amrit book co in connaught place disagrees his store which has stood its ground for 83 years and has grown 100 per cent in the last five years has survived on goodwill he said you cant run it with a strict business point of view it is not practical to think you will only make profits but the satisfaction involved in it and the goodwill of customers makes it worthwhile sharma said bigger names in the business have diversified to remain viable oxford bookstore for instance combines a cafe and merchandise such as bags in its retail space it has also survived and registered year on year growth said a senior employee the store also in connaught place continues to attract readers because of its expanding list of books she said requesting anonymity while most customers go for bestsellers and new releases we also keep backlists it depends on the types of customers she said the backlist is also what keeps the book shop going our bookstore doesnt depend on the frontlist which is usually discounted by the online seller we are mostly dependent on our backlist which is our strong base so we are not hampered by competition because we are not even looking at that market we are not looking at selling the latest book in huge numbers its there in our shop but thats not our bread and butter said a book shop representative frontlists comprise latest titles and backlists are made of older and even lesser known books its the fun of rummaging through a collection that should thrill a reader said bahri as a reader you visit a store once then again you go you dont buy a book every time you go you only look to know what is where thats what a good bookstore is all about thats what a bookstore does for you he said with a proud smile on his face not all stores have withstood the vicissitudes of online competition the city over the years has seen some small and some big bookstores shutting shop for one reason or another ajit vikram singh the owner of fact fiction in vasant vihar closed shop in 2015 after 30 years because he could not afford to run it timeless art book studio in south delhi too succumbed to a bleeding business that sold expensive coffeetable books pti published on sep 23 2019 at 1249 pm ist telegram facebook copy link be the first one to comment comment now comments comment now read comment 1 all comments post post find this comment offensive choose your reason below and click on the submit button this will alert our moderators to take actions reasons for reporting foul language defamatory inciting hatred against a certain community out of context spam others report join the community of 2m industry professionals subscribe to our newsletter to get latest insights analysis download etretail app get realtime updates save your favourite articles scan to download app bookstores