Being online, he said, has brought in customers. If anything, this stuff has increased our business. Those kinds of numbers are staggering for independent bookstores, which once were predicted to fold under Internet pressure. Still, Ms. Surtees said, real bookstores will never disappear in favor of virtual ones. They find shipping is too much.
People are tactile.
They want to look at the books. They want to feel the pages. I don't think the computer can offer it. The traditional sales representative also was once believed to be a vanishing species. But sales reps are adapting too, says Dataquest Inc., a San Jose, Calif.-based research firm.