Bloody Whitcoulls

Whitcoulls, the book store is in trouble.  They have gone into voluntary liquidation, and are no longer fully honouring their gift cards and vouchers. 
As I have a $150 gift card with them, I'm not amused.

I'm also not surprised. 

Even though it was perceived as the biggest book store in NZ, it had a terrible reputation for dodgy offers and it's on-line system really sucked.  It was clunky, difficult to use, and biggest problem of all was that it didn't stock enough titles.
It was competing against Amazon and The Book Depository (TBD) and Whitcoulls was losing.
Amazon had far more titles, was cheaper (so much so that is some cases it was cheaper to buy in Amazon, pay for the postage, and still be cheaper than Whitcoulls. ) and TBD had more titles, easier to use web site, and free delivery.

With the advance of e-books, I wonder how long the traditional book shop can continue?
The new ebook readers are getting closer to duplicating the book-reading experience, with much better contrast graphics, the ability to work in strong sunlight (a major failing of the earlier models) and reducing cost and size.  Some of the more advanced book readers can also store your music files and playback, so you can read your favourite book whilst listening to your favourite music.  Just add your favourite drink for complete bliss.

At least it would be complete bliss except for the $150 owed to me by bloody Whitcoulls.