In the past two years, more than 1573 bookstores have died ...

In 2022, the closure of physical bookstores is no longer news.

According to the "China physical Book Industry Report",

In 2020, 4061 physical bookstores in China opened newly launched.

There are also 1573 bookstores closed.

We interviewed the owner of the Ten Guanzhang Bookstore,

Their stores are located in Shanghai, Beijing, Guangzhou,

Hong Kong, Wuhan, Meishan, Lhasa, Zhuhai.

We recorded their original dreams, self -rescue midway

The last moment of Heguandian.

"I opened the bookstore and made the biggest effort, but I also made the worst plan."

This is their basic consensus.

Self -described: shop owners

Edit: Chen Xing

Responsible editor: Ni Chujiao

"The bookstore is closed. There is no big deal.

Zhang Qiang shop owner

Specialized in literary history and philosophy

Store age: 21 years, 2000 to December 10, 2021

Tibetan quantity: 60,000 volumes

Annual turnover: 300,000 to 600,000

Original address: No. 55, Zhengsu Road, Yangpu District, Shanghai

From 1999, I started to operate this second -hand bookstore to the husband and wife stall for 22 years. I insist on making a bookstore that only sells books. Bookstores can live, and it is definitely a miracle. At the end of 2021, the streets need to be good -neighborly communities and ask us to move out.

On December 10, 2021, it was a week -on -minded day. I issued a notice in the circle of friends. Many readers called me. Fudan and Tongji old professors and graduates came from other places. They were particularly reluctant to ask us if we could delay for 2 days.

A reader took all the books in the bookstore and made a heart poster

That week, there were too many people who could only go in and too many people. Only when they came out, they could go in one person. Everyone came to comfort me. You must drive it and cheer us to cheer us. There is also a reader very interested. He took all the books in the bookstore and collapsed together and made a poster. Now I hang it at home.

After closing the shop, I found a new address, and it was officially opened after the epidemic. The location was near Fudan.

"People who come and go to the bookstore are equivalent to making friends and a good destiny."

Old Pan shopkeeper

Specialized travel book

Store age: 3 and a half years, from 2018 to October 2021

Tibetan quantity: 20,000 volumes

Annual turnover: 1 million before the epidemic, the loss after the start of the epidemic is serious

Original address: next to the Jokhang Temple of Lhasa

I arrived in Lhasa 10 years ago. At that time, I was 32 years old. I met a poverty -stricken primary school with Nabu. I lacked a teacher over there and I stayed. The conditions of no water and electricity, I have been a teacher for more than a year, and later I really stayed in Tibet.

In the past 10 years, as a Tibetan drift, I chose to open the bookstore.

One is because of feelings, and the other is that opening a bookstore is a career. We use the income of a bookstore to fund public welfare projects. For example, every year, poor students come to the store to work and work hard; we arrange teachers in the pastoral primary school. As long as he can complete one year of work, the school's evaluation is good. Each teacher can receive 8,000 subsidies in the bookstore. Essence

We closed more than 20, and we also opened more than 20, and it was always open.

In a store, an example of investing 1 million. After three years, it was difficult to collect the 1 million back, and it was closed in the fourth year. Suddenly, we will find that we have only completed a process of receiving the book, and the money has not had time to earn. After raising a shop, it is gone when it is a little better. This is the phenomenon of bookstores.

Before 2018, Lhasa was hot, with 2 million tourists a year. At that time, it was not necessarily how much to make a small shop, but it would not be lost. When it is best, one day, one store can enter thousands of people, and the annual turnover can reach more than 1 million. Because the epidemic comes, people who come to Lhasa, even in the peak season in May and June, all tourists are only 2,000, and the gap with the past is not a little bit.

Before the epidemic, Paradise Bookstore had a total of 5 shops in Lhasa. The epidemic came, and I had to check the losses for more than one year, so we quickly stopped the loss and closed 4 stores. The Jokhang Temple shop is one of them.

In the store in the Jokhang Temple, we have no celebration, no ceremony, no flower baskets, and the door starts to pick up the guests. On the day of Guan Zhang, the people inside us were drinking and eating to celebrate. No one would be sad and happy.

Tibet is a flowing city. Many people come to Tibet and actually want another way of life.

Just like our employees, all the five lakes and seas, they work in the Paradise Bookstore. What he wants is a kind of peace that is different from big cities. This year may be 20 employees, and we will change a batch next year. But in the next year, eight of them may call me if they can return to the heaven bookstore. It is like a family.

Lao Pan has also opened a mobile bookstore

Many people come to me with all kinds of injuries, and I am the role of an aunt. If you can sit down, I will invite them to drink tea and give them gifts. I have saved 300 books that have been written in the past 10 years. For 10 years, readers in each store have left messages.

In recent years, the business has not been good. I have sent one on Douyin. I ca n’t come to Tibet's friends. I will send you a postcard for you, and I have saved more than 2,000 addresses at once. I wrote 100,000 words of handwriting, and the stamps were just one dollar, and thousands of dollars were scattered. Over the past 10 years, the membership card of the bookstore has issued about 20,000, but there are less than 50 people who have read books. We want to radiate more locals, so last year, we opened a shop specializing in local Tibetans. There were 1200 square meters. There were Tibetan books and Tibetan movies. It is closely related.

However, taking this store as an example, we have 500,000 yuan and 500,000 artificially. The cost of one year is 1 million, which means that about 7,000 yuan per day can be flattened. Last winter, we sold less than 1,000 yuan a day, which was equivalent to compensation. From last winter to May, I have lost 50-600,000.

But I still find a way to let the bookstore live, instead of saying that it will be closed as soon as I encounter difficulties. If you do n’t work, you can open 1, 1,000 square meters of shops, and you can open 100 square meters. No matter what, it will exist.

"In the process of modernization, many books become waste paper when moving."

Huang Baolong shop owner

Specialty of multiple old books

Shop age: 19 years, 2003-December 2021

Tibetan quantity: 5-60,000 copies

Annual turnover: balanced revenue and expenditure

Original address: No. 408, West 408, West Difufu Road, Hong Kong, China

The first store of the Spirit Bookstore was opened in Wan Chai, Hong Kong. It was my grandfather's business since 1958. The brand of Spirit Books has been 64 years old. In 2003, the spiritual book bureau opened a branch to the West Ring, which has always been operating by my dad and uncle.

The West Ring has always been a new and old place. On the road, there will be an old Hong Kong feelings. I often see Wen Qing to check in. At the age of 30, I took the heavy responsibility of running the West Ring Store from the elders.

In 2015 and 2016, Hong Kong was very prosperous at that time. I want to attract more people to the store and try a new business strategy. I bought a batch of old bicycles and placed in front of the store, rented out, rent 80 yuan, and bought 40 yuan in the bookstore when returning the car. Essence At that time, many young people really attracted 50 to 100 people every day. During that time, it was also the best income.

There is no high -tech in our shop, just rely on the people's brain to remember, which book is and which book is how much. Some readers come to find a book and write a piece of MEMO paper on our walls. There are more than 40 MEMO paper on it all year round.

A reader asked me to help Liang Qichao's "The Complete Works of Drinking Room". I ran to Taiwan Province to help him find it. Later, I knew that it was found to help his grandfather. Every time I say it, I goosebumps. Because opening the old bookstore is actually a feeling.

In the West Ring, we witnessed the construction of the subway, and the replacement of surrounding shops, and also witnessed the growth of small readers. At that time, there was a small reader who often came to "nails", read books from get out of class, and came back to read the book after eating. Slowly she read the book of children to the book of literature.

During the epidemic, we almost had no income, but we all chose to take it one by one. The pricing of the books we sell is relatively low. One book of 10-200 Hong Kong dollars is already cheap than the new book. For so many years, it has basically been balanced with revenue and expenditure.

Near the door, the bookstore sells a 40 % discount on books

At the end of 2021, the industry mainly recovered the pavement, and we had to face closure. Our bookstore can accompany readers for so many years, but we are actually reluctant, but we really have to worship with West Ring Store.

But when it was a coincidence, I saw a message from the reader on the MEMO paper in the store, saying that I could rent my store to me. I immediately contacted him and soon talked about it.

Although the rent is 10 % expensive, at least we don't really need to go down, we are also very happy. At the time of graduation, we told everyone to move to Wan Chai No. 14. The surrounding neighborhoods will take a whole cake, cooked sugar water, and send us farewell to us.

In the process of modernization, many books become waste paper when moving. If we sell second -hand books, we can use this way to conservation book culture. I feel lucky.

"Bookstore revenue is only 200 yuan, and all income is only enough to pay the water and electricity cost of the store."

Yang Chunfeng shop owner

Specialized in second -hand art, literary books

Shopping: 1 year, from October 2020 to November 2021

Tibetan quantity: 3000 volumes

Annual turnover: about 3,000 yuan

Original address: Jiangnan Xingyuan Community, Haizhu District, Guangzhou

During the epidemic, our bookstore opened. Others feel contradictory, but I chose to do something I want to do at a turbulent time.

I am a tattoo teacher. I am almost 30 years old. Opening a bookstore is equivalent to rewarding me for so many years. So the ridiculous bookstore is not a job of making money for me. I use the money made by tattoos to raise this bookstore.

When I was a kid, I found that second -hand books were a good thing, very cheap, 5 cents, the most expensive is 2 yuan. When I go, I can also watch it for a long time. Second -hand bookstores are random, rolling up. As long as I open it, I will see something unexpected.

Sometimes I saw my old book, thinking of me when I was a kid, or my parents looked like when I was a kid. Some books will also have notes and signatures. Tickets for Shanghai in the 1980s are very similar to crossing. So I chose to open a second -hand bookstore. I spent a lot of effort, the decoration and furnishings of the store, and the selection of each book, to keep the shop every day. But I am not like the person who keeps this industry. When I opened it, I thought it would be closed.

It was very bleak at the beginning of the shop. It was rare to see one person a day.

The renovation of the ridiculous bookstore is set up by the owner Chunfeng

Among them, I still encountered very moved things. One day, a pair of grandparents came in, dressed very cleanly, and staggered. After reading it for a long time, I bought a book of the beginning of the last century. After a few days, another grandma came. This time she came to find another book, opened the video, and called with Grandpa. Finally, I helped them find the book.

For young people, it may be feelings for second -hand bookstores, but for older people, buying books in physical stores is a daily life.

My shop signed for more than a year, and the landlord asked me if I continued to rent. I considered 2 days and decided to close the shop. At most, I can sell about 20 books a day, and I earn 10 yuan for a book. The income is basically 200-300 yuan a month, which is basically enough to pay the water and electricity cost of the store.

The day before Guan Zhang, a announcement was posted at the door. There was no preview at all, and there was no sense of ritual. There are various physical stores, and there is no need to go out of other emotions.

Although this shop is closed, I don't think I fail. I know that many people think the same as me. I opened this shop and let me know that if I opened the store according to my imagination, it was not as miserable as I thought.

I use my hobbies and what I can do, and let people who do n’t do that do not do that do not do that do that do not do that are actually possible.

"We are all bookstore patients, and they are tortured between love and reality."

Pharaoh

Specializing in the domestic first -line publishing house humanities and social science books

Store age: 11 years, March 22, 2010-May 30, 2021

Tibetan quantity: 40,000 or 50,000 volumes

Annual turnover: 100,000 at the beginning, the best time can reach 1 million

Original address: Sunshine Wharf, No. 5 Guiyuan Road, Hongshan District, Wuhan City

When we closed the shop, there were CCTV and independent documentary teams to shoot. Later, it was broadcast on CCTV 9 sets, and the independent documentary also participated in the Guangzhou International Documentary Festival.

Many friends sent a message to tell me the hot search on "Baicao Garden", which is my hard work for 11 years.

After graduating from college, I opened a bookstore after half a year. From 2011 to 2012, when e -commerce just got up, the price battle was very hot, and the bookstore closed a lot. In 2013, the tide of composite bookstores emerged, and bookstores across the country blossomed. But Bai Caoyuan lost money and liabilities before 2014.

Later in 2015 and 2016, the business status was very good, and in 2015, it even reached a turnover of 1 million. After all, we have persisted for 3 or 4 years, and we have been familiar with readers.

At the end of 2019, the epidemic began, and I was the first in Wuhan, with a lot of pressure. By 2021, the landlord also began to retire from the bookstore and forcibly power off for a year and a half. In the last year, it was open in "darkness". Readers came to the store, holding a flashlight to discredit a book in it.

After Pharaoh left this paper, Baicao Garden officially closed

In the last month, the clearance was cleared. Every day, many people came to see that in order to say goodbye to the bookstore, some people came to give readers a free portrait, and finally the mysterious friends who bought all the remaining books and bought them ... I don’t like to engage in sadness. In the form, the door is over.

The significance of the bookstore is not how much a book sells, it should also be part of people's spiritual habitat. "Bookstores are not dead" are not faith, not extravagant hopes, but should be a fact. I am preparing another new bookstore, everything is in progress.

"I have made the biggest effort, but I also have the worst plan. I am also lucky to have this bookstore experience."

August shop owner

Specialized in literature, history, philosophy books

Store age: 3 years, November 25, 2018 to December 31, 2021

Tibetan quantity: 5000 volumes

Annual turnover: not enough to pay the house

Original address: Wudaokou, Haidian District, Beijing, Huilong Guanlong Yue Street, Huilong District, Changping District

After I left the publisher in 2018, I opened a bookstore. I want to open a bookstore that is profitable by a book, and I can run by my screening book. 99%of the people around me advised me not to open. My parents also doubted that I was too much to become a nerd.

Only one friend supported me and made more than 200,000 start -up funds with me. I have been a bookstore clerk, a book editor, and a marketing. At that time, I was full of confidence.

After opening, there are not many people who patronize every day. Sometimes there are a few, only a dozen, and passing by. Sometimes there are dozens of dollars in income, sometimes hundreds of dollars, and of course there are zero situations. However, the rent of Wudaokou is 10,000, plus other costs, basically 20,000 a month.

When the online turnover exceeded two -thirds of the total turnover and the rent occupied more than half of the cost, I moved the bookstore from Wudaokou to a relatively low rent of Huilong, and at the same time further developed online business. However, there are still no turnover for a few days, and it is also necessary to face the pressure of various parties such as procurement and rent. In the end, I considered repeatedly and decided to close the shop.

When I was in the fasting store, I received a lot of cards and letters written by many people, many large -scale and large messages. If you do n’t know the store, I do n’t know that the bookstore has brought so much beauty to everyone. The most responded to the reader is: it is worth it, thank you. In any case, I still completed my dream briefly -for the encounter of people and books. Now, I re -edited the editor again and continue to move forward.

"The bookstore's closing in advance is a kind of liberation."

Liu Eryi shop owner

Specializing in literary history, history, philosophy, economic management books

Shop age: 4 years, 2016 to May 31, 2020

Tibetan quantity: 12,000 volumes

Annual turnover: 1.8 million

Original address: CITIC Building BM Floor, CITIC Building, Tianhe District, Guangzhou

CITIC Store is the fourth store we opened, with an area of ​​300 square meters. From the epidemic in February 2020, until April, there was almost no turnover. Its store is in the city center, and the rent is not cheap. During the epidemic, the owner did not pay a penny.

It is definitely a stable loss to continue to drive again. We face how much loss, so we decided to turn it off.

When closing the door, we organized a "one bookstore to decide to die", which runs through for a whole month, and sold 1 million books a month.

There are 300 places per day. One is that the discount is very cheap. Many of the wool are coming.

I have also closed the bookstore before, and CITIC's house should be regarded as sensational.

A few years ago, my point of view was to make less money, and I was happy, right? Now it is a problem that I ca n’t live. I ca n’t live anymore. I ’m not qualified to talk about more feelings and social value.

In fact, Guanyou's shop is not going downhill. For me, I shrink back to better play.

Because once there are poor management and a lot of troubles, you have to worry about how to save it at all times. The second bookstore I opened in the past was closed because the rent was closed. The third bookstore is a dispute between the landlords, and we must close it.

For me, opening a bookstore is like I have a good pet. In the end, it may leave, but you will not regret it. You raise it, you also give it farewell to it. Some sense of gain.

Just like the "funeral" I gave to the bookstore, in the face of the cruel reality, I was at ease.

"The 4 years of opening a bookstore is also my 4 years."

Li Yongong shop owner

Specialized Social Sciences Introduction Book

Shopping: 4 years, from October 2016 to October 2020

Tibetan quantity: 1500 volumes

Annual turnover: about 100,000

Original address: beside Zhuhai Campus, Zhongshan University, Zhuhai City, Guangdong Province

Wang Xiaobo said, "I was 21 years old that day. In the golden age of my life, I have a lot of extravagance." I was also 21 years old, and I also looked at a bookstore. It can only be opened for half a year.

How do you know that it can be closed until the year I graduated.

At the beginning, it was losing money, but everyone often held various generals and youth activities here, and they could sell 5-6 cups of drinks a day. Through activities, bookstores are slowly familiar with people, and they have received attention in the campus.

The epidemic hit, the bookstore was also affected, but it was not very large.

At that time, I had continued to study in Guangzhou. I was troublesome to help me see it, which would make me feel very troublesome. On April 23, 2020, on the day of the World Reading Day, the news was announced.

Later, the bookstore continued for half a year. Within half a year, the bookstore has been operated by elementary school students, hoping to spread idealism through this form. In October, we did the last activity and tried to sell all the bookstores to sell them. We really left the address in a sense.

In retrospect, opening a bookstore is a very impulsive decision, but fortunately, at a age that is still praised by bravery.

"After the Zhang Zhang, I put the bookshelf in my new home and felt what the bookstore was still like."

Huang Nantong shop owner

Specialty of pure literature, art books, children's picture books

Store age: 5 years, 2017. February 14 -2021.10.9

Tibetan quantity: less than 3,000 books

Annual turnover: decrease year by year from 100,000 in 2017

Original address: No. 60, Yin Cang Road, Dali, Yunnan

In 2016, we needed a station to move from Dali from big cities. Because we like to buy books and read books, we found a store in the ancient city and opened a bookstore.

When I first opened the store, the most popular tourism in Dali, the store was not large, 15 square meters, and a terrace with selling drinks. We organized a 3 -hour challenge reading activity. If you don't read your mobile phone, we only allow reading in the bookstore.

The best time is the first year. There are many people who come, very prosperous, and earn about 100,000 a year. Since 2018, we are not in the store ourselves. We went to work in other cities and invited volunteers to see the store. After we left, the sales of the store began to decline, and the income was almost halved. Back to Dali, it was early 2020 that the epidemic began, and my wife was pregnant. Dali was closed for a while, and no one patronized the bookstore. It has become very stressful to run a bookstore.

The pull with my wife was directly reflected in the bookstore. On one aspect of ideals, she represents one aspect of reality.

By 2021, the child grew up, and we did not have the energy to operate the bookstore. Finally, we decided to turn off.

On the day of opening, it was my wife's birthday. The day of Guanzhang was my birthday. It was a memorial. In the circle of friends, we sent us to close the shop. Some readers are more uncomfortable than us. My friend was drunk that night because of this.

We choose books more personalized. Books in the bookstores are very popular. In the later period, those books are not sold without selling.

Later, I put the bookshelf of the bookstore in my house, and I felt like the bookstore seemed to be still.

"I once vowed to say that I would open for 100 years, but I couldn't persist for 10 years."

Ermao shop owner

Specializing in cultural history and philosophy of humanities

Store age: 8 years, January 2014 to March 2022

Tibetan quantity: about 10,000 volumes

Annual turnover: enough to pay the rent, not artificially

Original address: Renshou, Meishan, Sichuan

I have prepared my first bookstore since the end of 2013, in the county seat of Meishan, Sichuan. At that time, I just graduated from college and was under 21 years old, and I borrowed 25,000. In recent years, experienced the baptism of e -commerce, various difficulties of the landlord, the test of marriage and childbirth, and the replacement of shareholders ...

Under the influence of the epidemic, survival becomes more difficult. In the 8th year of opening the store, we still decided to close the store. I don't want to say too much bitter thing, just share my experience as an independent bookstore shop owner:

1. Investigate which types of local markets are biased towards the local market. Different store design plans are formulated for different groups. The main customers are divided into: students, white -collar workers, institutional customers.

If there is no mine in our family, don't want to grab all the groups. This is a big bookstore and a large capital. We can refine the customer group before we can live.

2. Set up the format according to the customer group. The "bookstore+" model is quite hot now. Add cultural and creative, coffee desserts to the bookstore itself, and now add accommodation. Because the bookstore is a tolerance format, it can be a hundred state of earth. So don't die if you die, think more about cross -border combination.

For example, if I am good at being a student group, I will abandon the food of food around the students' hobbies, to make goods and culture and innovation.

3. Control costs. Before opening the store, calculate the upper limit and lower limit of the turnover, and the turnover is related to the unit price and passenger traffic.

The salted fish bookstore I opened by myself will not enter the store average more than 15 people every day, and I buy an average of 2 books, and the profit of the book is a cup of milk tea. When the business is good, the profit of 100 to 200 a day. But the real situation, from Monday to Friday, basically no one came in and could only rely on weekends. If you only rely on the sales support of these two days, it will have great uncertainty.

There is a sentence, "No Eslite in Shenzhen does not live in Shenzhen", rent and labor are the first measure.

Salt fish bookstore stores rent 36,000 per year

It is best not to exceed 50,000 years. The bookstore does not need to choose a good location. It is recommended to choose an apartment, or an old district of the city, or there is an open space in front of the store. Is it not fragrant to promote the marketing of the high -rent gonber market? Except for the land.

4. There are many channels for bookstores, such as the local book wholesale market, which is the Sichuan book market for Chengdu. In the book market, the wholesale of children's books is about 40 % off, and the average best -selling books are about 6.2 % off. (But after the rise of e -commerce, the discounts of the wholesale market are not as discounts online.)

The general independent small bookstores are basically purchased online, grasping the days of reading on the reading day, 618, etc. At the same time, they can use several accounts to use the book. There is a big disadvantage of online shopping books. Many good books do not participate in the event, or about 10 % off.

If you are relatively clear about your own business, you can bypass the e -commerce and contact the publishing house directly, but there is a batch amount: for example, the books of the reading library and the emerging industry publishing house are about 50 % off, and the book network of the reading library is almost not discounted. But the quality is really good.

If it is a shop with a small number of books, such as cafes, water bars, teahouses, and not limited to new books, you can buy second -hand book platforms such as fish, and the second -hand market can also be available.

5. If you want the store's benign operation, you must be promoted unremittingly.

Opening the store is not just to open the door. The promotion of inside and offline in the store is necessary. For example, daily salon activities, reading clubs, writers' signing meetings, concerts, movie viewing clubs, etc., can cooperate with sales activities, you need to have something that can attract and retain customers.

Now someone who does not read a book comes to the bookstore and likes this atmosphere. I want to participate in your interesting activities and meet interesting people. I counted it. There were 10 pairs of couples in our store and 2 pairs of marriage.

If you really like the bookstore and do it with your heart, you have to believe yourself, and you will not be worse.The picture is provided by the respondent

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