Polish bookshops becoming thing of the past
PR dla Zagranicy
Roberto Galea
18.02.2015 14:11
Poles are reading less, mostly because books are too expensive for many, with bookshops also struggling to keep afloat.
Photo: Flickr.com/Natalia Romay
Polish bookshops are scared that once online retailer Amazon enters the local markets, many of them will be forced to close down.
Independent bookshops around the country are already finding it hard to compete with large supermarkets who can afford greater discounts because of the large scale they operate in.
The death of Polish bookshops is already an ongoing process, and it is not at all slow. Weekly Polityka says that there are around 1,800 bookshops around the country today, while there were more than 2,500 just five years ago.
Paradoxically, the weekly writes, not only small book-retailers are being squeezed out of the market.
Even the nation’s largest bookstore, Empik, is finding it hard to keep in the black. It recently had to borrow PLN 100 million – around EUR 24 million – to diversify its portfolio.
Not only do Poles read less and less, but they are buying more and more books over the internet. Around one in three books is purchased online, with e-books still a very niche product.
The battle isn’t lost, however. There are those who are trying to save the reading levels in the country. A petition to “Save the Polish book,” has already received over 2,000 signatures. (rg)