I started doing a little Christmas shopping this past weekend in some local Brooklyn shops and noticed something interesting: not many Moleskines! In a couple of shops that used to stock Moleskines among other journals, I spotted Leuchtturm or other brands (including Denik, which I’d never heard of), but no Moleskines. These were the kinds of shops that try to carry interesting and trendy items, so I guess it’s gotten to the point where Moleskines are too widely available to be cool enough for some of these shops. Has anyone else noticed the same thing in other independent gift/stationery shops?
I’ve noticed they are more readily available in the big box stores (ie, target) than local shops. We only have one book store, the have them, but only in black. The stationary store doesnt carry them at all, or much of a notebook selection period, and target has all the pretty ones in different colors/sizes.
In 2009, Moleskine notebooks were only available in 1-2 bookstores in Jakarta (the capital of Indonesia). Despite its growth, not so many people adopted the notebook. I assume because the price is quite high for many of us. About 2 years ago, Moleskines were available in leading bookstores. However, in this end of the year, I haven’t see many variety of 2015 diary. Only the daily (one day per page) and few weekly diaries. Oh, and no more special interest journals.
One shop owner here in Kent UK told me he is no longer ordering Moleskine owing to high prices and declining quality. He does good trade in Leucturnn and Monsieur ranges. I stopped buying Moly four years ago!
Cost, fluctuating levels of quality (especially noticeable to users of fountain pens), and incessant merchandising twists and turns based on the brand’s questionable claims of provenance, have exacted their toll.
People are tired the hype.
For a good moleskine (in the historic sense) style of notebook I find Leuchtterm1917 less expensive and of higher quality.
Daly
I haven’t bought a Moleskine in over 5 years. I used to buy 30 or so a year, both for my own use and as gifts. I have 50 or so filled ones i used as journals. The quality is such that i no longer use them.
I agree with a few of the comments above…the quality is no longer there, especially with those of us who use fountain pens. FP’s bleed through a moleskine like crazy! So I have moved on to other higher quality journals that are in a similar price range .
Talking to the buyer of our local designer notebook + pen store they said the quality had dropped, and hype was high so were not going to stock them anymore as this had an impact on sales.
I can see why independent stores might not carry them so much anymore– you can buy them anywhere. I would imagine that most small independent stores have clientele looking for more rare items.
Moleskine is everywhere now- Target, Barnes and Noble, office supply stores, college bookstores, etc.
I remember back in 2006 or 2007 when I had to hunt for Moleskine or order them online.
And, perhaps part of it is a declining trend among the “notebook faithful.” Or people just getting bored with what was once a trendy “urban status symbol” notebook. I still like Moleskines, and used pocket Moleskines for years. I finally wanted something larger and got a bit bored with the same plain notebooks for some many years, so I’ve branched out into other brands/types of notebooks in the past or two.
The Economist said, “Moleskine made a net profit of €13.8m on sales of €67.3m in 2011, up by about 60% from 2009.”
I wonder if eventually they will see a decline when they are no longer the “trendy” notebook, or because people use paper less in general. It will be interesting to see. I, for one, hope they continue to be around for decades- I still like a Moleskine every now and then.