Singapore Institute of Management (SIM)

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Preamble (April--May 2011)

When Bookshops Become Museums

By Roland Tan Chee Teik

THE power of the Internet has caused the downfall of governments in Arab countries, changed the daily habits of people, and altered the way we buy books and music.
      The recent disappearance of video and music retailers is a hint to booksellers that they have to adapt or become fossils. For those who love books and are prepared to spend a portion of their salary to build up a personal library, the news that the Borders Group will close a third of their stores in the United States hit them like a thunderbolt.
      If the second largest US bookstore chain has lost sales what will happen to the bookshops in Singapore? Borders Singapore has revealed on 22 February 2011 that it was not affected by the voluntary administration of its Australian parent, the REDgroup Retail.
       Book retailing is a difficult business to manage in Singapore. It is affected by the ease at which buyers can get their stocks through Internet purchases. With the sales of E-books catching on, the need to buy from the brick and mortar outlets will be reduced further. In any case, not many people in Singapore are prepared to pay for new books. They prefer to spend their dollars on fashion and food and there are too many distractions so they have little time left for reading. Local publishing of books with a Singapore flavour has still not taken off after so many years.
      I remember that as a student, I used to visit a bookshop located next to Change Alley. Today, the alley is at Hitachi Tower, Collyer Quay. The bookshop was called Kelly & Walsh Ltd and it belonged to a notable colonial-owned publisher based in Shanghai. Kelly & Walsh is no longer in Singapore but it survives in Hong Kong under the name of Swindon. With so little pocket money in those days, I could only afford to browse and not to buy those attractive paperbacks. Other names that come to mind are Ensign Books in High Street, Donald Moore in Orchard Road, and later Yajimaya Books in Plaza Singapura. All these shops have disappeared into the annals of history.
       Amazon.com can claim to be the first online bookseller, but it took them years to make a profit, and today they sell many other products besides books. I used to patronise BetterWorld.com based in the United States to get copies of used and new books unavailable at local retailers. Recently I discovered Open-Trolley, an online bookstore based in Singapore where customers can collect their orders from their distribution point at Plaza Singapura and so avoid paying for mailing charges.
       Authors need publishers to edit, market, and distribute their works. Publishers need bookshops to retail their wares. It is a vicious cycle—less bookshelves mean less new titles leading to fewer authors and we could end up with
fewer new titles.
       We should have a national campaign to save the bookshops. They need more buyers rather than browsers. They need lower rentals and higher discounts from publishers. The bestsellers in Singapore are textbooks and assessment books. But such sales are seasonal and what can booksellers depend on the rest of the year?