On the “Double 11 shopping festival,” e-commerce platforms offered discounts of as much as 34 percent on books, frustrating many brick-and-mortar bookstores. On their Facebook fan pages, the bookstores protested with a black background and white text saying “Our bookstore will be closed on Nov. 11.”
By closing on Nov. 11, more than 40 particpating bookstores expressed their concerns, hoping that readers and the general public encountering e-commerce platform price promotions would spare a thought for the book retail industry.
Chen Ruen-hsiung, owner of the Southern Bookstore, Changhua County’s longest-running bookstore, said during an interview that recently, in order to promote the 1111 Shopping Festival, several online e-commerce platforms had bought books directly from publishers at a 30 percent discount, selling them at 34 percent off. In this price war, the e-commerce companies are selling books below cost of purchase, making it impossible for brick-and-mortar bookstores to compete, leading many independent bookstores to close for one day on Nov. 11.
Photo: CNA 照片：中央社
Tsai Wen-li, manager of Farming Words Bookstore in Hsinchu Science Park, said that, “Books are more than everyday items. Books are vessels of knowledge, culture and social enterprise, welfare and justice. Bookstores are businesses, and need to be operated according to innovative business models, but they stand the risk of folding in the face of drawn-out, merciless price wars.”
(Translated by Lin Lee-kai, Taipei Times)
雙十一購物節有電商平台推出書籍下殺六六折等折扣活動，引發多家實體書店不滿，在臉書粉絲團以黑底白字貼文「本書店將於十一月十一日歇業」發聲抗議。
Photo: Shen Pei-yao, Liberty Times 照片：自由時報記者沈佩瑤
響應的四十多家書店在十一月十一日以「共同歇業」行動表達沉痛呼籲，希望讀者及社會大眾在面對電商的低價促銷行動時，能再思考一下此舉對書業的傷害性。
響應這項行動的南方書店是彰化經營最久的書店，書店老闆陳潤星接受採訪時表示，最近有網路電商平台為了衝刺雙十一購物節業績，以七折向出版社進書後，再以六六折賣出，電商業者削價競爭，新書的網路售價比書店進書成本還低，讓實體書店經營更加困難，因此多家獨立書店才會串聯在十一月十一日停業一天。
位於新竹科學園區的筆耕小書店店長蔡文力表示，「書本從來就不只是一般商品，書是承載著知識、文化、社會使命、公益或公義的載體。書店是商業場域，需要創新商業模式去運轉，但不一定禁得住大者恆大無情的折扣砍殺操作」。
（中央社）
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