ABSTRACT
The majority of personal bookstores will special order in-print books for their customers. Despite the increased costs involved they realize that it stimulates repeat business and builds considerable customer loyalty. In 1972, there was only one chain with more than one hundred branches, and the four largest chains accounted for 11.6 percent of all trade book sales. The most significant technological advance in bookselling in a hundred years, of course, is the development of the computer and its related facilities, particularly in the area of bookstore inventory control. Bookstores have always enjoyed considerable free advertising and promotion in the media simply because their product is books, not pencils, and books are news. The words "book distribution" conjure up all sorts of feelings in the retail bookseller—most of them unpleasant. Despite the endless debate, the pattern of book distribution remains as chaotic as ever.
