HMV dumps Waterstones

Some suggestions to the new owner for stock...

http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_i_0_12?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=leon+trotsky&sprefix=leon+trotsky

To be honest, both of companies have failed to capitalize on the online market.

I used to really like Waterstones, but now if I want a book I just get it from Amazon. Its generally cheaper and hasn't been thumbed by dozens of people before me. Waterstones may offer a similar web service but I've never looked since Amazon's service is suberb.

Seems they are all getting swallowed by www & are just prolonging a lingering death.

HMV & other large flashy record/DVD/games shops are not going to make it

Ditto bookshops selling the latest paperbacks & yet more TV celeb chief recipes.  

All this can be got off www, with a bigger selection that is cheaper & more convenient - minus whatever parking rip off or bus fair is.   The only thing is you might need to wait a few days.   

Browsing records (& CD's) is still something special,  but not in the likes of HMV blaring dance & rap over the distort system.  It needs to be material that is different;  old stuff, rare copies, special additions, obscure.  The www provides all the new stuff,  with the convenience of your arm chair & a free coffee.  

Why do I need more printed books?

Books are just clutter using up shelves I could put CDs on 

Much better to just download books to an iPAD or Kindle. 

I wish I could rip the books I had to an iPAD/Kindle and dump them somewhere to regain the space they occupy. 

I used to love Waterstones, as shop though. 

Agree with Mike - any shop blaring out Dance, Rap or Crooner muzak is going to persuade me to move on very quickly. 

All the best, Guy

PS Recommended film bought from HMV: Fahrenheit 451

The oligarch chappie has brought in an experienced MD/owner of a specialist London chain (whose name escapes me) - looks like he'll restore a bit of interest and dignity to Waterstone's after their successive ownership by W H Smith and then HMV.

Apparently, though, he (the Russian) didn't want Tim W. back.

As Jeff Bezos himself said - your customers will remain 100% loyal right up to the second they can get a better service elsewhere. So we were happy to crawl into Bath, scour the town for an expensive parking slot, trudge to Waterstones, push, shove and jostle, beg uninterested and impolite staff to help us find and order books, pay a premium price (including a non refundable deposit for orders) and best of all, be told that books we wanted didn't exist and we must be thick or mistaken. Right up until the second our first analogue modem cracked into life.

Waterstones and their ilk can go hang.