Gone with the winds of change

The novel coronavirus outbreak at the start of 2020 brought in drastic changes in all walks of life. For brick-and-mortar bookstores, which were already gasping for life with the advent of e-commerce, the epidemic came like a sudden hard blow, pushing them to the edge of survival.

Crippling blow

In the era of internet and online shopping, offline brick-and-mortar bookstores hold little hope of making more profits than online bookstores, thanks also to the often huge amounts they pay for renting their fancy premises.

For years, brick-and-mortar bookstores have survived because of the unique offline experience they offer readers: of choosing books to read or buy while also socializing in a public space. However, this advantage, for which costumers were willing to shell out more, suddenly took a back seat because of strict epidemic prevention and control measures－prescribing social distancing and prohibiting gatherings－that came into effect following the novel coronavirus outbreak.

The measures pressed a pause button for offline bookstores' normal functioning, upsetting cash flow to the low-margin businesses.

According to an online survey by China brick-and-mortar bookstore alliance Shumeng, 926 of the 1,021 offline bookstores, which are mostly medium and small-sized independent brick-and-mortar bookstores, had suspended their business by Feb 5. More than 99 percent of the brick-and-mortar bookstores have almost no income these days, and most of them remain pessimistic about the future.

Xu Zhiyuan, a popular individual in his own right and one of the founders of OWSpace, a bookstore, wrote an open letter to the public on Feb 24, saying the enterprise's income was expected to dip by 80 percent in February, as only one of their four bookstores was still open.

Utopia Bookshop, a small-sized independent brick-and-mortar bookstore in Haiyan county of Jiaxing, Zhejiang province, declared on Feb 25 that it will have to down shutters after its business remained suspended for 31 days.

The unkindest cut actually came from readers, who overnight switched from buying books offline to online because of the epidemic.

According to a book retail market analysis conducted by Beijing Kaijuan, a book industry market research company, domestic book retail sales declined 15.93 percent in the first quarter of 2020 year-on-year; the sales through brick-and-mortar shops declined by 54.79 percent. Retail sales through online channels rose 3.02 percent year-on-year.

The public is aware of the plight of brick-and-mortar bookstores largely because of OWSpace's SOS, appealing to readers to buy pre-paid membership cards to help the bookstore weather cash flow pressure. Popular actress Yao Chen reposted the letter on Weibo, asking the public to help the bookstore survive. Japanese musician Ryuichi Sakamoto, whom Xu Zhiyuan has interviewed in his cultural talk show "Thirteen Talks", too, reposted the letter to express support.

"Among brick-and-mortar bookstores, OWSpace was the first to undertake rescue operations. The bookstore has its own, influential social media wing and many of its employees, having a media background, are more conscious about social trends and the economic situation," said Wu Qi, chief editor of One-way Street Journal. "OWSpace's SOS sent a message to the public that the brick-and-mortar bookstore industry's survival was at stake".