Marsh Arabs
Shot taken pre-dawn of a Marsh Arab woman paddling a canoe.
Tuesday, Jun 22, 1999 4:00 PM UTC
Life on the fringe isn't easy
FringeWare, a bookstore and Web site devoted to the obscure and alternative, must close up shop, but aims to keep selling its wares.
Topics: Bookstores, Amazon.com, Entertainment News
Living on the fringe isn’t easy
There’s one thing you can say about the obscure: It isn’t lucrative. Just ask FringeWare, the 7-year-old Austin, Texas, bookstore whose main offering is titles by authors who have been “marginalized or forgotten by contemporary mass media culture.” The store — which has also served as a community center, performance space and playground — announced last week that it’s shutting its doors at the end of June.
FringeWare’s headquarters, long a mecca for geeks, freaks, hackers, zinesters and intellectual deviants in general, is currently clearing off the bookshelves and selling the entire stock at reduced prices. If you are looking for a bargain copy of “Neuromancer” or a back issue of Fortean Times, now’s the time for one last pilgrimage to the Texas capital.
FringeWare’s employees and contributors are blaming the store’s demise on competition from Amazon.com and the Barnes & Noble store that opened up down the street last year; others have pointed out that FringeWare was, well, too obscure — and a bit too far from downtown to boot.
Janelle Brown is a contributing writer for Salon.
More Janelle Brown.
Comments
0 Comments