How One Local Bookstore Is Dealing with the E-Book Revolution

A San Francisco institution tries its hand at selling e-readers.

By Harry McCracken @harrymccracken - TIME - Aug. 12, 2013

Green Apple Books

One of the many aisles of printed books at San Francisco's Green Apple

 

I am one lucky book lover. My local bookstore is Green Apple Books, a 46-year-old San Francisco institution located in the city’s Richmond neighborhood. It’s got 8,000 square feet spread across two storefronts, piled high with a wonderfully eclectic array of stuff: new books, used books, magazines, DVDs, CDs, vinyl LPs and more. I could probably spend a week there browsing full-time without getting bored.
Green Apple is unique, which is presumably one major reason why it’s very much with us in an era in which Borders is defunct and Barnes & Noble is in trouble. Still, I worry. I’m a fan of e-books and buy lots of them, but the more popular they get, the tougher it could get for independent purveyors of dead-tree tomes. And even before e-books came along, local bookstores were plenty challenged by competition from Amazon, whose deep discounts on printed books are impossible to match.
So when Pete Mulvihill, the store’s co-owner, asked me if I wanted to hear about its experiences selling Kobo e-readers and e-books for them, I jumped at the opportunity. I can’t claim any to be the epitome of journalistic detachment: I’m in favor of anything that helps Green Apple — and other great local bookstores like it — stay relevant and viable.

Read more: http://techland.time.com/2013/08/12/how-one-local-bookstore-is-dealing-with-the-e-book-revolution/#ixzz2bsNI4BiN