Are Bookstores Catering to Client Need?

My sister, an avid reader has difficulty in reading print type in published works. Because of this, she has turned to large print editions of works and to talking books. The choice of reading material available in both forms she has found, is limited and NZ authors works rarely represented. Having heard her complaints about lack of choice afforded poor sighted readers, I checked out our libraries databases and found the range of materials available uninspiring. My visit to large bookstores also drew a blank. When I approached staff members and asked where I might find the large print section puzzled faces met my inquiry before, “We don't have any,” was offered.

“Why not,” I asked.

A shoulder shrug and backing away from me the common response to this fractious question, the assistants shrunk away with, “There’s no demand,” as a throw-away. I would leave the shop wondering why in our society where equal opportunity is a priority, bookstores did not see a need to cater to those whose sight was failing.

I got to thinking then, whether the so-called literary world knew what the reading public wanted. Did they ever ask its readers? 

My examination of the written material stocked showed the focus in the majority of bookstores, to be on cookbooks, health, how to do, life stories of sportspersons, fancy stationery and what I would class as knick-knacks, the gutsy stuff definitely in short supply. In these hard times, every opportunity to draw clientele into a store a bonus, I would have thought stocks of large print books and talking books would have been a must for, large print books in many different genre written by New Zealand authors are readily available from independent publishers, Let's Buy Books Weebly and Amazon.

 Why do we not encourage libraries and bookstores to visit these sites and to stock these works?