Never has there been a more greatly exaggerated narrative than that of the death of the bookstore. Amazon, in something of a paradox, will open a 372m² store in Manhattan. It will bring to eight the number of physical bookstores either opened or announced by the Machiavellian retail gorilla, which, for the better part of two decades, has put to use its sprawling economies of scale to slash prices and put out of business, well, physical bookstores. The trudging along of Barnes & Noble and the meltdown of rival Borders (which was losing US$1bn in annual income before it shut down) seemed, if only briefly, to signal the end of nostalgia, the art of the browse and the serendipity of book shopping. So began the dawn of a new age in bookselling, with Amazon in all its efficient glory offering better deals, and by extension cultivating trust.
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