By Yelin Zhu
On Saturday, September 28, 2019, students from the Beijing Institute of Graphic Communication visited St.Andrews to investigate the bookstores. The group is divided into two part –an independent bookstore research group and a second-hand bookstore research group. In addition, the members of the group interviewed and filmed the relevant people in the bookstores.
The entire survey took more than four hours. The owners of the bookstores were very warm. They were glad to have the interviews.
‘People come in can enjoy a cup of coffee and tea, get slow down, look deeply, enjoy it and find something unexpected, something you can’t get online. This is a bookstore you can come in. It means you could find something you don’t even know you are interested in.’ Michael said that was what attracted the readers the most in their bookstore.
When asked about online sales, Heather said that the physical Blackwell bookstore was independent of its online store.
Independent bookstores and second-hand bookstores gave students different feelings. Their business models and concepts also differ. After the interview, the students exchanged their ideas and gains, and Professor Chen also gave some perspectives and inspirations for the research report.
