Cue the theme music from Jaws. Baby boomers are in the retail waters and they're not leaving soon. Will they still be reading in 2018 or 2028 or 2038? Yes. Will they still be buying books in bricks-and-mortar bookstores?
Maybe.
That's the challenge for booksellers. As I mentioned in the first column of this series, BBs can be irritating and fickle. We always have been. A BB backlash already exists. Think Chris Buckley's novel, Boomsday, where a boomer suicide proposal (with financial incentives, of course) falls under the euthanasia euphemism, "Voluntary Transitioning." Think the Baby Boomer Death Counter. Tip of the iceberg.
Cue the shark music again.
Yet somewhere, in the middle of all this controversy and opportunity, the book world will have to find a way to surf boomer-infested waters. One of the questions I initially asked readers was whether tech-savvy BBs will be transferring their book reading and buying habits to an online environment by the year 2018.
Susan Fox, co-owner of Red Fox Books, Glens Falls, N.Y., describes herself as a non-boomer who is also part of the last generation to have grown up without computers. She believes that paper books and bricks-and-mortar stores are safe for now: "I don't see boomers (or my generation, for that matter) reading novels on the computer in the way that younger generations who know nothing but computers will."
Fox added that something "no one mentioned in their comments (denial, perhaps?) is large print. I just sold a copy of The Alchemist large print edition to an aging boomer. Just as we're seeing spa cuisine make its way into retirement homes, we're going to start seeing interesting, diverse titles make their way to large print. Maybe even debut authors!"
Missie Olm of the Reader's Loft, Green Bay, Wis., feels that while some boomers may gravitate to an online reading life, "bricks-and-mortar stores have less likelihood of losing them to the ether than we do the younger generations. They want to talk about what they know about--in person. They want the interaction that the cozy independent bookstore can offer. I think this is the generation that may be doing their research online, but we'll still get the pleasure of their company. Until mobility becomes an issue. Then you start delivering, for those favorite customers that you've worked with for the last 10, 20, 30 years."
"Your 2018 question is harder to answer," admits Pamela Grath of Dog Ears Books, Northport, Mich. "Yes, there are those of us who have gotten over our technophobia, but whether online or bricks-and-mortar sales will be a larger growth area a decade from now is anyone's guess. I've been a bookseller for 15 years, and all I can say for sure about the future is that it will be different. When online skyrocketed, I jumped, and for a couple of years what I was doing worked, but then everything changed, and I had to change again, too. Boomers in general may re-invent themselves over and over out of excitement or new enthusiasms; indie booksellers must re-invent themselves continuously to stay alive. The world is dynamic, and bookselling is a challenging way of life."
Carol White of RLI Press is closely tied to the recreational vehicle industry: "In our travels, representing 'Go RVing' to the boomer market, we talk to hundreds of boomers about their 'retirement' years. As you say, they are fiercely independent and believe their demographic is just themselves.
"I think bookstores will continue to attract boomers, as long as the bookstores continue to change to meet what boomers want. The ones that are most attractive to me are ones that are a combination of a living room and a library. Most boomers, although tech-savvy, would rather actually talk to each other than to text or IM each other. Make it convenient and fun to do that and the bookstores will continue to have their place on our radar."
For added perspective, Susan Fox recommends "an interesting section in Paco Underhill's Why We Buy about the aging population and the need for stores to try to meet their needs. Things like bigger signs, better lighting, books that deal with aging and retirement (and yoga). I agree with him that this is something we'll need to consider since the boomers aren't (thankfully) going to stop shopping."
No need to get out of the water yet. Baby boomer sharks don't bite; they buy.--Robert Gray (column archives available at Fresh Eyes Now)