Closures of small businesses serving the public always create a big wound in the neighborhoods. Whether it is a grocery store or a restaurant, a bookstore, when the blinds are lowered, the neighbors and customers raise their regrets, almost proportionally to the time the store had been established in the area.
It would seem that the digital world does not understand these emotions: cold relationships, through emails, without the human contact that seems inherent in all sentimental relationships. These last days, with everything, the closure of a digital platform for selling books has turned all these prejudices upside down and has turned social media into a live digital obituary, with continuous updates, into backyard chatter from neighbors shocked by a loss in the community.
Book Depository, the digital commerce platform that has announced the closure of activity for this April 26, It is a giant in the sector, nothing to do with the small flirtatious neighborhood bookstore that makes the neighbors proud. With 20 million books, sales in 37 different currencies to more than 140 countries, its closure has been decided by Amazon, owner of the business for just over ten years, which alleges the risks involved in keeping it active in the face of an uncertain economy. Its main virtue, added to the immense publishing fund, was the scope of its home deliveries, which were also free.
“Today is one of the saddest and blackest days of the year. Reading died, books died, the pages got wet, the ink ran out”, reads one of the comments to the news that can be read on Twitter. Irina, a client from Israel, points out that is “a complete tragedy, literally. It will be almost impossible from now on to buy books in Spanish and English with relatively good prices, perfect shipping and outstanding customer service”.
Another user adds to the digital obituary: “But where will I get all my bookmarks now? Thank you for the free shipment of American children’s books to Germany. My expat children have grown up with an incredible collection of children’s literature, thanks to Book Depository. I hope all employees get new and fulfilling jobs.”
From Estonia, Janar also lets off steam. “Very very very sad news. You were my window to the wonderful and endless (book) world. Thanks for all these years. I will certainly miss you, your free shipping, your bookmarks and this amazing world map with “someone on x bought and free delivery 2 seconds ago“.
In Serbia, South Africa, the Philippines, New Zealand, Argentina, Java, Norway, Scotland, Portugal, also Spain, lamentation is common. But it is especially hard that of distant countries, depleted of large bookstores, with censorship, with exorbitant customs prices.
“Noooooo, this was the best place to get books and with free shipping (at least in Greece). Thank you for being an amazing book provider. I’m saying goodbye to physical copies from now on, I guess,” cries another customer. “Your service kept me supplied with books when I couldn’t leave China.. This is sad news, as Amazon simply does not have the same assortment, especially when it comes to professional literature,” laments another woman from Hong Kong.
essential service
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The same reading community is currently sharing recommendations for other websites that can provide a similar service in certain countries. And it is that sensation of essential service, which would deserve special, public protection, that is most overwhelming of the international responses it has generated. I think of that community, especially the African and Asian ones, suddenly deprived of a link with the universal culture that a website guaranteed them. In how a digital community can have the same passion and feeling as a handful of neighbors regarding their neighborhood bookstore, especially when the environment is hostile and they lack other means to access the books they want, to their ‘wishlist’.
And precisely because that reading drive exists, there will be other ways of channeling it, of serving it, or they will have to be invented so that that spirit of the book sales map in all the geographical points of the planet continues to be permanently updated, every second.
