The number of bookstores in the nation has shrunk by nearly a third over the past decade due to high rentals, slim profit margins and declining reading habits, a local news report said.
This year alone, several iconic bookstore chains have closed, including Singapore’s Page One at the Taipei 101 mall.
As of July, the number of bookstores in the nation was 2,200, compared with about 3,200 a decade ago, the Chinese-language Apple Daily report said, citing data from the Ministry of Finance.
Three major chains — Senseio Bookstore, Kingstone and Eslite — used to dominate the industry, with each having 50 to 100 outlets in their heyday.
However, Kingstone, a Taiwanese chain, closed its Zhongxiao branch last month after 30 years in business, the latest in a series of closures that have reduced the number of its outlets over the past decade from 110 to 40, the report said. Eslite is struggling to maintain its 40 stores by revising its business model, while Senseio went out of business in 2011 due to financial problems, it said.
Amid increasing rental costs and the rising popularity of e-reading, only 16 independent bookstores are left on Chongqing S Road in Taipei’s Zhongshan District (中山).
Commonly known as Book Street, it was lined with about 300 independent bookstores years ago, said Shen Jung-yu (沈榮裕), chairman of the Book Street Promotion Association, an organization established by booksellers.
Booksellers make less than NT$100 from the sale of one book, while the cost of renting a ground floor store on Book Street is between NT$300,000 and NT$500,000, an industry insider said.
Another factor affecting sales is declining interest in leisure reading among students, who are more focused on school entrance examinations, as well as busy working adults, said Chao Chen- chen (趙振辰), a professor at the Graduate Institute of Library and Information Studies at National Taiwan Normal University.
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