How to Cope With the Bookstore Crisis ? These are not easy times for booksellers. Borders, a big American one, ditched its b

admin2013-07-08  10

问题                     How to Cope With the Bookstore Crisis ?
    These are not easy times for booksellers. Borders, a big American one, ditched its boss in January and has closed stores, but is still at risk of collapse, some analysts say. The British chain of the same name, which it once owned, failed last year. Barnes & Noble, the world’s biggest bookseller, appointed a new boss last month to help it confront the triple threat of the recession, increased competition and e-books.
    The struggles of booksellers can he explained in part by a surge in competition. More than half of book sales in America take place not in bookshops but at big retailers such as Wal-Mart and Target, which compete to peddle bestsellers at ever steeper discounts. Online retailers, too, are wreaking havoc. In 2009 Amazon sold 19 % of printed books in North America, reckons Credit Suisse, compared with Barnes Noble’s 17% and Borders’ 100%. By 2015, the bank estimates, Amazon will sell 28% .
    Booksellers are laboring to raise their profile online and win back the customers they have lost. Barnes & Noble’s online sales rose by 32% to $210 million in the quarter ending in January, compared with a year earlier. It has started selling its own reader, called the "Nook", and digital hooks to go with it.
    Will bookshops disappear completely, as music shops seem to be doing? Most are pinning their hopes on giving people more reasons to come inside. " Consumers will need some entity to help them make sense of the morass," says William Lynch, the new boss of Barnes & Noble, which plans to put a renewed emphasis on service, including advice on e-books. Many shops have started to offer free internet access to keep customers there longer and to enable them to download e-books. Other survival strategies include hosting book clubs or other community groups and selling a wider variety of goods, such as wrapping paper, jewellery, cards and toys.
    Independent bookshops face a particularly grave threat, because they are unable to match bigger rivals’ prices. Many are branching out by offering new services, such as creative-writing classes. BookPeople, a bookshop in Austin, Texas, runs a literary summer camp for around 450 children. Steve Bercu, the shop’s co-owner, says that independent booksellers can still thrive, provided they "reinvent themselves".
What does Steve Bercu think of independent booksellers?

选项 A、He thinks that it’s quite hard for them to survive.
B、He thinks that they should lower their prices.
C、He thinks that they should run summer camps.
D、He thinks that they need to make some changes.

答案D

解析 主旨大意题。根据题干关键词Steve Bercu,independent booksellers定位到原文最后一段末句:Steve Bercu,the shop’s co—owner,says that independent booksellers can stillthrive,provided they“reinvent themselves.”书店的合伙人史蒂夫·博苏说,独立书店仍然能很好地存在,只要它们“重新改造自己”。由此可知,他认为书店需要一些改变,故选[D]项。[A]项“认为独立书店很难存活”,[B]项“认为独立书店应该降低价格”和[C]项“认为独立书店应该举办夏令营”均不正确。
转载请注明原文地址:https://jikaoti.com/ti/vTYRFFFM
0

最新回复(0)