Adaptation Strategies of a Moscow Independent Bookstore to the Transformation of the Book Market

To fully analyze the phenomenon of the independent bookstore, we will turn to several major theories and approaches. We assume that independent offline bookstores themselves cannot be sustainable economic agents, guided only by the utilitarian function of offering books (for which there are online bookstores and online bookstores). We refer to the bookstore as a social place where culture and market exchange are intertwined. The concept of the third place (Oldenburg & Brissett, 1982) will be considered in its translation into commercial spaces. Modern independent bookstores are likely to strive to offer customers a unique experience and community, which will be their fundamental difference from the online bookstore. We will also consider the modern sociology of consumption in the individualistic tradition associated with the concept of postmodernity (Ilyin, 2018). It will allow us to consider our research object as a place that attracts visitors with its symbolic significance and offers identity, demonstration of values and familiarization with high culture, and not just a book as a practical commodity. A multimethod approach was used in the work, which implies the use of various data sources and their versatile analysis. The work analyzed interviews with managers and owners of independent bookstores in Moscow, virtual and physical spaces of these stores, open data on the statistics of the book market over the past 5-10 years.