On Sunday, St. Mark’s Bookshop announced that they have been forced to close their East Third Street shop due to the financial issues that seem rife in Manhattan’s formerly thriving independent bookstore culture. St. Mark’s Bookshop has been open since 1977 and is the oldest independent bookstore still owned and operated by its original owners. The slow death of the independent bookstore, in NYC and beyond, represents a serious issue in how technological advances leave small business owners in the dust. To survive, independent bookstores should not try to compete with Amazon, but instead be viewed as unique cultural havens.

Anyone who has been to St. Mark’s Bookshop knows how unique the store was. Their collection mainly consisted of books on cultural and critical theory, politics, art and poetry. It was a serious establishment that steered clear of the more popular titles, instead offering niche books at an affordable price. These highly colorful independent bookstores add local character to the cultural landscape of the city, and many of these establishments are being pressured by the same forces that caused St. Marks to fold.

Of course, competition is driving many independent bookstores to the brink. In an interconnected world, readers are drawn to global bestsellers. The monetary incentives to stock up on the season’s latest romance, fantasy and sci-fi hits are huge, and the curated selections of independent bookstores make small establishments less competitive against big brand chain stores. Even the large bookstore chain Borders folded under the pressure.

The strongest entity working against independent bookstores are not chain stores, but electronic commerce services like Amazon. A plethora of e-books are replacing pages with screens, and it’s not hard to see why. A Kindle or a PDF file has unparalleled convenience and simplicity. A lot of small bookstores simply don’t have the volumes of books that people, especially college students with long book lists, need. The sheer volume, savings and convenience of online stores pose a challenge to all bookstores, but independent stores are the most vulnerable.

It’s difficult to see how a typical thrifty college student can justify roaming small bookstores for the right edition of a required textbook, only to pay double or triple as much on the hardcover as the digital edition. The truth is, we can’t save independent bookstores — not if we’re thinking about them in the same way we think about Amazon. Independent bookstores have never been valued for the convenience they offer in a pinch. Instead, these stores should be appreciated for their culture and atmosphere. Browse the stacks when you have a few extra dollars and look for something that catches your eye, something wacky. If the independent bookstore is to survive, people need to treat it as a destination, not just a stop on the road.

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Email Patrick Seaman at [email protected].