The creative reading area of Guangzhou's "Zhong Shu Ge" bookstore Yangcheng Evening News all-media reporter Chen Qiuming photographed
Develop cultural creativity, expand cultural space... Many bookstores in Guangfo have explored new paths of development
Yangcheng Evening News all-media reporter Hang Ying Xu Zhangchao
How long have you not been to a nearby bookstore? Nowadays, in Guangzhou, walking into the physical bookstore, in addition to reading and buying books, you can also experience unique concerts, Pilates yoga classes, and even participate in the activities of the Riders Club.
The survival of physical bookstores in the Internet era is indeed facing difficulties, but in recent years, many physical bookstores have risen against the trend. These bookstores have become an important cultural communication carrier and cultural platform for the benefit of the people by increasing the content of books, expanding the spatial function, and combining the trend to create creative cultural venues.
Since the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, Guangdong has resolutely implemented the decision-making and deployment of General Secretary Xi Jinping and the Party Central Committee, incorporated the construction of a culturally strong province into the "1+1+9" work deployment, and promoted new progress and new results in various cultural work. On February 11, Guangdong held a conference on solidly promoting the construction of a culturally strong province, which pointed out the direction and goal for the construction of a culturally strong province in the new stage. As an indispensable part of cultural construction, what kind of new vitality will be exhibited by physical bookstores in the process of building a culturally strong province in Guangdong? In this regard, the Yangcheng Evening News reporter visited the physical bookstore in Foshan, Guangzhou, for several days to find out.
The net red bookstore located in Yongqingfang, Guangzhou, attracts many neighbors to punch the clock Yangcheng Evening News all-media reporter Chen Qiuming photographed
difficult!
Facing practical problems such as rental passenger flow
When talking about physical bookstores, "reading atmosphere" has become the key word for consumers to visit bookstores. However, the reporter found during the visit that not many people are willing to pay for this "sense of atmosphere".
"Books purchased online are cheaper than physical bookstores, and books are bought online." In the humanities and social sciences area of the Beijing Road United Bookstore in Guangzhou, the reporter met Yang Zong, a student of the Chinese Department of Sun Yat-sen University, who was reading. She said she likes to stay in the bookstore, but she will still choose an e-commerce platform with greater discounts when buying books.
Yangzong's views represent the choices of most consumers. Mr. Liu, who lives near the Guangzhou Book Purchase Center, also mentioned that he bought books mostly online, and only when he could not buy some Hong Kong, Taiwan and foreign books, he would choose to buy them in physical bookstores.
According to the "2021 Book Retail Market Report" (hereinafter referred to as the "Report"), based on the sampling survey of more than 18,000 bookstores online and offline, the scale of the mainland book retail market in 2021 (the word used by the book publishing and distribution department to refer to the total pricing of all books) is 98.68 billion yuan. Among them, the scale of online channels such as platform online stores and large-scale self-operated online stores accounts for nearly 80%. In 2021, the discount of online store channels will be further increased, and the difference between online and offline discounts will be more obvious, and the difference in sales prices will be 31 percentage points.
"Publishers' distribution channels are becoming weaker and weaker on offline channels, and they have paid less attention to offline channels, and book pricing has long been coupled with online promotional discounts, which makes it more difficult for physical bookstores to survive." Sun Qian, founder of the bookstore industry consulting service agency "Shumeng", believes that for physical bookstores, the post-epidemic era has aggravated the changes in readers' consumption habits, especially the sporadic distribution of the new crown pneumonia epidemic still exists, and the recovery of physical bookstores is facing greater difficulties.
Faced with practical problems such as price wars, rents, passenger flows, and operating costs, some physical bookstores have quietly closed. "If a bookstore wants to continue to operate, it has to deal with the biggest expense of rent costs." Ms. Yang, the manager of Foshan Reading Bookstore, told reporters that new changes such as online shopping channels and electronic reading methods of books have squeezed the living space of physical bookstores, and it is difficult to maintain the normal operation of a bookstore by relying on book sales alone.
The creative space of the United Bookstore on Beijing Road in Guangzhou, Photographed by Xu Zhangchao, a full-media reporter of Yangcheng Evening News
tide!
Introduce fresh features such as cultural and creative retail
So, how to solve the existential crisis of physical bookstores? During the visit, the reporter found that more and more physical bookstores began to do "addition" in book content and spatial function, and "bookstore + coffee", "bookstore + cultural creation", "bookstore + curation" and so on have become new explorations in the development of physical bookstores.
In the Panyu District of Guangzhou, Tangning Bookstore Sihai City store, the clerk told reporters that there are many parents will bring children to participate in the activities and knowledge classes held by the bookstore, some time ago a theme activity of the bookstore is to let the children bring a group of small animals over, "This scene happened in the bookstore, it was difficult to imagine before." ”
From Chinese and foreign books, comics to cultural and creative products, coffee and dining... The United Bookstore on Beijing Road in Guangzhou is housed in a six-story arcade built during the Republic of China. Even on weekdays, the bookstore has a lot of customers coming in and out. The staff of the planning department of the united bookstore said that the bookstore has been trying to organize activities in a more diversified way in the past two years, such as manual classes, design sharing salons and author signing meetings, etc., and has also cooperated with the Guangzhou Youth Cultural Palace and the Yonghan Cinema to promote the development of Beijing Road.
Located in Yongqingfang, a famous historical and cultural district in Guangzhou, Zhong Shu Ge is a veritable internet celebrity bookstore. In the bookstore's creative reading space, readers are weaving. At the same time, in Guangzhou, the Migu Bookstore with a 30-meter-high book tower superimposed on a pyramid-style glass skylight, and the Left Lantern Bookstore lying in the upper and lower bed reading area are all popular punching places for citizens and friends. These "literature and art + personality" high-value Internet celebrity bookstores have also made "physical bookstores incarnate as Internet celebrities punch points" a new trend.
Use the community model to achieve a new breakthrough
In addition to "bookstore + retail" and "bookstore + cultural creation", bookstore community is also a new path for the development of physical bookstores. Tangning Bookstore, located in the downtown area of Guangzhou, focuses on "lifestyle", positioning itself as a community life scene and serving residents within a radius of two kilometers. Compared with the traditional bookstore operation model, Lu Ningxin, head of Downing Bookstore, said that they are more inclined to operate with the thinking of mini commercial Mall, through strong association with the surrounding business system and community, in-depth understanding of customer demand, and customers to establish long-term stickiness. At the same time, Downing Bookstore is keen to try various new tracks, such as cooperating with Xiaopeng Motors to do a car club, opening bookstore concerts, and moving Pilates and yoga studios into the bookstore.
It is reported that Downing Bookstore has opened 5 new stores in Shanghai, Guangzhou and other places in two years. "I think the development of bookstores now is precisely because the road that used to sell only books has been blocked, and the shackles of bookstores have been lifted." Lu Ningxin said that the bookstore can not make consumers think that it is just a place to buy books, but to create a communication scene, and now a Downing bookstore holds about 150 events a year.
According to the "2020-2021 China Physical Bookstore Industry Report", in 2020, 4061 new bookstores and 1573 bookstores were closed in China, and the number of new openings was 2.6 times that of the number of closures.
"Eleven years ago, I said in an interview with the media that physical bookstores are not going to die unless people don't need the spiritual world." In Lu Ningxin's view, "everything can be a bookstore", after experiencing the "cold winter" of the wave of store closures in previous years, the best time for the development of physical bookstores is now.
"The demand for cultural consumption is becoming more and more diversified, digital and convenient, and it has become a new development trend to promote bookstores and bring goods for bookstores with the help of self-media platforms." Sun Qian suggested that physical bookstores should improve the quality of business space and enrich the business content of bookstores to obtain consumers' attention and residence; they should find the profit points of bookstores from multiple dimensions such as products, spaces, activities, and customers, and explore how to obtain stable customer flow and increase consumer stickiness.
expect!
The industry has called for more supportive policies
The reporter learned that in 2013, in response to the closure of physical bookstores, the central government carried out a pilot project of physical bookstore support, and the central cultural industry development fund for the first time gave 90 million yuan to 56 physical bookstores in 12 cities such as Beijing, Shanghai, Nanjing, Hangzhou and Guangzhou. In 2020, the total amount of support funds for municipal physical bookstores in Beijing reached 100 million yuan, and the city's funds exceeded 240 million yuan; in 2021, Beijing provided financial support for 272 physical bookstores, and for the first time clarified and refined the support policies.
"In recent years, many cities have continued to provide financial support for physical bookstores, and Guangzhou has also introduced relevant policies." Chen Dingfang, former vice president of the China Distribution Association and founder of Xueeryou Bookstore, said that in 2018, Guangzhou implemented support policies to support the development of physical bookstores, including rent subsidies, project subsidies, loan discounts, tax incentives, purchase of services and other measures. In recent years, some physical bookstores have planned "reading for all" reading activities, and Guangzhou will also give them certain financial subsidies. The annual Southern Book Festival will also reduce the rent of the participating bookstores.
Chen Dingfang mentioned that among the various costs of physical bookstores, rent is an important reason for the closure of bookstores. She suggested that Guangzhou continue to optimize the rental subsidy support policy for physical bookstores, and can exclude some bookstores that "wipe the edge ball" by setting subdivision standards for the operating area of bookstores, the proportion of publications operating area, and the number of publications on the shelves.
"Whether it is the influence of the next generation's cultural literacy or the shaping of a city's cultural taste, the impact of physical bookstores on society cannot simply be replaced by online bookstores." Chen Dingfang said that in the Internet era, physical bookstores are a kind of "cultural space" with public welfare, and the soft charm of culture it exudes is difficult to be replaced by the cultivation of the next generation.