You are killing our bookstores.

And so am I.

Everyone in New Zealand should've heard by now, but in case you didn't, here's a little bit of news for you.
Whitcoulls and Borders have gone into voluntary administration. Which, in case you didn't know, and I didn't know what it was either, is when a company is insolvent, or likely to become insolvent, the board of directors appoints an administrator, who is suitably qualified person for the job, to take over the business to try to save it, or if they can't, to bring in a return to the investors that is greater than they would of received had the company had been placed straight into liquidation.
Now, one of the decisions that the Administrator has put into effect is that when you redeem a gift voucher now, you have to also pay an amount equal to the value of the gift voucher. So, for example, if you had a gift voucher worth $20, you would have to also spend $20 of your own money to use it, which means you'd be spending $40 total. $20 from the voucher, $20 from your own pocket.
To be perfectly honest, I don't see a problem with this. I can see why people do have a problem with it, it does seem a bit rude, but they are perfectly within their rights to do so. Hell, they're perfectly within their rights to refuse to redeem vouchers entirely, so really you're getting a better deal here. And to the people who I know are going to point out that they shouldn't have to spend another $20 to be able to spend their $20 voucher, claiming that the company already has their money, did you really buy that voucher with your own money? Did you buy yourself a voucher? And if so, why the fuck would you do that? I will buy vouchers for other people, but never for myself. I'll just buy what I want rather than get a voucher and get what I wanted at a later date, so the company doesn't have YOUR money, they have someone elses. You will be spending $20 of your own money, and the voucher, which is $20 that someone else paid for, to get $40 worth of goods. Seems like a fucking good deal to me!

And now onto the main part of this blog, which is what the title is about. You are killing our bookstores. And so am I.

There is one thing that I am guilty of, and that's being too lazy to go down to the bookstore to get a book. It's cheaper and easier to get books online, and I have purchased many a book online. Sometimes because I can't get them in store, sometimes because I have to get the store to order them in, and sometimes just because it's cheaper. This doesn't really seem like such a bad thing, I'm still paying money to someone, and getting a book in return, where is the harm in that?
The harm in that is that I'm not spending the money at my local bookstore, of which I know many of the staff. I get along with all of them, and I would consider some of them good friends. Because of this, now bookstores are facing closure. There are many people now who are faced with losing their jobs because people want to pay les.
I can't really blame people though, who really wants to pay more for something that they could get for less elsewhere, especially when they don't even have to get off of the couch to order and pay for said item. The thing about bookstores though is that you aren't paying for just the book. You're also paying for the customer service that you get. All of the people at the Whitcoulls that I frequent, though I don't frequent it as often as I should, are nice and friendly people, always willing to help. If someone looks like they're looking for something, one of the staff will come along and ask them if they need assistance. This is why you pay extra at a bookstore.

It's going to be a sad day when there are no more bookstores, it will mean that people will read less as they won't have a store to just wander into as they're walking down the street, which would be where a lot of the sales come from. It means that book sales, even online book sales, will drop and that people will be less inclined to take up writing. Eventually noone will write books, because it won't be worth their time. Noone will be reading anything, because there won't be the local bookstore to browse for new books.
To me, there couldn't be a much sadder thought. I love books, and I love my local bookstores.

So to everyone out there, I implore you, go to your favourite bookstore, or even just your closest one, and purchase something, anything. It could be sometime small, like a pen, or something large, like an encyclopaedia, but please, go buy something. You never know, you might end up with a great new novel to read, or a new DVD to watch that you never would've seen otherwise. At least then maybe we won't end up with bookstores disappearing.

Thank you for reading this, I'm sorry it hasn't been one of my usual amusing posts, not that I have updated for quite some time.