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rocket_scientist
Joined: 23 Nov 2009
Location: Prague
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 Posted: Sat Jan 23, 2010 4:52 am Post subject: More front page activism from CNN |
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My typing is bad I am in a very foreign place the keyboard is non qwerty and loaded with several languages
The story is about a large chain bookstore closing in south Texas and the idea is that the Mexican-Texans dont deserve a bookstore somehow but they seem to miss the idea Borders et al are really STORES and they need you to BUY STUFF and maybe not sign petitions
Our challenge is to convince a corporate America bookstore and others they will find a literate, articulate, eloquent citizenry."
Bookstores look cozy and friendly but they arent a park
[url]
http://www.cnn.com/2010/LIVING/01/22/laredo.books/index.html?hpt=Sbin
[/url] |
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geldedgoat
Joined: 05 Mar 2009
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| Posted: Sat Jan 23, 2010 8:55 am Post subject: |
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I think you missed this paragraph:
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| Barnes & Noble says it closed the Laredo store as part of an overall strategy to shut down the chain of mall-based bookstores. Even though the Laredo store was profitable, the overall chain was losing money, according to company officials. |
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pkang0202
Joined: 09 Mar 2007
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| Posted: Sat Jan 23, 2010 8:59 am Post subject: |
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| I don't know what they are talking about. Amazon has more books, more selection, and better prices than any brick and mortar bookstore. |
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mises
Joined: 05 Nov 2007
Location: retired
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| Posted: Sat Jan 23, 2010 9:57 am Post subject: |
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Many say losing the bookstore threatens efforts to improve the city's literacy rate.
"A bookstore and what that means for kids to learn the value of literacy and to learn the value of loving books, that's just something you can't really put a value on," said Mora. |
http://www.laredolibrary.org/
Oh, Mora, yeah. A library is this place where you can read book for free.
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| "Assuming that we don't read because we're Mexican or we're immigrant or we're poor, that is not the case," said Xochitl Mora, the city's spokeswoman who spearheads the "Laredo Reads" initiative. |
Percent who read the newspaper daily
Non-Hispanic whites 40.5
Non-Hispanic blacks 30.0
Hispanics 23.6
http://inductivist.blogspot.com/2009/02/daily-reading-survey-of-texas-adults.html
CNN blows. |
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rocket_scientist
Joined: 23 Nov 2009
Location: Prague
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| Posted: Sat Jan 23, 2010 10:13 am Post subject: |
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Hi - geldedgoat
I certainly missed that, as it wasn't discussed much. Businesses don't close profit centers and when they cull, the least profitable ones go first. If the demand is there, someone will step up.
This article wasn't necessary. Business close all the time and in the quote you showed, many stores have been closed. What was so special about this one? The article was given space due to its discriminatory mentions, it was served as an inciter. Activism or troll perhaps, this story doesn't have much news merit. |
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Gopher
Joined: 04 Jun 2005
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| Posted: Sat Jan 23, 2010 10:22 am Post subject: |
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Exactly, Mises. Are they closing the city's libraries, or shutting down the schools' reading curricula and closing the schools' libraries?
These residents cannot go online and buy as many books as they want there...?
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...Some in Laredo fear the lack of a book store will make the city look like an ignorant outpost on the Texas border.
"Assuming that we don't read because we're Mexican or we're immigrant or we're poor, that is not the case," said Xochitl Mora, the city's spokeswoman who spearheads the "Laredo Reads" initiative. [my emphasis] |
This is ri-god-damn-diculous.
What evidence has CNN cited that shows that these allegations motivated this company to close its doors here?
It seems to me the larger trend is to buy books online. I lament this, too, because sometimes it is good just to go into a large bookstore and browse. But I doubt that this company thinks these people are poor, Mexican immigrants and therefore do now read. I can hardly stand CNN's violin-playing editorial slant these days. |
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ytuque
Joined: 29 Jan 2008
Location: I drink therefore I am!
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| Posted: Sat Jan 23, 2010 5:39 pm Post subject: |
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| Gopher wrote: |
Exactly, Mises. Are they closing the city's libraries, or shutting down the schools' reading curricula and closing the schools' libraries?
These residents cannot go online and buy as many books as they want there...?
| Quote: |
...Some in Laredo fear the lack of a book store will make the city look like an ignorant outpost on the Texas border.
"Assuming that we don't read because we're Mexican or we're immigrant or we're poor, that is not the case," said Xochitl Mora, the city's spokeswoman who spearheads the "Laredo Reads" initiative. [my emphasis] |
This is ri-god-damn-diculous.
What evidence has CNN cited that shows that these allegations motivated this company to close its doors here?
It seems to me the larger trend is to buy books online. I lament this, too, because sometimes it is good just to go into a large bookstore and browse. But I doubt that this company thinks these people are poor, Mexican immigrants and therefore do now read. I can hardly stand CNN's violin-playing editorial slant these days. |
Having passed through Laredo Texas a few years back, I can tell you the place is full of poorly educated people and almost all Mexican-American. It's a good business decision to close the bookstore.. The root cause of the problem is cultural. --Mexicans do not read much. There are only an estimated 500 book stores in all of Mexico! |
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Fox
Joined: 04 Mar 2009
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| Posted: Sun Jan 24, 2010 11:40 pm Post subject: Re: More front page activism from CNN |
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| Article wrote: |
| Our challenge is to convince a corporate America bookstore and others they will find a literate, articulate, eloquent citizenry. |
This is a hard thing to convice a corporate America bookstore of if it's not true. I empathize with her completely at the discomfort of a major bookstore leaving; I love just going into Barnes and Noble or Borders, looking around, taking a book and reading it for a while in one of their comfy chairs while deciding whether to buy it. It's a lovely experience. But, it's an experience that can only exist if a large enough portion of the population is willing to pay to partake in it.
The article mentions the individual bookstore in question turned a profit, but that only measures up to the present. Companies need to consider future trends in making their decisions. If business seems to be declining, or the cost of rent in the Malls in question is slated to increase, this could have an impact on future profits, and thus justify their withdrawl.
Yes, they're losing a great experience; few libraries can really compare to a giant bookstore in terms of variety of books availible for perusal. But, that's life under privatization. A public service like a library can persist even if comparatively few people take advantage of it. A private service like Barnes and Noble cannot, especially if it faces competition from something like amazon.com.
Honestly, if I lived in Laredo, Texas, I'd be buying a Kindle right about now. Hell, the only reason I don't own one in the book wastelands of Korea is that they refuse to ship me one. What the Hell is with that? Next trip back to the States I'm picking one up for certain. |
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pkang0202
Joined: 09 Mar 2007
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| Posted: Mon Jan 25, 2010 12:01 am Post subject: |
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Books should all have RFID. If books had RFID, locating any book in the bookstore is a breeze. It doesn't matter if the book is in the wrong place, a simple scan will show where a particular book is.
Integrate said scanner to an Iphone App or Android App, and people can simple "navigate" to exactly where the book is.
Next, bookstores need to do away with inventory. Inventory is expensive. They should have book binding machines with high speed printers. You should be able to order your book online, and by the time you go to the bookstore to pick it up, its already been printed and bound for you.
Or, enjoy a cup of Joe and a magazine while the book you want is being printed JIT.
You could "customize" books. You want to give it as a gift, choose your own hardcover, type, font, etc... Bookstores can make extra money by offering those kind of services.
Bookstores, in their current business model, is a deadend. |
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bacasper
Joined: 26 Mar 2007
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| Posted: Mon Jan 25, 2010 9:13 am Post subject: |
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| mises wrote: |
| Quote: |
Many say losing the bookstore threatens efforts to improve the city's literacy rate.
"A bookstore and what that means for kids to learn the value of literacy and to learn the value of loving books, that's just something you can't really put a value on," said Mora. |
http://www.laredolibrary.org/
Oh, Mora, yeah. A library is this place where you can read book for free. |
| Gopher wrote: |
Exactly, Mises. Are they closing the city's libraries, or shutting down the schools' reading curricula and closing the schools' libraries?
These residents cannot go online and buy as many books as they want there...? |
Not exactly, Mises. Reading a library book and owning one of your very own are different experiences, especially for the young child in whom we'd like to instill a love of reading.
And I am afraid that many of that demographic may not be in possession of the necessary credit card to order online.
It's a shame the store closed.
| ytuque wrote: |
| Mexicans do not read much. There are only an estimated 500 book stores in all of Mexico! |
I highly doubt this. |
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Gopher
Joined: 04 Jun 2005
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| Posted: Mon Jan 25, 2010 11:32 am Post subject: |
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| ytuque wrote: |
| It's a good business decision to close the bookstore... |
Yes, and that is almost certainly what this is about. They are closing the less-profitable and/or unprofitable bookstores and concentrating on the profitable ones as well as the online market.
No one has yet produced any evidence showing that they did this to harm Mexican-Americans culturally.
And I am also surprised that people are buying so eagerly into the capitalist, suburban shopping mall angle: that people cannot have culture and even literacy without owning private property that they buy at a local bookstore in a fashionable, suburban shopping mall. Again, what happened to public libraries? And what is wrong with going to any number of online, tax-free book retailers? Is that not where most of us buy our books these days anyway...? |
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Fox
Joined: 04 Mar 2009
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| Posted: Mon Jan 25, 2010 3:24 pm Post subject: |
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| bacasper wrote: |
| And I am afraid that many of that demographic may not be in possession of the necessary credit card to order online. |
Perhaps, but the vast majority of them should be able to acquire at least a debit card, which works just as well. Barring that, one can buy physical amazon.com gift cards from a nearby store and use them to purchase online. In a city of $250,000, I'd imagine at least some would be on sale.
It's a shame the store closed, but they should still be able to acquire books if they really want them. |
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ytuque
Joined: 29 Jan 2008
Location: I drink therefore I am!
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| Posted: Mon Jan 25, 2010 4:17 pm Post subject: |
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| bacasper wrote: |
| ytuque wrote: |
| Mexicans do not read much. There are only an estimated 500 book stores in all of Mexico! |
I highly doubt this. |
Obviously, one of us doesn't understand Mexican culture!
I can't find my original source, an interview with a bookshop owner from Mexico, on a news show which I have long since forgotten.
However, the number that I gave (500) is cited in this article from the CS-Monitor.
http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0216/p01s04-woam.html |
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bacasper
Joined: 26 Mar 2007
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| Posted: Mon Jan 25, 2010 5:34 pm Post subject: |
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| ytuque wrote: |
| bacasper wrote: |
| ytuque wrote: |
| Mexicans do not read much. There are only an estimated 500 book stores in all of Mexico! |
I highly doubt this. |
Obviously, one of us doesn't understand Mexican culture!
I can't find my original source, an interview with a bookshop owner from Mexico, on a news show which I have long since forgotten.
However, the number that I gave (500) is cited in this article from the CS-Monitor.
http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0216/p01s04-woam.html |
| Quote: |
| Reading-stimulation programs have mostly failed. An experimental library in the Mexico City subway last year was shuttered after most of the books were stolen. |
Well, some Mexicans want to own books!  |
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