April 7, 2000

Forget loyalty in Internet era

C.S. Lewis’ famed “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe” relates how the noble lion Aslan was slain, only to be later reborn to fight for freedom in Narnia.

Later, a different, stone lion was restored to life by Aslan’s breath.

Time will only tell whether a breath of life will restore the Stone Lion Bookstore in downtown Fort Collins, which closed in late March. The independent bookstore apparently fell victim to Internet competition — anyone hear of amazon.com? — and competition from national booksellers, such as Barnes & Noble, which also has opened the books on Internet sales.

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Many lament the demise of the Stone Lion, and rightly so. Many also blame the Internet and Barnes & Nobles of the world. “This local store closing is brought to you by amazon.com and Barnes & Noble,” read signs taped to the windows of the Stone Lion.

Other voices decry the lack of public support for the Stone Lion.

While I and many others sympathize with these sentiments, such complaints ignore the fact that the world of commerce has been tossed on its ear by millions of keyboards linked in a common network of commerce.

This speed-driven transformation isn’t new. The telegraph revolutionized commerce more than a century ago. The internal-combustion engine left carriage manufacturers in the dust.

Even a decade ago, concepts such as “just-in-time” inventory were taking root across the nation and world. The idea is that inventories can be almost instantly replenished by a state-of-the-art distribution system that eliminated the need for huge back stocks of products.

More recently, the Internet has greatly accelerated the pace of commerce. The name of the game is low cost, selection, speed, speed and more speed.

Businesses that are ill-prepared to compete in that world will have a very difficult time surviving, much like the buggy makers of the early 20th century. That applies to travel agencies, newspapers and, yes, bookstores.

Businesses of every type must realize that their main business is not “running a bookstore” or “running a travel agency.” Their true business is to serve their customers’ needs, in whatever way they can. A local bookstore that offers same-day delivery off of its Internet site might do OK.

Business owners cannot count on customer loyalty to ensure their companies’ survival. There is no loyalty when it comes to customers spending their money. They want products and services cheap, and they want them fast.

Business must offer more than the competition in order to survive. They must lure customers with better service than ever before, competitive prices and a Web presence that can offer as much, or more, than global players.

Perhaps those who doubt the wisdom of this strategy will come to their senses as they pass other local businesses with signs marked “closed.”

C.S. Lewis’ famed “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe” relates how the noble lion Aslan was slain, only to be later reborn to fight for freedom in Narnia.

Later, a different, stone lion was restored to life by Aslan’s breath.

Time will only tell whether a breath of life will restore the Stone Lion Bookstore in downtown Fort Collins, which closed in late March. The independent bookstore apparently fell victim to Internet competition — anyone hear of amazon.com? — and competition from national booksellers, such as Barnes & Noble, which also has opened the books on Internet sales.

Many lament the demise…

Christopher Wood
Christopher Wood is editor and publisher of BizWest, a regional business journal covering Boulder, Broomfield, Larimer and Weld counties. Wood co-founded the Northern Colorado Business Report in 1995 and served as publisher of the Boulder County Business Report until the two publications were merged to form BizWest in 2014. From 1990 to 1995, Wood served as reporter and managing editor of the Denver Business Journal. He is a Marine Corps veteran and a graduate of the University of Colorado Boulder. He has won numerous awards from the Colorado Press Association, Society of Professional Journalists and the Alliance of Area Business Publishers.
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