Not quite. After driving out a number of bookstores out of business, Amazon is opening a bookstore in Seattle. http://www.wired.com/2015/11/amazon-killed-the-bookstore-so-its-opening-a-bookstore/ Though they aren't planning on opening more bookstores I'm sure that if the venture is profitable, they'll want to expand a little . . . and a little more. They are in business to make money after all.
Bookstores aren't dead, but many can't afford the space to house all the stock and people still love to come and browse a book. Certain books can't be replaced by e-books, like coffee table photography books and childrens illustrated books. Children like to carry them around with them and schools depend on good quality hardback books. The danger is people will use them to read books and then go online to buy them. In Amazon's case, it doesn't matter as they can showcase more kindles and books and sell off books that are excess stock.
Bookstores would not admit that they are dying. Ironically, it is not the number of customers that are significantly dwindling but the publications. Books have slowed down in printing and some magazines are vanishing. Even the old magazines like humor and puzzles that were used to being re-printed are now gone. With the internet, it seems that any reading material is there and you can read it for free. For the very basic, the newspapers are suffering from anemic subscriptions because obviously people like me are turning to the online version of their newspaper.
Wired is a great resource, this write up was well done. I think the small, obscure, lean, well run, independently owned bookstore will continue to be around, readers just enjoy the feel of a book. Big bookstores with big overhead will have trouble in the coming years.
As a lover of the traditional book, I am all for this and hope it takes off and expands. There's a second-hand book store in my old town that's sadly closed down recently and it's a huge shame because I often popped in there when I was in town to see what stuff they had. The big name book stores will still keep going I think, it's just the smaller ones that are slowly going out of business it seems.
I have never read an e-book and I never will. I tried it, not my thing. So all my books will continue to be traditional ones. That being said, I rarely buy books from a bookstore anymore because the selection is not big enough. I often know exactly which book I want and so I order it online.
It seems like many bookstores these days are branching out into coffeeshops and other alternative forms of revenue. I hope bookstores never really die as they are fun places to browse around and see the latest books. These are the options that many people will look to do to get the books they are looking for.
Here in the UK, while there aren't as many bookstores as there used to be they're certainly not dying out just yet, and most towns and cities have a mixture of mainstream and independent stores you can visit.
It's a good idea from them to diversify a little. Selling books is getting harder and harder as online shopping and e-books are taking market share... I wouldn't mind going for a coffee at a bookstore. I'd actually quite like it, gives me a change to browse around while enjoying my coffee instead of sitting in a table playing around with my phone.
The Borders bookstore in my area that had been open for decades (previously as Waldenbook) shut down many years ago when the chain itself was on its way down. They were in the mall, and didn't have any sort of beverage or food area or anything. They were one of many local establishments who shut down after we got hit by a major hurricane. The Books-A-Million in my area has been open nearly 20 years, and is still going. Much of their business comes from things like food and beverage sales in their coffee shop.