Interview: Right bookstore in right place -- the success story of Waterstones

LONDON, April 19 (Xinhua) -- From high-end urban streets to picturesque suburbs, Waterstones stands as one of Britain's most iconic bookstore brands. Yet only a decade ago, it was on the brink of bankruptcy, squeezed by the menacing rise of e-reading. Its revival is largely credited to one man who remains steadfast in his mantra -- placing the right bookstore in the right place.

As both the managing director of Waterstones and CEO of Barnes & Noble in the United States, two major bookstore chains on two continents, James Daunt is a man of deep conviction when it comes to physical bookstores.

"Bookstores are for everyone," he said in an exclusive interview with Xinhua at Waterstones' flagship store on London's Piccadilly on Thursday.

"That's an incredible strength as a retailer -- you appeal to everyone, not just to women, not just to men, not just to young, not just to old. It's a place to come to for pleasure."

Daunt left a career at J.P. Morgan to open his first bookstore on London's Marylebone High Street in 1990. That original Daunt Books location has since become one of the city's most beloved places for book lovers -- now also a popular spot among Chinese visitors inspired by posts on social media platforms like Xiaohongshu, or "rednote."

In 2011, Daunt brought that same independent spirit to Waterstones at a time when digital readers like Amazon's Kindle were poised to render traditional bookstores obsolete. One of his first acts was to prove that wrong.

With a belief that each store should reflect its own character, Daunt delegated more autonomy to store managers, scrapping the same layouts and promotional plans and allowing individual shops to decide which books to stock and how to display them.

"We empower our booksellers, each store, to do whatever is sensible for its location," Daunt explained. "It's the vocational commitment to good bookselling that's allowing us to run these wonderful stores."

Another major shift came when Daunt ended the longstanding practice of publishers paying for guaranteed shelf placement -- a model that often resulted in unsold and returned stock. Instead, Waterstones handed the decision back to its booksellers and their customers. By 2023, only about 9 percent of books were being returned to publishers, down dramatically from 30 to 40 percent in previous years. Barnes & Noble has since adopted similar reforms.

After weathering the disruption of e-readers, bookstores today face a new challenge: distraction from social media. Still, Daunt remains optimistic.

"When I grew up, we were told we'd never read again because all we would do is watch television, and it was making our eyes 'square,'" he said. "Now we're applying that same narrative to the iPad, the iPhone, social media. But we now have more bookstores than we ever had -- publishers are publishing more."

He gestured to the headquarters of major publishers near the Thames. "You walk into a gleaming marble building, the most expensive offices in London. Is that because nobody's reading anymore? No. More and more people are reading with every passing year."

Books, Daunt argued, remain central to culture, which is fueling creativity, shaping movies and ideas, and thriving through new forms of engagement.

"When I started, we used to have bestsellers once or twice a year. Now it's once a month, once a week. But I'm always told nobody's reading anymore."

"TikTok has been an astonishing medium to convey the energy and experience of our stores," he said. "These young kids have done that brilliantly. We've become a venue for the social media encouragement of reading. It's propelled bestsellers in a way almost nothing else has done."

For Daunt, bookstores are always a place in everyone's childhood memory. "When you're in your twenties, it's part of courtship -- 'What are you reading?' 'What am I reading?' -- It's a physical space in which it's just lovely to be."

"If you put really good bookstores in front of people, they will buy more books. You'll see more people reading on the Tube, on the train, in the bus -- wherever it might be."

Looking abroad, Daunt recently visited Chengdu, capital of southwest China's Sichuan Province, and found fresh inspiration. "The physical spaces, the architecture, the design, the presentation, and the fluidity with which it was being done were exceptional," he said. "We borrowed quite a lot of those things and use them today in Waterstones."

"Remember, not long ago, everyone said it was only going to be e-reading. No physical books. Too heavy to carry. But once we got our energy back and our confidence back, we started selling lots more." ■