On Diana Pharoah Francis, this line stood out: "many books aren’t even getting into BN. They are not getting shelf space at all. If a series isn’t doing well enough, the sequels simply don’t get ordered, a lot more than used to happen"
Well duh. Welcome to the world of 30 years ago I grew up in. Unless, of course, you happened to live in a major city or college town. People talk about this stuff like we always had these large stores on every streetcorner that sold a huge variety of books and that the decline of those superstores is somehow unusual.
When I was a tween to teen (and with no cable tv or internet, an almost ludicrously voracious reader regularly devouring 2-4 books a week), your options were simple: the indie store that had nothing but new releases and best seller, Waldens at the mall that had nothing but new releases and best sellers, or Paperback Booksmith at the other mall that had slightly more than the new releases and best sellers. And that was it. You got older books by ordering them or visiting a specialty indie who was, in my case, a two hour drive (that's on the highway) away.
Bounders and Buns and Noodle were an absolute nirvana for physical books, but probably an unsustainable one commercially. They put a lot of indies and other chains out of business because of the larger selection, but it was only a matter of time until even the successful locations realized that 90% of their income came from the 10% of stock which was, well, the same new releases and best sellers that Waldens used to stock. So now they're dropping locations or replacing that unproductive stock with other items.