CRI听力:Why Second-hand Book Stores Dying Out?

Zhu Fengtao is the owner of the second hand bookstore in Shanghai. His bookstore has to be closed due to closing date of his rental contract. Although he has put up a notice of closure on the door, some customers still come in and look for books. Here is one customer.

"I got the news of its closure from the internet. I think looking for a book you want at a secondhand bookstore like this one is something special. That's the reason I am here."

Zhu Fengtao says since they put up the notice of closure, thousands of customers have flocked to the store. In one day, more than 3,000 customers came here to buy books.

"After we released the notice that we will close by the end of December, many people have said online that it's a pity that such a good bookstore is closing. Last week, so many customers flocked here, and some of them have to wait in line outside."

Zhu's bookstore is Shanghai's largest private second hand bookstore. But it's not that large in size, it's large in its number of books. There are about 100,000 books in this 150 square meters store.

Most books are from the 1980s, costing only 10 percent of the original prices.

Meanwhile, customers are even able to find some fiction from the Qing dynasty here.

"The main reason that I run this second hand bookstore is to find people who really need these books. The prices can be discussed."

Now that Zhu's bookstore has attracted attention from the local government, he's searching for a new location. Zhu Fengtao expects his bookstore to reopen in a few months.

Previously there were many private second hand bookstores in Shanghai, but today only about 20 of them remain. What's the reason behind the decline of second hand bookstores?

Insiders say people buy secondhand books for two reasons: for reading and for investment.

Some customers say that although secondhand books are old, the content of the books is the same as new books. However the prices are much lower than new books. What they care is the reading value of books. Also, there are also some old notable books collected by investors.

Zhang Jinfu, former head of the Books and Periodicals Distribution Association of Shanghai, says, the decreasing supply of second hand books is a big problem for these stores.

"The biggest problem for current second hand bookstore is they get smaller and smaller supplies of second hand books. That's why most second hand bookstores have become bookstores with high discounts. They only remain competitive when their prices are lower than those in other bookstores. But when it comes to those high value second hand books, they can hardly get any supply."

Zhang says with people's growing awareness about collecting, it's not easy to find high value second hand books in the market. The only way to get them is at some second hand book auctions.

For CRI, I am Zhang Wan.