An article in The Book Standard details how Wal-Mart is planning to reach out to (rather than destroy) community businesses it resides next to. Specifically, they touch on indie bookstores:
“It’s difficult to compete with Wal-Mart on price,” admitted Wal-Mart spokesman Dan Fogleman, “but there are some things a small business can do that [Wal-Mart] can’t.” For instance, independent bookstores can provide a specific niche in the market or have literary programs like author readings.
Excuse me, but niche market!? Seems like Wal-Mart (as it so often does) has things precisely backwards. Aren’t independent bookstores stocking a broad range of thousands of titles, whereas Wal-Mart is stocking the same 20 bestsellers that you can pick up at finer supermarkets and airports across the country?
I’m wondering what brings in more customers–the megasellers at Wal-Mart or the collective range of books at an independent bookstore? Not to mention, don’t these niche indies stock many of the same titles you can get at Wal-Mart? (Just because they’re independent doesn’t mean they don’t sell the books that regularly top The New York Times bestseller list.)
Agaat by Marlene van Niekerk
The Weather Fifteen Years Ago by Wolf Haas
New @ TQC: JC Hallman & AWP
New @ TQC Sam Lipsyte Interview
Bring Back the Mass Market Paperback!

I love Wal-Mart!