Jesse Jackson Jr. blames iPad for killing Borders book stores
The ignorance of our betters continues to amaze. The son of the randy reverend seriously thinks the iPad sunk Borders book stores.
“A few short weeks ago I came to the House floor after having purchased an iPad and said that I happened to believe, Mr. Speaker, that at some point in time this new device, which is now probably responsible for eliminating thousands of American jobs. Now Borders is closing stores because, why do you need to go to Borders anymore? Why do you need to go to Barnes & Noble? Buy an iPad and download your newspaper, download your book, download your magazine.”
You don’t, but that’s been true since Amazon started up years ago. And Borders were never as nice as Barnes & Noble stores, and so far B&N seem to be doing just fine.
In response to the randy reverend’s son, it should be noted, one, that the buggy whip industry went away a long time ago thanks to technological improvements. That happens in a world where luddites don’t rule. And it should also be noted that Borders book stores have been in financial trouble for years, mainly because they failed to adapt to the internet. The iPad wasn’t a glimmer in Jobs’ eye when Borders’ fate was sealed.
One wonders how long it’s been since JJ Jr. actually read a book.
I’m just glad Junior had to buy his iPad. If Apple gave him one, I’d be pissed.
Also, I bought several excellent bookshelves from my local Borders. They look really nice in my room.
You are assuming he is able to read.
Beat me to it.
And what does he do with his Ipad? View pron?
An excellent point.
If he could actually read, he’d be using a Kindle.
I get it! He’s dumb because he’s black. Nice!
You’re projecting again. No one – except you – said JJ Jr. couldn’t read because he’s black. Jesse Jackson is a race monger, ginning up racial issues to extort money from corporations and taxpayers. So spare me the leftist knee-jerk accusations of racism. That term has been used ad nauseam, causing it to be bleached of any meaning.Jesse Jackson and Jesse Jackson Junior are despicable because of their character.
Several points:
1. Barnes & Noble is only “fine” in comparison with Borders. In the real world they’ve been in trouble, too, for years.
2. Borders had management issues that were profound (more than one CEO per year recently). One clerk at a Borders said to me recently: “Did you know our corporation is run by a syphilitic rhesus monkey?”
3. One management decision from some time ago was especially horrible. They “partnered” with Amazon, which made no sense at the time and in retrospect looks especially stupid. As a result they had no web presence until recently, and Amazon got their mailing list.
4. Borders (more than Barnes & Noble) chose to sell music and movies. Borders had a younger hipper vibe to it (here in SoCal, B&N male employees had to wear ties until a few years ago; their Borders counterparts seem to compete in categories including most tattoos, longest hair on a male, and most interesting place to have a piercing. Point is, when the digital revolution happened and you could *download* music, Borders was ill-prepared, and was left with a lot of stuff they couldn’t move.
5. Poor employee training. The last time I was in my local Borders, prior to the bankruptcy declaration, I watched an employee bungle a sale. He was unable to find a book that I stumbled over half an hour after he and his customer wandered away. This sort of thing kills bookstores, and while you can’t really comfortably browse at Amazon, you can usually find what you’re looking for quickly.
Oh, and one last point: both Jesse Jackson and his son have proven themselves idiots over the years. If the conventional bookstore’s competition was only the iPad, they’d be in fine shape. It’s the Kindle and the other eReaders (including B&N’s Nook) which are doing most of the damage. Apple allows the publishers to set the prices of books on the iPad, and the publishers deliberately price the books high, to discourage sales there (because their largest profit margin in the past was on hardbacks, and they wish to preserve this). If you have to have an iPad for some other reason, and for instance travel, I’m sure it’s a better solution than carrying a Kindle in addition; but in a straight-up competition as an eReader the iPad is a clear loser, or so I’m told. I’ve seen them in operation, but never used one myself.
As an independent author, I applaud this shift. My biggest expenses are the printing and shipping of books. With that removed (or the load lightened) it makes my job much less stressful and my situation much less desperate.
This could finally put the [expletive] publishers on the soup line where they belong! Talentless leeches!
I’m an indy author too – (The Adelsverein Trilogy, and my latest, Daughter of Texas) and am pretty happy about the e-book option, and the various reader systems like the Kindle and the Nook. It’s a fantastic resource for a writer trying to break into the various markets, because it eliminates the printing, shipping and distributing/stocking costs, which are a large part of the expense for getting a published book out onto the market. E-books, in their various forms, put the cost of a new book down to about the price of a cup of gourmet coffee, which is excellent from the point of view of a new author trying to break into the market. If someone takes a chance on your book, and likes it – win/win; a reader might very well go out and look for your other books (assuming you have a back-list) or your next book. Or even purchase the print edition!
On the other hand – I think a .99 price for an ebook is a bit too low, unless it is a very short novelette or short story. And charging north of $10 for a e-book? No, not good, either. Just charging for what the writer would have gotten for royalties out of that individual purchase sounds about right to me. And it’s about the price of a cup of gourmet coffee – all about the volume, I guess.
Personally, most of the 99-cent or free Kindle books I’ve seen are the first book of a series… they offer the first book cheap as a kind of teaser to get people to give it a shot, and then interested readers are more likely to purchase the rest of the series.
It actually works, at least on me… I’ve discovered series I wouldn’t have tried otherwise, just because the first book was free or cheap. My thought process was, “well, it’s interesting enough to try for a buck…” though if it was full price I probably wouldn’t have.
I, too, am an independent author.
Time was, I thought the E-book idea was a waste. The technology was crude, the offerings preponderantly dismal, and the audience more there for the “gee-whiz” aspects of the thing. Ironically, as I’m a technologist myself, I’d forgotten that things like E-books and E-readers don’t forever remain exactly as they’ve begun.
The field still has a way to go. As with other “anyone can do it” fields, we need to work on our guidance mechanisms for prospective customers, so they can have a high degree of confidence that they won’t be spending their money on garbage. And E-readers themselves still need a bit of refinement to be fully competitive with printed books, particularly in the realm of durability. But for all that, it looks today as if the printed paper volume will shortly run second-best to the E-reader / E-book combination: not only in sales, but in the affections of the reading public.
One further thought: I wouldn’t be quite so hasty about condemning the “the [expletive] publishers…Talentless leeches!” For a long time, theirs has been the hardest and most thankless job in Pub World: trying to figure out what the public wants to read and is willing to pay for. That’s so difficult that the field eventually settled on a strategy of essential imitation, summarized in the old maxim “the same, only different.”
It’s easy to blame the publishers for one’s own inability to penetrate Pub World. Those of us who write stuff that’s well off the beaten path — yes, I’m one — have all felt immense frustration about the process and its barriers. But it’s well to remember:
1. Publishing is a business, and like all businesses it exists to make money by providing its customers with what they want;
2. When a publishing house’s editorial committee buys your book for publication, it’s not your money it’s risking.
It’s wise to be kind toward persons laboring at tasks you find distasteful and probably couldn’t do.
…how much did he offer for obama’s senate seat? and why is he not in jail?
I am with the Reverend Jackson Jr. (or whatever he is) on this one to a point. I deplore the loss of the concept of “the book.” I have a copy of Sir Robert Blake’s biography of Benjamin Disraeli. It is a perfect book. It is solid, beautifully bound, exquisitely printed on fine stock and tastefully illustrated. (It’s a damn fine read too.) Books like this provide a tactile pleasure just in opening them. It’s a pleasure you don’t get by starting up your iPad.
Also, Barnes & Noble stores have always been civilized and comfortable places to visit with coffee, pastries, the latest papers and other delights heighten the experience.
Sadly this is passing and it is just part of the parade of life. (Poor business planning hasn’t helped.) I doubt if any of this has occurred to Jackson Junior. He’s just looking for something to strike a pose on and has no concept of what he’s talking about.
Chambers, you may like physical books… but the day I was told about the Kindle, was the day my world opened up. Why, you may ask? I am a quadriplegic, and I can’t hold a book… well, that’s not true. I can HOLD the book, but if I turn a page, 95% of the time, I’m gonna drop it. With the Kindle, I can just hit a button and the page turns for me. I went from reading a book every 6 months (in bed), so when I dropped it, I could pick it up again, to a book every day. I must have over 400 books on my Kindle. I also receive the Seattle Times on my Kindle every day. So, while I also hate to see the bookstores go away (I spent many a happy afternoon in my local Borders, and B&N), the Kindle has been a lifesaver for me.
I, too, understand the love of the aesthetic value of books.
I feel the same way about steam locomotives. True, the modern diesel electric locomotives might be much efficient, much more reliable, much more versatile, much longer lasting, much easier to repair, much safer, and much more pleasant for the crew to operate.
But all that pales in comparison to the visual and audio spectacular that steam locomotives display as they rumble down the tracks at full speed like a fire breathing dragon on wheels.
I blame Henry Ford for killing all those jobs: the jobs to make buggy whips, the jobs to sweep the streets after the horses went by, …
David N., you can get a Kindle ereader app for the iPad. But I use mine mostly on my iPhone.
And I am really, really annoyed when I can’t get a digital version of a book I want to read.
I knew this, at least in the back of my head. However, while this solves the pricing issue, it doesn’t solve the hardware problems. So I’m told, the iPad is heavier than a Kindle, and the screen isn’t as easily readable in outdoor sunlight. Nevertheless you’re right, and there are fixes or things to get around some of the difficulties; my point is that the iPad, which has many more uses, didn’t kill the bookstore by itself.
And I would be surprised if Jesse Jr. paid for his iPad. These guys (Congresscritters) don’t pay for anything, it gets given to them…
Junior says, “and the world is still flat. I don’t care what all of those outside the asylum are saying”
“I blame Henry Ford for killing all those jobs: the jobs to make buggy whips, the jobs to sweep the streets after the horses went by, …”
I’m tempted to pretend I’m over on Reason (which, like PJ media, has no Karma or Like button) and just type +1. But, instead, I’ll be wordy and agree with you.
Mostly. Print books do have their place. Horses still have their place in the USA too. They are fun – And learning to drive buggies is fun, too. (But, keep in mind that in some parts of the world, they are still transportion.) Here it’s now only for fun or “hey, look at me” – I suspect print books will go the same way, eventually.
Once EVERYONE has a computer. And electricity and Internet connections. Until then, print is – and should be – still a viable alternative.
Yeah and Jonas Salk put ironlung makers out of business, boo hoo.
“Did you know our corporation is run by a syphilitic rhesus monkey?” Oddly, the same can be said of certain Illinois congressional districts.
Mass specialization and the e-commerce prowess of Amazon.com certainly had their impact as well. As one with a library (or to some degrees, an Anti-Library of Eco Umberto’s characterization) exceeding 5,000 almost exclusively non-fiction books, Borders was originally a place I valued visiting and shopping at.
Unfortunately, their merchandising selection increasingly oriented toward the top fiction, pop business, and computer techie books. While I certainly wouldn’t expect them to be well stocked in Continental theory, for instance (given I’d doubt they’d sell more than one per location, if that), it just became easier to buy those along with all the more general texts from Amazon.
I’ve had many friends who found the same; once Borders disappointed significantly in their own professional niche and Amazon satisfied, all the rest of the business went along with the specialized purchases. When Amazon Prime came along, that was it for me. I’ve only stopped in a Borders twice in the past two years, only when traveling on business looking for a magazine to read at dinner.
Re: Amazon Prime…you couldn’t be more right. If you buy the number of books that I do, the deal is just too good to pass up…
I loved Amazon Prime before I had the Kindle… free 2-day shipping was just too good to pass up.
However, since I got the Kindle, I told Amazon not to renew the Prime membership… Kindles come with automatic free 1-minute-or-less delivery, so why do I need to pay $70 a year for 2-day shipping?
I’m not totally sanguine about ebooks. Three letters: DRM. Can I count on always having access to books I’ve bought, even when Amazon/B&N/Borders is no more? What will archaeology be like when every single document requires an effort far greater than that which went into deciphering hieroglyphs, cuneiform, or Linear B to be legible? If you want there to be recorded history at all henceforth, you’d better oppose DRM and proprietary document formats.
Kindle and other ebook readers can handle open format ebooks or can convert such to their proprietary format. As for Amazon’s current DRM scheme — as long as your Kindle works, you don’t have to worry as the device doesn’t need to contact a server to maintain the license, unlike some music vendors’ products. Digital books will eventually go the way of digital music in that formats will be explicitly or practically open. If a given book isn’t readable on a device in the future, it will be easily convertible to one a format that is.
I’d rather we maintain our current civilization than worry what archeology will reveal about us. Given the ratio of dross to gems of current publishing, our reputation will be better off if those archeologists remain mystified.
For Christmas I bought a Kindle. Prior to that, and for the last 7 or 8 years, I’d been a weekly visitor and buyer at Barnes and Noble. I spent lots of money there. Since buying the Kindle, I bought all my books in electronic form from Amazon and I’ve been to B&N only once. I detect an Atari moment.
Thank you Jesse. This will be required viewing in all of my econ classes in the future. A great teaching moment on the dangers of being economically ignorant.
Just so everyone knows who may not know Hyde Park as well, but there is a very large Borders on 53rd in Hyde Park that was a favorite hangout of Jesse Junior. He is very upset that it is closing (I mean why should a pudgy Congressman be expected to squeeze into the narrow aisles of Powell’s of the University of Chicago’s basement bookstore).
I’m in Singapore right now, where Border’s is doing great business. The ones here are owned by an Australian company, however, but obviously the complete lack of iPads and Kindles in Singapore make all the difference.
Oh, wait a minute… iPads and Kindles are all over the place here. Hmmm. So maybe JJJr is talking out his ass?
Life is so simple when you’re a leftist. It gets even simpler when you’re a leftist who’s never had to work a day in your life.
Incidentally I got a Kindle for Christmas. I was agnostic until then, but I am now an enthusiastic convert. It doesn’t appear to have curtailed my book purchases, though. What I have done is buy duplicates of what’s on my shelves at home, that are too bulky to shove into a suitcase. Now I can travel with Theodore Momssen’s History of Rome, and Gibbon’s Decline and Fall, and Thucydides and Herodotus and Tacitus and Suetonius and Polybius and Chaucer and Wodehouse. Most of those books, as old as they are, were free or had only a nominal cost. The hard copy editions will always have a place on my shelves, and will be reread many times again.
Ok, JJ is a Luddite nut, etc. Except that, well gee, so what jobs are Americans supposed to have these days and in the future. Apple products are manufactured overseas, with practically everything else these days. If one drives through Silicon Valley and really observe, the number of empty buildings, office and flex space is disconcerting. I have always considered myself a free trade Republican, etc., etc. But as I travel around the country and see the utter economic devastation in big city and small town alike, I have to wonder to myself: Is NAFTA, WTO, the whole free trade infrastructure a help or hinderance to the vast majority of working/middle class Americans? Something is desperately out of kilter with this economy and it extends to all corners of modern life. What are we to do?
I stopped shopping in Borders the day that I saw a large GLT display next to the children’s section. I felt the display should have been somewhere else in the huge facility not in the front. I told my liberal wife that I would not be shopping there anymore and why. Incredibly, she agreed.
what happens when there is an eltro-magnetic pulse that makes useless anything electronic
then the statists can fulfill one of their most erotic nocturnal emissions: re-writing of all history and text to their own tune
hell, i’m trying to bring back an oldie but infinite goodie— oral tradition
i read books to my 3 yr old every night and we work on memorizing the entire story and reciting it
technology has some benefit but to burn bridges on the way to best buy for the new i pad is a little disturbing
look at the dependence on car navigation systems
what happened to getting a thomas guide and plotting your own course?
just be wary (not to mention the companies pedaling this stuff is in obama’s back pocket)
I blame the wheel for allowing people to make purchases over the horizon, destroying local jobs and putting blacksmiths out of business. It should be banned!
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I don’t have an Ipad. I’d rather get a hard copy of the book I wanted than have it digital. I wanted to collect things that way, I’m happier that way. Kinda old fashioned but I love it.
Excellent advice. Thanks for this.