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Ask HN: Know of a hacker in Cambridge or Boston who wants a bookstore?

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Re: Ask HN: Know of a hacker in Cambridge or Boston who wants a bookstore?

#21

Post by swalsh »

If I want to buy a book, i'll go to Amazon and buy it. With kindle, i'll have it in 10 seconds. If its not available on Kindle with Prime i'll have it next day. You can't compete with Amazon. So its not worth trying.

If you want to run a remarkable book store today, don't sell books. That's a loosing battle. This is where i'd start if I was trying to think of ways to innovate in this space. I'm sure you're familiar with Porter square books. They for instance have built a pretty remarkable community around the store with book clubs etc.

Other then that, i'd like to say good luck! I live in Boston, so i'll try to visit the next time i'm in the neighborhood.

Re: Ask HN: Know of a hacker in Cambridge or Boston who wants a bookstore?

#22

Post by Xorlev »

anateus wrote: post #13

When it comes to physical stores, the general rule is "location location location", and just based on having lived near Cambridge for a decade and spent most of my time there Inman Sq just feels like a suboptimal location for a bookstore. This is assuming of course that a problem is getting more traffic. I don't know if that's an issue, or if the problem is the "conversion rate". It would be interesting to find out w…

I have a coffee shop / book store hybrid near me, I think it's brilliant. I don't always buy books there, but when I do I've usually purchased a latte as well and spend part of the day reading it there.

One of the keys is having a lot of comfortable chairs (like B&N used to). I used to go to B&N all the time, read half a book and purchase it.

Places for book geeks like me are shrinking quickly.

Re: Ask HN: Know of a hacker in Cambridge or Boston who wants a bookstore?

#23

Post by sag47 »

Have you perhaps considered a book scanner? You can then sell books and for an additional fee turn the book into a DRM free PDF the user can read electronically. You don't sell digital copies online just give the reader the book they bought in store. This way the reader can read the book physically or by a tablet.

Re: Ask HN: Know of a hacker in Cambridge or Boston who wants a bookstore?

#24

Post by cllns »

swalsh wrote: post #21

If I want to buy a book, i'll go to Amazon and buy it. With kindle, i'll have it in 10 seconds. If its not available on Kindle with Prime i'll have it next day. You can't compete with Amazon. So its not worth trying. If you want to run a remarkable book store today, don't sell books. That's a loosing battle. This is where i'd start if I was trying to think of ways to innovate in this space. I'm sure you're familiar w…

I get your point but I don't think you articulated it effectively.

Re: Ask HN: Know of a hacker in Cambridge or Boston who wants a bookstore?

#26

Post by cllns »

karanbhangui wrote: post #20
mankins wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's interesting. We've thought of many things, but not that. I'll pass it along.

A concept that works very well in college areas that I've seen is called "Snakes and Lattes". Basically a coffeeshop that has plenty of seating for playing board games. I've seen it work with bubbletea places as well. Seems to drive a lot of traffic by word of mouth due to its cooperative nature.

That sounds cool. Apparently "Snakes and Lattes" is a cafe in Toronto with this theme, whereas I was thinking of it as being a weekly event.

edit: Overall, I think selling coffee would definitely be a good idea, though this would require someone with that type of experience in order to deliver a valuable product.

Re: Ask HN: Know of a hacker in Cambridge or Boston who wants a bookstore?

#27

Post by donebizkit »

jacksonh wrote: post #25

Have you thought about adding coworking space? I would kill for a bookstore environment with coffee and decent chairs. As it is, I do most of my work in a Barnes and Noble, and my back hates me for it.

I like this idea. I'll pay for a space like that too.

Re: Ask HN: Know of a hacker in Cambridge or Boston who wants a bookstore?

#29

Post by sharkweek »

swalsh wrote: post #21

If I want to buy a book, i'll go to Amazon and buy it. With kindle, i'll have it in 10 seconds. If its not available on Kindle with Prime i'll have it next day. You can't compete with Amazon. So its not worth trying. If you want to run a remarkable book store today, don't sell books. That's a loosing battle. This is where i'd start if I was trying to think of ways to innovate in this space. I'm sure you're familiar w…

Their goal should be a strong marketing push in a niche market, specifically focusing on the community, as there's plenty of room for players in the space. There are a lot of people who hate Amazon (not really sure why; hatred of the big guys, I suppose?) enough to allow for these competitors to thrive. I think Powell Books in Portland is a great example of such.

Re: Ask HN: Know of a hacker in Cambridge or Boston who wants a bookstore?

#30

Post by tinco »

sag47 wrote: post #23

Have you perhaps considered a book scanner? You can then sell books and for an additional fee turn the book into a DRM free PDF the user can read electronically. You don't sell digital copies online just give the reader the book they bought in store. This way the reader can read the book physically or by a tablet.

I would pay for this service.

I have a bookcase full of textbooks of $60-$120 a piece that I'd love to have digitized for like 10-20 bucks per kindle-readable book.

Rebuying it on Amazon usually costs the same ridiculously high price or higher, and the books aren't always prepared nicely either.

I think this is actually a great business idea. Imagine you could just send in, or drop off books that you then receive in DRM free glorious PDF or other nice e-book formats.

Would it work legally?

edit: wtf there's a community built around book scanning http://www.diybookscanner.org/

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