Chain Bookstores

I met Brooke Allen over the weekend, and yesterday thanks to Lee Siegelman I discovered her 2001 Atlantic article "Two—Make That Three—Cheers for the Chain Bookstores". I've always had slightly off-key opinions on this topic, because when I was a kid and there really were no chain bookstores, the independent book store where my family usually shopped was a place called Barnes & Noble. So mostly I've just been watching my local bookstore expand across the country, not watched local shops be stomped on by some giant. Still, by and large I've always come down on Allen's side of the argument despite some affection for independent stores.

Now, though, I wonder if the rise of the internet isn't going to lead to a rebalancing. After all, the practical advantages offered by the big chains, though very real, are done even better by the online retailers. Allen writes:

Wonderful though many of the independents were (and are), however, the fact is that most of the good ones were clustered in the big cities, leaving a sad gap in America's smaller cities and suburbs—the places, in fact, where most of the American population actually lives. Books-A-Million's 202 stores, for instance, are almost all located in the Southeast. Borders has from the beginning targeted another underserved market, the suburbs, and as a result the quality of life in American suburbia has radically changed over the past decade. This is a point that the urban intelligentsia, which loves to characterize the suburbs as a cultural wasteland, seems to have missed, or at least to have taken no interest in.

Amazon, Powells, and BarnesAndNoble.com, however, are located everywhere. And their stock is very comprehensive. Even for browsing purposes, they've actually gotten pretty good. If you have some sense of what kind of book you might want to buy and you don't need the book immediately, the practical advantages to shopping online are just enormous. Thus, what the brick and mortar store has to offer is, increasingly, not practical advantage but a bookstore experience. And though I think the chains actually do deliver a decent experience, they don't really match the better independents and I'm not sure they ever can since part of the experience of a well-liked independent bookstore, from Politics and Prose to Blue Hill Books is precisely it's independent-ness.

Now that the chains have primed large swathes of the country to think of "wandering around a bookstore looking for something to buy" as a possible activity, while online retailers have emerged offering to send you any book anywhere you want, could we be ready for a revenge of the independents? I see it as at least a distinct possibility. I've seen it argued recently and plausibly that Starbucks has done just as much to build the market for high-end coffee, and thus independent coffee shops, as it has to put existing independent shops out of business.

Comments

1) In the era of the independent bookstores, you could buy anonymously --with no trace of your reading habits. Now, the government probably has a database of everything you bought from online Amazon,etc.

2) I'm not talking about porn -- I'm talking about political philosophy -- or, as the government sometimes calls it, subversion.

Plus anyone who browsed the books venders at gun shows during the Clinton era knows that the pen IS mightier than the gun. I'll take the US Army's "Improvised Munitions Handbook" over an M16 anyday. I still fondly remember a small independent book shop in Fairfax County outside DC which also sold it-- along with ..er.. other things.

Your reading tastes --and what you don't read --betray much to a watcher re your outlook on national affairs. Especially when you don't realize someone's watching.

3) The American Revolution was successful , in part, because the Founders and their supporters maintained privacy. In what books they read, in what they wrote (Committees of Correspondence), and in when/where they met (Sons of Liberty).

"Homeland Security" is destroying all that -- and not because our elites are worried about a few radicals from weak Third World countries.

Our blog conversations/emails can be recorded, our movements recorded by millions of CCTV cameras (some obvious, some not) , and our inner mind illustrated by a printout from a relational database fed out the backdoors of Amazon.com, Barnes and Noble, and Borders.

4) Most importantly of all, the huge chains allow the rich to totally CONTROL what's offered to us -- and their tastes are so ..docile. Which means that a herd whose collective mind is SOLELY fed by those stores will remain ..docile.

When was the last time you saw the offerings of Paladin Press displayed at Barnes and Noble?
http://www.paladin-press.com/SearchResult.aspx?CategoryID=6

5) The big chains exist because the superrich realize that they could have saved themselves the expense of the Cold War if they had just owned the book publishers in Karl Marx's hometown.

Posted by Don Williams | February 8, 2008 9:40 AM

One of the many reasons to love Reihan Salaam is that he's someone who recognizes that aesthetic beliefs are legitimate and meaningful. Too often we tend to take a materialistic view on political (political in the broad sense) discussions that regards aesthetic preferences as irrelevant or even selfish. But aesthetics matter, and in fact a compelling case can be made that aesthetic issues are the real "stuff of life."

Which is all my round about way of saying that, just like with the Starbucks issue, I can acknowledge that the chain bookstores may be having a net positive effect on the number of independents out there and still hate them for having destroyed my particular favorite bookstores (or coffee shops).

Posted by Freddie | February 8, 2008 9:45 AM

Matt, go to Kramerbooks. Then go to a B&N. Tell me where you see more interesting and, yes, exciting stuff. Ask the staff about a book -- you will find that workers at B&N actually don't know much.

Posted by David in NY | February 8, 2008 9:49 AM

Matt: While these are some interesting points, one thing you've neglected to mention in your quest to combine your own gentrified sensibilities with an admirable literary populism is the American library.

I mean, I like the experience of chain bookstores, I certainly love independent bookstores, and I purchase books online. But the library is possibly one of the coolest places that I go to. Free wireless Internet, free lending of books (and the selection is basically limitless), free DVD and CD borrowing (which I can then download on my own computer), and a socialized system that works really well.

The one thing that libraries lack is a feeling that you're hip. So many still have giant wooden sticks through newspapers. But at the same time, with the Wizard Rock subculture (bands like Harry and the Potters, etc) that have over 300 bands and over 200,000 fans and most of their performances in libraries (as well as indpendent bookstores), there has been a resurgence of hipness to the American library.

Posted by Andrew Slack | February 8, 2008 9:57 AM

It occurs to me that I should have inserted a caveat in the above post. I think only a fool would order directly from Paladin Press --either online or via mail.

Also, some of their books have such obvious shortcomings that you wonder if they are a government "honey trap" --meant to unearth those with bad attitudes in the embryo stage while teaching bad habits.

The anti-surveillance book ,for example, talks about maneuvers to discover if someone is following your car. Not only do they leave out the best tactics, they also fail to mention that your maneuvers will only cause laughter in the surveillance van --because they already installed a hidden GPS beacon in your car that lets them track you on a PC display. So the book cons the someone into feeling safe when they actually are not.

But a populace with knowledge of even rudimentary tradecraft/safeguards is a far bigger headache to fascists than a herd of ignorant innocents.

Posted by Don Williams | February 8, 2008 10:00 AM

I wonder if Amazon will ever digitally image the spines and covers of the books they offer, and create virtual stacks that you can walk through. Then they could allow personalization of the motif, background art and even allow a choice of music - though that should be limited to progressive, pseudo-daring pop or classical - just to get that bookstore feel.

Posted by Njorl | February 8, 2008 10:01 AM

As someone who grew up in a provincial city in the US (Boise ID) I can say that chain book stores made a _huge_ improvement to the local scene. Before BookStar (later bought by Barns and Noble) and later Borders came there were a few pretty bad used book stores and Waldenbooks at the mall. Since this was pre-Amazon it was really terrible. Trips to Portland to go to Powells were not uncommon. So, this much is right.

The rise of Amazon is important too, but even more for the used books, I think- now small used book shops can be national.

Powells on-line is, in my opinion, much worse than in real life in a very disapointing way- like in real life their used books are usually somewhat over-priced but they also constantly describe the books as "average" or "good" in condition, even when they are better. That's a time-saving plan for them, but I don't want a book in that condition for the price they charge so I'll rarely buy used books from them given that I don't get a description of the book I can trust. (They often describe the book as worse than it really is, but not always, and given that they have high prices for used books I don't want to take the risk unless I can be sure.)

And, even with "look inside" on amazon this still isn't as good as actually looking since that's more limited and not on every book. (Almost all Havard University Press books and many Oxford university press books, for example.)

Posted by Matt (not the famous one) | February 8, 2008 10:02 AM

Don -- so what are the best tactics to discover if someone is following your car?

(Myself, I don't have a car, and I'm already au fait with how to lose the G-Men in a crowd or the subway. The GPS chip they put in my spine is harder to deal with.).

Posted by otto | February 8, 2008 10:05 AM

The small Southern town and county in which I grew up had no notable bookstores but a very good set public libraries. The school libraries weren't fantastic, but they weren't horrible.

Now there are tons of large chain bookstores but the libraries have not grown with the population.

As a child I didn't notice the lack of bookstores because we rarely bought books, except for some treasured exceptions, and certainly we couldn't have afforded to buy the numbers I and my siblings regularly borrowed from the public or school libraries.

Posted by El Cid | February 8, 2008 10:05 AM

when I was a kid and there really were no chain bookstores, the independent book store where my family usually shopped was a place called Barnes & Noble.

You didn't go to The Strand? You sound like a Strand kind of family...

Posted by Al | February 8, 2008 10:10 AM

What Matt (not the famous one) said:

You'll never love Barnes&Noble until you live (or even visit) in Twin Falls, Idaho.

I find posts of these by Matt (the famous one) to be almost childlike. I like the guy's thinking, but everytime I read these posts I realize that he's never really lived or travelled outside large East Coast cities/suburbs. (Cambridge doesn't qualify; neither do visits to Chicago.)

John Edwards was right the first time around: there ARE two Americas. You've got to at least experience the other one sometime so you get a sense of how a good part of America actually lives.

Posted by GtheK | February 8, 2008 10:12 AM

Re otto

I wonder if Hiam Saban has had a transmitter implanted in Mr. Williams spine.

Posted by SLC | February 8, 2008 10:14 AM

Re otto's "I'm already au fait with how to lose the G-Men "
-----------
Actually, you need to worry about a sinister entity who's far more terrifying than the FBI or CIA -- your spouse.

See, the shops that make this stuff suffered from government budget cuts. So they decided to market their wares in the ..er.. private sector.

From http://www.news.com/Snooping-by-satellite/2100-1028_3-5533560-2.html

"GPS tracking systems are becoming cheap enough--the prices have dropped by about 50 percent in the last few years--that they've become attractive methods for tracing the whereabouts of teenagers and spouses. In 2003, South Carolina police thought they had discovered a bomb under a vehicle, but it turned out to be a GPS bug planted by a man's wife. In another case, a man in Colorado was convicted of tracking his wife with a GPS bug after she began divorce proceedings against him. "

Posted by Don Williams | February 8, 2008 10:15 AM

When that 2001 piece first came out I stood up and cheered. So much of the reaction against Borders and B&N is know-nothing snobbery.

Back in the day, there were a handful of extraordinarily good independant bookstores. We sought these places out because they were a rare commodity. Any visit to Portland, Oregon, for example, included a pilgrimage to Powell's. The sad truth behind this is that the vast majority of independant bookstores strove to rise to mediocrity. The old chain bookstores, Walden's or B. Dalton's, found in shopping malls were even worse.

The first time I stepped into a Borders, around 1995 or so, I was amazed. I knew it was a chain and had dismissed it because of that until it was recommended by a friend. What I found was a chain bookstore that was as good as all but the best independants. The current suburban incarnation has backed off a bit, adding a bit more fluff. But you can still walk into a suburban Borders and buy Tacitus in the original. How many indies have that?

There is this image of the independant bookstore with inventory lovingly selected and a knowledgeable staff. Such establishments do exist, but they have always been rare. No chain will ever be able to replicate this, but neither could most independants. When someone tells me that I shouldn't have access to a pretty good bookstore because it isn't a great bookstore, so instead I should settle for a bad bookstore. Well, this hardly makes sense, now does it?

Posted by Richard Hershberger | February 8, 2008 10:15 AM

"One of the many reasons to love Reihan Salaam is that he's someone who recognizes that aesthetic beliefs are legitimate and meaningful."

Luckily I can agree with the point and still disregard the idiot Salaam because the idea is a banal one regularly offered up by thousands.

Posted by Mark | February 8, 2008 10:22 AM

RE SLC's comment "I wonder if Hiam Saban has had a transmitter implanted in Mr. Williams spine"
----------
Possibly -- I feel a pain in the tush whenever SLC hits the "Post" button on this blog.

Posted by Don Williams | February 8, 2008 10:22 AM

I, too, have mixed feelings about this. One of my first jobs, in high school, was at a children's book store that was going under because of a Barnes and Noble that had opened up a few exits away on the highway. I once walked in on the owner, a lovely and capable woman, sobbing over the fate of her store. The store was gone within two years.

But I have to say, as much as I hate the homogenization of the American landscape (see "Geography of Nowhere") and mourn the death of many quirky indpendents, I get a rush of pure joy whenever I walk into a Borders (I know it's irrational to favor one of these big box stores over another, but I've never quite forgiven B&N). For a bibliophile, these places are breathtaking. So many books! And so much room to wander, to sit and page through a magazine, sipping a coffee. True luxury.

The sad fact, though, is that the book business is not like the coffee business. Starbucks helps local coffee shops because the profit margin on coffee is so high - you can charge $4 for a drink that costs, at most, fifty cents. This gives local coffee shops the ability to survive by selling coffee at a lower price AND match or even beat Starbucks in the "intangibles" department - they can still have storefronts that are just as spacious, have comfy seating, have music on weekend nights, etc. Especially in areas with lower rents (this might be more difficult in NYC).

Bookstores, on the other hand, don't have this advantage. It's almost impossible to compete with the chains when it comes to prices, because the profit margin on books is so low, and they are less likely to be able to buy books at the low prices Borders or, of course, Amazon, can. Worse, books are bulky and take up a lot of space, so most independents are forced to cram as many books as possible into a small space, leaving a lot less of that lovely browsing room you find in Borders. For example, here in DC we have Kramerbooks, which rocks. Every time I walk in there, I walk out with 5 or 6 additions to my "books to read" list. But it's unblievably cramped, and so it's really impossible to browse. I can see how people would rather walk ten minutes to the Borders and shop there.

Posted by Sarah | February 8, 2008 10:24 AM

Re Don Williams

"RE SLC's comment "I wonder if Hiam Saban has had a transmitter implanted in Mr. Williams spine"
----------
Possibly -- I feel a pain in the tush whenever SLC hits the "Post" button on this blog."

I rather suspect that the pain in Mr. Williams posterior is a result of spending too much time sitting down and filling up the threads on this blog with nonsense.

Posted by SLC | February 8, 2008 10:36 AM

One of my first jobs, in high school, was at a children's book store that was going under because of a Barnes and Noble that had opened up a few exits away on the highway. I once walked in on the owner, a lovely and capable woman, sobbing over the fate of her store.

I saw that movie! Meg Rayan played the bookstore owner; Tom Hanks was an executive for the large chain putting her out of business . . .

Posted by rea | February 8, 2008 10:42 AM

Coffee and pretty girls - another advantage of the chain stores.

Posted by Vinn | February 8, 2008 10:43 AM

Re SLC's comment "I rather suspect"
------------
And I "rather suspect" that SLC's surly personality was formed when his father circumscised him at home with a dull X-Acto knife as a cost-saving measure.

Posted by Don Williams | February 8, 2008 10:46 AM

Growing up in South Jersey, there was a tolerable indy bookstore in (believe it or not) the Cherry Hill Mall. Probably not that great now that I look back on it, but at least they had a couple of books in the Sociology (I think) section that helped me understand being gay when I was 13 or 14, and it was someplace to browse when my Mom went to the mall.

Then when I got a job in the Detroit area and settled in the western burbs, the only bookstores were B. Dalton and Waldenbooks. Talk about depressing! Great if you wanted the latest bestsellers, but not much good for anything else. I tried once ordering a book I had seen reviewed in the NYT Book Review, they basically blew it off (took down the information, and when I called later to check on the status they denied having any record of an order). There was a local chain called Little Professor (with a store in Plymouth, where I lived), but that really wasn't much better than the others.

Then someone clued me into a store in Ann Arbor (20 minutes away) called Border's. Well worth the drive (and the parking hassles in Ann Arbor). By '88 they had opened a store in Novi and I finally had a place to wander around on a Saturday or Sunday morning seeing what looked interesting.

So I guess this is a long-winded way of saying I never saw the problem with Borders or B&N, either. For the 90% of the country that couldn't get to a real bookstore easily, they have shown that there's something beyond the bestsellers. Definitely an increase in utility for those of us out here in flyover country.

Posted by Don K | February 8, 2008 10:48 AM

Luckily I can agree with the point and still disregard the idiot Salaam because the idea is a banal one regularly offered up by thousands.

I didn't express that thought very well. I should have said that Salaam is one of the few people in the blogosphere to make appeals to aesthetics and not apologize for it or act as though they are less legitimate than more utilitarian concerns.

I have to say that I have a big problem with calling Salaam an idiot. I disagree with him on more things than I agree with him, but he's clearly deeply intelligent.

Posted by Freddie | February 8, 2008 10:52 AM

I've always found staff at Borders and Barnes & Noble to be knowledgeable and thoughtful. Basically, that's where English majors goes to die -- er, work. Amazon is wonderful IF you know the book you want. Borders/B&N (and used bookstores, and LIBRARIES) are places to browse when you are looking for inspiration about something to read.

Posted by DHN | February 8, 2008 10:54 AM

I grew up in the Bronx in the 70s and would ride the subway downtown to the B&N store on 18th Street and 5th Avenue. What an amazing place that was back in the day. The stuff that I used to find on the tables. And we used to go to the textbook and scientific book annex across the street for our college textbooks. The current B&N bears little resemblence to the original.

Posted by Pan | February 8, 2008 11:08 AM

Barnes & Noble used their scorched earth tactics against NYC independents long before they went nationwide. (Hence, when Matt was growing up, B&N was his neighborhood bookstore). I personally will never forgive them for opening a store within a block of Shakespeare & Co. on 82nd.

Posted by DukeJ | February 8, 2008 11:08 AM

Since I live in Brooklyn, I have options I could have never imagined growing up in a small Midwestern town. (You could buy books at the mall over in the next county, or maybe pick up the odd paperback at the Ben Franklin's.) I can walk to a modest-size B&N or to a legendary independent bookstore if I need a book that day. But mostly, I'll find the book on Amazon, print out the page, and take it to the storefront used bookstore in the neighborhood and have the owner order it using the ISBN number.

Why? Because I like having the bookstore, even if it is a hole in the wall, and I know if Leonora doesn't make it work, the storefront will revert to a nail salon or a card store. Having a little bookstore a seven-minute walk from my door is worth the little extra I pay for ordering new books through her rather than Amazon.

Posted by jlw | February 8, 2008 11:12 AM

Anecdotal evidence against Matt's thesis: Cody's, a venerable Berkeley institution and definitely one of the "good" independents, had to close its flagship Telegraph Ave store last year. Of course, Cody's was a giant new books store, competing almost directly with B&N and Amazon. I would guess that specialist and used independent bookstores have a much more secure niche.

Posted by Kalkin | February 8, 2008 11:33 AM

Enjoy 'em while you can. In 20 years, all the brick and mortar stores will be gone. Or at least, 90% of them. We'll all be downloading ebooks into our Kindles.

Posted by Mixner | February 8, 2008 11:50 AM

Funny to read Matt's story about B&N. When I was growing up in Ann Arbor in the 70's this new indie bookstore called Borders opened up. A great bookstore in a college town with plenty of other bookstores already and a discerning audience. They became THE bookstore because they were better than all the others, so it's hard for me to get worked up about their success.

Posted by T-mac | February 8, 2008 11:51 AM

Re Don Williams

Gee, Mr. Williams is a little out of sorts today. He must have missed his daily blow job from Eric Prince. Better luck tomorrow.

Posted by SLC | February 8, 2008 12:02 PM

Don't forget about Alibris (http://www.alibris.com) where you can get just about any book you want, generally at a cheaper price than Amazon, and especially so for textbooks.

(Yes, I work for Alibris.)

Posted by greebs | February 8, 2008 12:14 PM

I grew up in a tiny New England town with only a library to access reading material. The thought that young readers can go to B&N or Borders makes me happy.

I am familiar with Politics and Prose and Blue Hill Books. Let me recommend the wonderful Vertigo Books in College Park to those in the Md./DC area (easily accessible by Metro.)

Posted by Peter Driscoll | February 8, 2008 12:17 PM

there has been a resurgence of hipness to the American library.

Where I live, decidedly un-hip Indianapolis, they recently opened a brand-spanking-new downtown central library. And what does the place resemble? A really freaking huge B&N, with not just wifi but a rather nice free computer lab. It even sells Starbucks coffee.

Posted by Phaedrus | February 8, 2008 12:38 PM

Indies of all kinds have benefitted from online retail - first by using the medium, second by the medium walloping the big-box chain stores that were driving indies out of business. Small, specialized and experiential retailers will be the brick-and-mortar survivors.

Posted by allbetsareoff | February 8, 2008 12:45 PM

There was a similar article in The Atlantic a few years ago (perhaps by the same author?) about the merits of chain stores generally. The gist of the article was that, prior to the advance of chain stores, there weren't a lot of better alternatives in most Main Streets.

I've always been a fan of Barnes & Noble, particularly because of its cafes. If you ever travel to remote areas on business, often where there's no Starbucks there is still a Barnes & Noble with a cafe. It's nice to have a place to hang out and read the paper in between meetings.

Posted by Fred | February 8, 2008 12:46 PM

abebooks.com is generally cheaper than Alibris, and seems to have a better selection, too. It's a loose network of thousands of bookstores, so your money generally goes to indies. (No, I don't work for them.)

Posted by Invigilator | February 8, 2008 1:07 PM

Invigilator nails it. In the bad old days, you couldn't buy about 98% of the books that had ever been published. Today, search on Abebooks and find that book that went through one printing 60 years ago.

On the flipside, the much loved independents were actual vultures feasting on estates- how else were the heirs going to get rid of the books? Probably on the average the independent paid about 5 cents on the dollar, if that, and had the reasonable excuse that they didn't have the shelf space to stock titles that wouldn't sell for years.

Now, if you have a collection, catalogue it and put it on Abebooks. Price it so it shows on the first page of the search and you'll still get twice what a bookseller would offer.

As for the much-loved independents, I've wasted my time searching their shelves for my non-fiction interests, and finding nothing. As for their clerks, a baboon could not rival their clueless look when asked about books on boats or trains, publishing fields which have done extremely well in other venues than bookstores.

Independents will always go out of business at a great rate, because most of them are hobby stores opened by retired people who think it would be fun.

And don't miss the Barnes and Nobles reprints of classics that are out of copyright- these are some of the most incredible bargains in reading you can find. Compared to them, going to the library is too expensive.

Posted by serial catowner | February 8, 2008 1:49 PM

abebooks.com is better than Alibris.

I am pro-borders. In the 1980's Baltimore didn't have any bookstore as good as those mall Border's are now.

Posted by lemmy caution | February 8, 2008 3:54 PM

More on Cody's original store on Telegraph in Berkeley, just down the street from Cal Berkeley. Students from the 1950's through the 1990's used to walk a few blocks from campus to shop, browse, and purchase many of its incredible selection. The students at UCB today don't do that, they shop on campus or at Amazon which, of course, pays no sales tax. Barnes and Noble in Berkeley is not on the same level as Cody's. It's a shame they had to close on Telegrahp after waging battles in and out of court with the chains and the publishers which gave chains sweetheart deals. Us babyboomers talk a good game, but it comes down to price.

Posted by Jim | February 8, 2008 4:07 PM

Powells is a chain?

As a former Powells employee, let me tell you I'm a bit surprised. It may be a chain *in Portland* but that does not extend beyond the borders of Oregon.

There is also a Powells in Chicago that is not affiliated with Powells-Portland.

Posted by dadanarchist | February 8, 2008 5:13 PM

Fuck 'the bookstore experience', I've got the Bodleian.

Posted by B | February 8, 2008 8:22 PM

OK, I ran an online test on Donald Shoup's "The High Cost of Free Parking," a book I'm considering buying. My results:

Direct from the publisher (American Planning Association): $59.95, $52.95 for members (which I am), but $8.00 shipping.

Amazon/Borders: $59.95, free shipping

Alibris: from $67.84, but that's shipping from the UK. Free shipping on $71.94 direct from Alibris. One seller charges as much as $112.40 .

AbeBooks: Low price is $61.15 with free shipping. High price is $131.30 + $6.00 shipping.

Barnes and Noble: $59.95, free shipping, or $47.96 for members (which I'm not; membership is $25 a year)

So there you go, just one data point. Who are these sellers who're trying to get away with selling this book for twice the list price?

Posted by Adam Villani | February 9, 2008 12:26 AM

Also, Powell's is $74.95, free shipping.

Powell's physical location in Portland is the best bookstore I've ever been in, by far. But let's not kid ourselves; they're very much the exception for independent booksellers, not the rule. Many may have had an interesting selection, but were no bigger than your typical Waldenbooks, so if what you were looking for didn't jibe with the owner's tastes, they were of no use to you. Do Borders and B&N stock *everything*? No. But the two B&Ns and two Borders in my hometown probably each have more than the equivalent of the stock of the four mall bookstores and four small independents they've replaced.

Posted by Adam Villani | February 9, 2008 12:37 AM

"Coffee and pretty girls - another advantage of the chain stores."

Wayne Elise, a "Pick Up Artist" guru, tells a story about this. He trains guys in how to pick up women, and part of the training is "field exercises": he takes guys out to public places and watches them try out his techniques.

So he takes this guy to a bookstore. He points out a pretty girl and tells the guy, "Go over and start a conversation by telling her that you read that book and it's a great book."

So the guy goes over, works up his courage, and says, "That is a fabulous book! I read that several times!"

Girl looks up and says, "It's a dictionary."

Posted by Richard Steven Hack | February 9, 2008 12:56 AM

Personally I don't drink coffee, so I don't care about the cafes, but I'll frequently swing by a Borders or B&N when I don't have anything pressing to do and easily spend an hour or two browsing, all of it blissfully undisturbed by intrusive shopkeepers, neither the ones trying to be "helpful" nor ones objecting to using the place as a library. Just me and the books.

Posted by Adam Villani | February 9, 2008 3:04 AM