign has been running since the stone age and needs refreshing. But the real problem is that the chain is just too big. Waterstone's used to appeal to the Radio 4/broadsheet newspaper market and about 100 shops was the maximum size for that audience. W.H. Smith and then HMV tried to make it into a mass market chain and appeal to the same demographic as shopped in supermarkets.

Trevor Dolby

Anna Baddeley mistakes her own narrow experience and ignorant prejudice for informed opinion. The independent bookselling business in the UK is thriving. Full price hardback book sales are up. The mixed ecology of book retailing is becoming viable and vibrant. If Waterstones can combine the good character of the local bookshop with - and this is the point Anna Baddeley singularly misses - an effective on-line presence which supplies both physical books and eBooks then they have every chance of success.

JS

I am a voracious reader of books, averaging 1 per week. Perusing Borders bookshelves at lunchtime used to be one of my favourite activities - they seemed to stock the books I wanted to buy and offered a rewarding browsing experience. I discovered a large number of authors I had hitherto never heard of, and which have subsequently become favourites. It was a challenge to narrow down the books I wanted to buy in Borders, as they just offered so many. Waterstone's, in contrast, offers a distinctly unrewarding experience. They seem to be able to offer neither depth of stock, nor new and interesting authors. I dread going in there (I only venture there in a book emergency, when I just can't wait for one to be delivered), and resent giving them money. It is not only their store experience that is lacking. I was given a Waterstone's giftcard which I used online, and the experience was not good. Unlike Amazon, who keep in touch constantly regarding the order's status, I heard nothing from Waterstone's about my book, which was delayed by several weeks, presumably due to stock issues. They literally sent no communication at all. So why would I want to shop at Waterstone's? The experience of shopping with Amazon is superb, both for books and other items. Last Christmas I did virtually all of my shopping with them, and I expect to do the same again this year. Waterstone's have limited time left, I think, and I cannot feel upset about this at all, unlike with Borders, who I still miss on an almost daily basis!

Anja Sieg

What an unkind, unsympathetic and ill-judged article. Funnily enough I always find Waterstone's staff helpful whenever I visit the UK. And yes, as a journalist deeply involved with the book industry I agree with those comments that the real issue is HMV. Why not give James Daunt and Alexander Mamut a well deserved chance?

sheridan swinson

As some-one who runs an independent bookshop I watch with interest the travails of our now only non-specialist bookstore chain. Of the reasons given in Anna Baddeley's list the most important has been the way that the staff have not been encouraged to develop a relationship with customers locally. This was something that the old Ottakar's chain was always very good at. As for her bleak assessment, she is right that price is important to people, but in my experience it is not the only criteria. We mainly sell heavily discounted new and secondhand books, but our best-selling single line are the full priced books from a local publisher. Appropriateness as well as value are important criteria. I visited my nearest Waterstones in Hereford yesterday to see how the chain was holding up and was not encouraged. James Daunt can certainly make a difference to the cluttered and confusing mess of price promotions and signage in the stores. Whether that will ultimately be enough is another matter. A slimmed down chain, with fewer white-elephant prestige stores like Simpsons Piccadilly must be the way forward however, and if any-one can get there Daunt can.

C Jones

An excellent article. I couldn't agree more. I feel the more vituperative comments, apart from being merely rude, suggest the fear of a cornered animal.

Randall Northam

What's that Tory part canard? Knowing the price of everything but the value of nothing. Mind you if we publishers stood up to Amazon's bullying not only would the world be a better place but there would be more bookshops.

Gillian

What utter drivel. Obviously designed to be contraversial and combative in order to manipulate readers into an online blog debate. Perhaps on that level ( and only on that level) it has worked. Shoddy journalism. You should know better.

Max Porter

This a very confused and depressing article. My principle objection is that you do a great disservice to the intelligence of the consumer, and to the range of experiences available beyond your desktop. The issue is value; the true value of books, ownership, authorship, choice,physical experience of the world, social involvement and so on. If everybody felt -and shopped- as you do, the British publishing industry would shrivel up and die, not to mention our high streets, our libraries and the breadth and depth of our culture. Of course each to their own. For example The Omnivore saves me reading all the newspapers and tells me instantly (with stars) how good a book is. I think that is a banal concept, but others may find it useful. In the meantime I buy papers and books -from human vendors- and think they're very good value and worth preserving. They do me good.

minime

Apart from the opportunist hack quality of this article, Waterstones future probably does rely on the niche market of quality retail experience, much like the London Review Bookshop, they dont need more than 200 branches

John Self

Shouldn't Anna Baddeley declare her interest in Amazon's success? Her site The Omnivore has Amazon affiliate links, which means she makes money from people clicking through and buying goods on Amazon. She therefore has a vested financial interest in 'bigging up' Amazon and doing down its competitors.

Nina Bell

The best thing in a bookshop - which Amazon can't provide - is knowledgeable staff who can make great recommendations. If Waterstones can build on this (and the 'staff picks' aren't quite enough - I'm talking about having a real conversation with a real person who will discuss books the customer really likes) then that could revitalise bookshop sales over Amazon, although the Amazon like-for-like recommendations are helpful. Independents do this well, but there isn't one near where I live.

Grace Taylor

Excellent article. Even if Waterstones offered good advice (they don't), I would listen then go home and buy on Amazon for much less.

Julian King

But the facts speak for themselves don't they? High street book sales decline- supermarkets and online sales up. Sure amongst the MINORITY affluent heavy book buyers price may not be an issue- but for most of us it is.

minme

@Grace Taylor Thank the Lord you wont be patronizing Waterstones

D Whyte

The fact is that if Waterstones went down the whole of British publishing would go down with it.
Then Mrs Baddeley would not be able to buy any book from Amazon, which would at leat save her even more money which is all she seems to be interested in.

Paul

£22 more for 2 hardbacks?! Have you still got the receipt because I think you may be overexaggerating a touch... There is a real misconception that Amazon is far cheaper than Watersrone's or WHS or any other chain that discounts goods other than books. A quick price comparison check would show you pricing is much more competitive than you might think. The aforementioned Finkler Question was half price in Waterstone's in Hardback and the same in Amazon for example. as for the other arguments, you ignore the value in browsing physical bookshops and finding something new, something which Waterstone's and their independent competitors generally do exceedingly well and cannot be replicated online without taking a punt

Derek

I can see why this article has upset some people but at the same time I found it a refreshing change to the gushy tripe that has characterised most of the coverage of this subject.

Price rather than value is the issue for most people out of sheer necessity. Outside the echelons of the "elite" most people are short of disposable income. They will shop where it is cheapest.

I also think it is stone age to argue that physical bookshops where you can chat to so called "real" people are somehow better places to discover books than online. There is a vibrant online culture around books. John Self's interesting Palimpsest.org is one of many. Even Satan's Amazon has many good, thoughtful, reviewers such as William Rycroft (Just William's Luck is his own site)

If Daunt or anyone else thinks that the way to sort out Waterstones is to turn them into shops a bit like Daunt then they are in for a nasty shock. But Daunt, though ruthless, is no fool. I suspect he knows he will have to close shops and settle for a chain at around 100 sites. He will negotiate hard with publishers pointing out that if they don't support a high st chain then it will die. I think publishers would kind of deserve this for allowing Amazon, through sheer vanity (by seeing high sales) to bully them over margins. Independent and High St shops have subsidised Amazon's prices - very unfair if you ask me. Reap what you sow etc.

Oh and by the way Max Porter works for Daunt. Max, try leaving Chelsea for a while. The High St of empty shops, the closing libraries, the thugs chopping away at our culture (universities anyone?) are there - most of it voted for and supported (through their generally free market attitude to life) by the kind of Torygraph demographic who shop at Daunt!

Step outside the bubble and many of the points raised in this article are spot on...

Frustrated bookseller

The problem with Amazon is not their discounting; it is the size of the difference between RRP and their price. How do publishers justify enabling them to offer books so cheaply that some bookshops order their stock from them (rather than the publisher!) to sell on to the consumer? Many customers still enjoy browsing in a bricks and mortar store, choosing and taking home books there and then - as Mr Daunt has said, it is a leisure activity. Some, however, faced with the huge price difference, feel justified in using bookshops as libraries (openly and rudely, leaving piles of books they've browsed for staff to put away) as if we bookshops somehow deserve any brickbats they can throw at us. Bring back sensible price differences and good manners!

Derek's cousin

I'm confused about this notion of browsing in a quality bookshop. Surely the only people capable of perusing a bookshops collection for an hour or two in the day are either unemployed, students or, like much of Mr Daunts constituency, independently wealthy. Two out of those three are surely not to be relied upon for business and the third is most definitely a rare bird indeed. People who generally work for a living admire the internet booksellers for their convenience, speed and value.

Katy Evans-Bush

Er, I sent this comment yesterday afternoon, but it never appeared despite promises of "moderation by hand" or some such. So THAT'S how they get you to register. I said:

I can't help but notice, clicking on the author's website, where it automatically sends you to to buy the books under review: Amazon, of course. Shome mishtake shurely?

I avoid Amazon whenever possible, incidentally, I'd better declare MY interest.

I can also remember when Waterstone's was new, and the vision was much like that of Daunt now - not "Edwardian-style lighting" and effete values, but good books, sold with personal service, to customers who felt valued. Not "good books" meaning "books that sell a lot," but "books that are really good."

At the time I was a skint student and ity was a gorgeous shop - I went there as respite from my awful rented flat and looked, and dreamed, and once in a blue moon I was able to buy a book - most of which I still have today.

There are LOTS of reasons why books aren't like vegetables - and selling them isn't like selling vegetables. A really good bookshop is something much better than just a place to buy books - whatever the situation is once they're on the shelf. When I was a bookseller a French girl came in a YEAR after I sold her a book for her mother, just to tell me how much her mum had loved it, and thank me. You don't get that on Amazon.

With luck, though, Waterstone's might return to a little of what it once was. And boy do we need it now.

Katy Evans-Bush

And I also, on the registration form, asked for my display name to be just my initials.

Colin Wiles

Excellent article. Waterstone's has lost its way and hopefully the Russians will save it. It's worth pointing out that many of those attacking Anna Baddeley cannot spell. Perhaps they should read more books.

minme

@Colin Wiles its worth pointing out you appear to have your head up her A*se

Colin Wiles

Minme - you have missed the possessive apostrophe, which rather proves my point.

Mary Percy

Some people on here have worked themselves up into a real tizz. This is a piece considering the prospects for Waterstone’s in today’s market, that’s all. It is not an attack on independent booksellers (Waterstones, in case no-one had noticed, is a chain). And to point out that Amazon sells the book-buying public exactly the same product for less money is only stating the truth.
Minme and others have clearly struggled with comprehending a straightforward, short article. God only knows what the poor things do when faced with anything much longer…such as a book.

readinthisatwork(waterstones)whenishould be working(atwaterstones)

i like the link to blackwells at the top right hand corner the best!