PILF 2018:Online selling ruins the working of bookstores

There is a need to have activities to capture the readers.

The session on The shrinking Shelf Space-Bookstores held at BookNook saw a crowd of publishers, writers, book lovers eager to listen to the panellists of Aakash Gupta (Crossword Bookstores), Ramesh Rathivadekar (Akshardhara book gallery), Rohit Jerajani (Rohit Enterprises), Anand Solanki and Preeti Chaturvedi (associate vice president, Penguin). The session was moderated by Vishal Soni (Vishwakarma publications).

According to the panellists if bookstores are not a business to make money but it is working with passion. (Subhankar Chakraborty/ Hindustan Times)

“It is a fact that bookstores are closing down due to online selling and yet a few are still managing to survive and also keep the business going,” said Vishal Soni, introducing Rohit Enterprises and Anand Solanki bookstore. While Aakash mentioned that Crossword is a corporate set up, they use stationery and toys to lure their customers towards books. Ramesh also mentioned that Akshardhara has held 580 exhibitions in the last 23 year, taking the books to their readers across Maharashtra.

Preeti said, “There is a need to have activities to capture the readers.”