Here's an interesting feature from Undisc's future slaves at The Economist: the success of the high-end bookstores in the world.

Books are sort of the OG thing to be rendered competitively obsolete by digitization

Books got cheaper, if not in real terms, then at least in time-price terms, and the number of available titles published each year has exploded into way more than anybody can ever read. (Actually, that cutoff happened probably in the 16th century.)

Some 4 million unique ISBNs were published in English last year, adding to the massive overhang from ages past. Of course, most of them are complete trash and the average sales/readership might be ~1 per title, and the entire system centralized upon the main gainers -- the one-percent. #1550071

Self-publishing and creative peeps in mothers' basements that the legacy publishing industry started competing with two-three decades ago wasn't quite infinite generation... but practically speaking, it was a good rehearsal for the abundant LLM-version (#1559495) of infinite generation we're doing now.

Result: for decades, brick-and-mortar book sales fell, stores closed and centralized into a few major chains, and the bulk of sales took place online.

This The Economist feature shows how the 1% (or 0.01%) manage to survive

It's not really by book sales, but -- like Taylor and the music version of this infinite generation story #796401, #1496889 -- adjacent stuff: exclusive events, author meets, entrance tickets to the beautiful wonder that is the bookstore itself (often, like Livraria Lello in Porto or El Ateneo in Buenos Aires, situated in grand, old, gold-standard-era built theatres). They sell coffee, in their own coffee shops or next-door/co-owned establishments; they have merch like tote bags with their brands; they maintain exclusivity by enforcing a no-phones policy #1565551, such that online fans can only get a glimpse of the inside by actually going there. (And once there, probably spend some money on physical books.)

The most interesting phenomenon is how the near-infinite generation and easy access (Kindle, cheap paperbacks etc) has created a counterweighing barbell to itself: special editions, beautifully ornate covers:

"Far from killing print, e-books have made some consumers keener to splurge on special editions."

The Economist journos visit Shakespeare and Co in Paris -- which has nothing to do with Shakespeare whatsoever, but the owner happily keep spreading the rumours for engagement -- and learns the secret bookstore sauce:

Ms Whitman also understands that buyers are not only seeking an entertaining tale, but a story about how and where they bought that book. Customers are offered a stamp of the Shakespeare and Company logo on the inside cover to certify their copy’s origin.
It also hosts writers’ talks and an annual celebration of “Ulysses”, which are partly supported by the shop’s foundation. How replicable is its formula? Many other bookstores peddle merchandise and host author events. Having signed copies by authors can triple book sales, notes Andrew Pettegree, who has written a forthcoming history of bookshops.

... ownership of scarce assets in the age of the money printer helps too:

Yet Shakespeare and Company’s is an impossible playbook to copy. Its history and location in central Paris are unbeatable. “Very few booksellers own their real estate” as Shakespeare and Company does, notes James Daunt, the boss of Barnes & Noble a chain.
Yet “good” bookshops are thriving, says Mr Daunt. In America there has been a proliferation of independent ones, with about 400 launching physical stores last year, 62% more than a year earlier. They have become community gathering spaces. More owners understand, as Whitman did, that it is “not only about selling books. It’s about being a cultural market,” says Ewelina Oksiuta, director of the European and International Booksellers Federation, a trade group.

TL;DR of infinite generation story: The scarcity value moves

We compete away the economic rents of one thing, making another thing scarce. Technology changes the way we do certain economic goods (#1486740) and the scarcity moves to adjacent goods and services

"People in the age of smartphones and digitalisation are looking for presence and human touch."

archive:
https://archive.li/3L19L