I wonder if this is going to turn out to be bad press for amazon.com… I remember visiting Kepler’s when I was growing up as well as Printer’s Inc. just a few miles away. Sadly, both seem to have been devoured by consumer’s thirst for cheaper books. Yet I wonder if square footage rates in Menlo Park and Palo Alto contributed a bit too.

Regardless, while I think it is admirable that Doerr and so many others rose to the occasion and saved the store, I wonder if such generosity will need to become norm, rather than the exception. What is it about the local bookstore that we like so much? And why do we overwhelmingly gush with nostalgia about them (more so when they fold), yet still patronize the likes of amazon.com or even Borders and Barns & Noble’s brick and mortar establishments? What is it about that $4 cup of coffee that we aren’t ashamed of anymore? Why is there a certain subset of the population that sees nothing wrong with dog-earing the stock at Kepler’s only to save $5 by going through amazon.com thirty minutes later?

I don’t know the answers, and admittedly patronize the big boys as much, or more possibly, as I do the locally owned bookstores. But I find the dynamic curious. And I find the irony of an amazon.com board member chipping in to save a local landmark curious as well. Are the two businesses different animals, and attend to different parts of our consumption? If so, then why would local shops like Kepler’s struggle as amazon.com thrives?

TAGS: Books | Kepler’s | Amazon.com | Doerr

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