“一夜入冬”的实体书店：坚守与突围

对于中国实体书店的老板们来说，今年是一个漫长的寒冬。

受疫情的影响，无论是主动选择还是被迫放弃，实体书店已全线停摆。2月25日，中宣部印刷发行局调研组发布的千家实体书店调研报告显示，九成实体书店暂停营业，四成书店预计上半年收入将下降50%以上。即使没有闭店，也基本处于无人光临的惨淡境地。

规模较大的书店已经挣扎了一段时间，还有更多的中小型书屋已经倒闭，疫情的持续使得情况还在持续恶化。原计划复工的时间已经一拖再拖，没有营收，租金和员工薪酬的巨大压力让实体书店经营者越发感到无以为继。即便能挨到疫情过去，是否还能够重新开业，又能再撑多久，仍是个未知数。

2月14日，潮安三更书店正式发布结业通知，“对不起，三更失约了。”

几家苦心经营多年的知名书店相继在社交平台发文求助，呼吁众筹。单向空间向读者发布一封公开信，呼吁大家关注中国书店的困境；开了28年的青苑书店也第一次在自己的公众号发文求助。

It has been a long cold winter for bookstore owners in China. Since the coronavirus outbreak shut down almost all offline businesses in late January, many owners of the country's some 70,000 brick-and-mortar bookstores fear they won't be able to reopen.

With no customers and mounting pressure from rent and employee salaries, the pain is felt by both big names in the industry and smaller private sellers. A crop of brick-and-mortar bookstores had no choice but to throw in the towel, while others turned to social media for support from their stuck-at-home fans.

In February, a crowdfunding letter from the Beijing-based chain called attention to Chinese booksellers' plight after it was posted by OWSpace's social media accounts. Xu Zhiyuan, one of OWSpace's founders and a well-known personality in literary circles, likened the state of bookstores to being on a deserted island in the letter, calling on book lovers to help "save bookstores."

1月30日，中小书店联盟“书萌”面向全国书店发起了“疫情当前，书店现状调查”，这项自发性活动得到各地实体书店的积极参与，最终形成的报告真实反映了疫情期间中小型民营书店的生存困境。

事实上，这已经不是实体书店近年来遭遇的第一次生存危机了。互联网的普及带动网络营销日益壮大，大众对实体图书行业需求的日益衰减，严重冲击了实体图书行业的经营，对民营书店的影响尤甚。大浪淘沙后，只有一部分书店能幸运地存活下来。

如今，这些坚持下来的书店人又开始了为“保卫独立书店”展开的新一轮自救。

But the majority of less known stores weren't as fortunate. According to a survey conducted last month by Bookstore Union, an alliance for China's brick-and-mortar bookstores, over 90 percent of bookselling businesses were closed during the outbreak, 99 percent had no steady incomes and 79 percent didn't have the financial resources to last more than three months even after reopening.

Bookstores in China experienced their first real crisis brought on by the rise of e-commerce platforms around 2009, when a large number of brick-and-mortar stores went under. The prolonged closure has been particularly devastating to small and medium-sized bookstores, whose numbers were already dwindling due to intense competition from online retailers. 

众筹和书店互助开启了实体图书行业生存保卫战的序章。

随之而来的，是更多形式的线上活动策划。3月9日晚上8点，包括单向空间、先锋书店等在内的独立书店的主理人联合淘宝直播平台推出“保卫独立书店”主题活动，通过连线主播的方式，开启线上引流的新尝试。

除了直播间互动，还包括网络售卖各种书店榜单读物及文创，所得销售利润将会用于支持需要帮助的独立书店。

直播的推出也引发了公众对实体书店转型的讨论。很多人质疑这一形式哗众取宠，抛弃了独立书店一直以来对传统阅读的坚守。

对此，曾经做过一场独立书店互助直播的许知远回应道，所有时代都需要新的载体，即使是传统的读书行为，也可以通过新的方式跟大众交流。尊重传统与保持开放并不矛盾。

The crisis has brought Chinese bookstore owners of all sizes, along with publishing houses, together in a united front, and also forced many out of their comfort zones.

In March, founder Xu made headlines by teaming up with Weiya, one of China's most successful live-streamers on e-commerce platform Taobao, in a live-streaming session. The broadcast drew 145,000 online viewers, who bought over 700,000 yuan (98,700 U.S. dollars) worth of books and related products during the session.

All profit was donated from that live-streaming session because it wanted to help bookstores which don't have the same level of influence. However, long-term upgrade is a must for the industry even without the epidemic, which only hastened the change that's inevitable.

实际上，这种困惑映射了一批实体书店拥护者的初衷，也让部分书店经营者或多或少陷入自我怀疑的消极情绪里。艰难时期，无论是“自降身段”众筹求助，还是转变思路“卖惨自救”，在物质和精神的缝隙中的艰难求生让他们对是否继续保留实体书店感到困惑。

但为了生存，转型已经无可避免。不断探索新的多元模式也意味着打破原本纯粹的经营理念。对实体书店来说，书店的“情怀”和强烈的个体风格是维持吸引力的关键，但只有最终创造营利，才是能够维持生计的最根本法则。

不少人也感叹，此次实体书店间的“抱团取暖”和书店与读者之间的互相鼓励所产生的价值，让他们对实体书店的前景判断发生转变。疫情之后，实体书店必将经历一段痛苦的“休整”期，但大环境的改变也会迫使实体书店经营者们重新思考，除了图书，未来的书店，还能产生什么盈利的可能？

正如 “书萌”创始人孙谦所说：“有能力活下去的书店会继续活下去，遇到问题还在坚持的书店可能会看不到春天。但是活下来的书店，它们一定要有一种另外的姿态。”

推荐阅读：