Franklin St. Bookstore Goes Online

The store, which sells used and rare books, is just one of many bookstores that are being forced out of their brick-and-mortar headquarters and onto the Internet.

"Bookstores all over the country are going to Internet stores," said owner Barry Jones.

The store is operating its online business from the basement of its current location, but plans to relocate after the building is sold.

When Jones opened the store 10 years ago, about 80 percent of his clients were walk-ins and the other 20 percent purchased from the store's catalog, he said.

With the development of the Internet, these statistics underwent a complete reversal. Online business grew to comprise 80 percent of sales, and only 20 percent of sales came from walk-in buyers, Jones said.

And now that the Avid Reader has closed its physical doors to vend its wares exclusively online, walk-in business has become nonexistent.

Jones explained that it is not economically wise to own and maintain a physical store when the majority of a company's business is done over the Internet.

There are "no customers anymore in the book business," Jones said, referencing the loss of personal interaction with consumers.

Jones' preference is to form customer relationships, he said, but when the number of walk-in buyers decreased, he was forced to sell online instead.

Once The Avid Reader moved online, it reduced its inventory from 30,000 to 15,000. It sold off the excess inventory to a company on the West Coast, Jones said.

The store, which began marketing online six years ago, was one of the first bookstores to establish itself on the Internet, Jones said.

The Internet has since produced significant competition, with about 8,000 used bookstores operating online.

Books that were once thought to be scarce now can be found more easily - and thus prices go down. This is a situation where "the marketplace dictates prices," Jones said.

The Avid Reader currently has collections of books on India, Eastern thought and metaphysics, as well as the history of jazz music. Although many of the books sell for collector prices, the store also has books that cost as little as $10.

"We have absolutely the lowest price for these books on the Internet," Jones said.

The Avid Reader's Web site, www.avidreader.com, allows customers to search inventory by author, title and subject.

It also contains a glossary of common book dealers' and book collectors' terms, which allow customers to understand the ratings and quality of books.

The Arts & Entertainment Editor can be reached at artsdesk@unc.edu.