The words arrived slowly and deliberately over the phone. “But can’t you find it on Amazon?” During the pandemic I was working out of a f...
The words arrived slowly and deliberately over the phone.
“But can’t you find it on Amazon?”
During the pandemic I was working out of a foxy mountain town. My grandfather, who lives in Chennai, wanted me to procure for him a particular type of green tea grown in the hills. I didn’t want to go chasing after the tea so I fibbed that I couldn’t find it.
My grandfather is 105 years old.
He hasn’t bought anything on Amazon but he knows of it as a place where you can find anything.
Eventually I found it on Amazon and shipped it to him.
The pandemic has changed Indian publishing dramatically. As a discount and convenience hunting population, we had embraced e-commerce platforms, but there was a significant section of people who preferred buying offline. That behaviour has changed. Any offline establishment which isn’t essential (grocery, government office, airport) or doesn’t offer a social experience (mall, restaurant) is going to struggle.
It’s common knowledge that bookstores have been suffering for years. The pandemic has become the shove off the cliff. In the past few months a number of stores have announced closures or have moved out of the pricier markets because they couldn’t stave off the landlords. The landlords themselves are trying to stave...
