Borders is opening about 40 annually. According to a Prudential Securities analyst quoted in The Wall Street Journal , this growth should continue at least through the year 2000, and the U.S. can support at least 1500 such superstores. It's true some small independent bookstores have suffered, and the chains, starting in 1994, now account for over half of publishers' bookstore business. But one reason for the superstores' success can be traced to growing changes in the nature of book buying. Bookshopping for many is no longer a dry transaction of finding the book you want on the shelves, paying for it and leaving.
Many stores feature book-related events which amount to evening socials.
To my way of thinking, this is all to the good, when book buying becomes part of America's social fabric. Another science fiction publisher acknowledged his reorder numbers were up. Clearly he can benefit from such advances, as can those publishers who have successfully reissued classics in trade paperback and are introducing a whole new generation of readers to works by writers such as Alfred Bester, H.P. Lovecraft and Philip K. Dick. Another very encouraging sign is the way companies are using computer technologies to track inventory in a cooperative manner. Bookwire, which you can hop to from sites such as Tor's or Del Rey's, provides links to over 40 independent stores on-line where you can browse and shop for books.