Our San Francisco store opened in mid-November of last year right as retail sales around the country were cliff-diving. There are numerous reasons why our first store made a lot of sense, but the reality is that we moved into a mall-like complex beneath 4 of the largest office towers in the Financial District. Our store, on the Street Level, was just below a B. Dalton's Bookstore that was bought by Barnes & Nobles, and closed shortly after Christmas. I'm sure the closure was a long time coming, but regardless, it is now a giant, vacant space awaiting a new tenant. 

Last Fall, a Berkeley icon -- Cody's Bookstore -- closed its only SF location in Union Square after just 18 months. And as if that wasn't enough, Stacey's Bookstore -- an SF icon for 85 years -- closed about a month ago (I will admit to pillaging a few of their fixtures during their liquidation). Their store was 30,000 square feet so it was no small operation. 

So it is with some hope that Publisher's Weekly recently wrote about a new machine - the "Espresso Machine" no less - that certainly sounds like it offers a viable model for the bookstore of the future. It prints and binds books on-demand, and with the next release, can print a 300 page book in 4 minutes.

I have mixed thoughts about its potential. On the one hand, it makes a ton of sense, most certainly from the retailer's perspective since such a future involves much less floor space and inventory. On the other hand, you have the Kindle and its competitors getting rave reviews from many pointing the way to an e-book future. I'm probably a month or two away from pulling the trigger on a Kindle, but my bookcase at home is hoping I soon meet an Espresso Machine.

(hat tip: Conversational Reading)