MovieChat Forums > You've Got Mail (1998) Discussion > If she could've held on just a little bi...

If she could've held on just a little bit longer....


....and still kept the store going until they fell in love, he could have rescued it, moved the entire children's department into The Fox Around the Corner, and put Kathleen in charge of it, her mom's store could've stayed alive, in a manner of sorts.

Oh well.

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I would like to think that's probably what happened in the future. Kathleen was so knowledgeable about printed works. The scene where she helps one customer in Fox & Sons Books was probably some sort of foreshadowing for the general viewing audience.

Unfortunately, even though Kathleen lost her store, Joe would've also gone belly-up ten years later in 2008 when the economy headed towards a downward spiral. That and Amazon with their Kindles would've mopped the floor with brick-and-mortar stores still selling physical publications.

I don't believe the both of them would've survived no matter who did what to whom.

As to Kathleen and her mother's store - She probably kept all the valuable items somewhere in storage and sold what could easily be purchased elsewhere. So there's always that slight possibility what you mentioned actually could have happened despite what's in the film.

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While Borders went "belly up" in 2011, Barnes & Noble (the store that was the model for Fox Books) is still in business, both online and in traditional "brick and mortar" stores. So we can't say for sure if Fox Books would still be in business today if it were a real retailer. Admittedly, the Fox family as portrayed in the movie would have been easily susceptible to financial in-fighting when times grew tougher for traditional retailers.

A fascinating idea for a sequel to You've Got Mail would be to project, presuming they were married and had kids, what Joe and Kathleen's lives would look like today, with all the changes that have taken place since 1998.

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You've Got Twitter. You've Been Texted. You Have Instagram or SnapChat. Times have changed since 1998.

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Now that's funny.

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Yea they have changed, changed for the worse.

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You've been Trolled. You've been Catfished. You've been Ghosted. You've been Gaslit. You've been Cancelled.

Fun times indeed

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Enjoy !

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I don't know about that. I'd say Barnes and Noble is a good real life, real world version of Fox books. It is 2019 and Barnes and Noble are still up and going. I've probably spent a few hundred dollars the last few years at the B&N by me.

Fox going belly up in 2008, I don't think that is accurate.

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I just wish they weren't the rare example of this. A locally owned CD & LP store just went out of business after 30 years.
Nowadays, between Amazon and streaming, people don't go to Brick & Mortar the way we used to.
Always have to make adjustments with your business model while a lot of low paid workers take the hit.

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Yes, I recently watched this and found it ironic that the big box store engulfed the small store but that model itself was going to take a massive hit 10 years later...

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They should do a remake and rework an Amazon distribution center into the plot

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Only 30% of readers use a Kindle. Still, 15 years into Kindle availability, when my wife and I are in a waiting room reading on ours, we're the ONLY people doing that while others are hauling out paperbacks and hardbacks. Dead-Tree Books are alive and well.

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She cleared $350, 000 a year and I suspect most of her staff worked part time and had a specialty. She also sold other goods, special edition books, did regular storytime; it wasn't just a store she provided a valuable service. Those giant corporate book stores sell best sellers, snowglobes and the catch of going there is for browsing whilst sipping on a cappuccino, the workers there hardly have any clue about literature and books in general.

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