We still have a Barnes and Noble that appears to be going strong, in Leominster, Mass. Breaking with my custom of only using the public library, I bought a book there the other day (but only because I had a gift card). But, while there, I noted how paltry their selection is, compared to the library. They had maybe 10-20% of the fiction that you could find at the library. Not to mention that the library will order, from any library in the network, any book or CD or DVD they don’t have at hand. Makes you wonder how there were ever bookstores at all.
Are you sure about this? I’ve seen several Family Videos closed down this year.
It is kind of odd. Bend and environs has grown quite a bit in recent decades. Lots of traffic congestion.
It might seem that the store serves those people living in remote areas of Central Oregon well outside of town who don’t have high speed Internet. But a lot of them have sat tv.
There are a lot of weekend people and such who have 2nd homes or timeshares in the region. Do they come into town to rent movies?
If stores in more remote areas can’t make it, how can this one?
Back when I purchased physical books, any good bookstore could do this for you. Since I was always wanting some obscure book, a good percentage of my purchases were made by having the bookstore order it for me, and then waiting for the call that it had come in and could be picked up. Then as now, I wanted to own my books, so I preferred the bookstore to the library.
According to this they are doing pretty well as of 2017.
Great line about RadioShack from that, umm, “article”:
“It’s like walking into your grandpa’s basement. You always expect to see something cool, but it never delivers.”
As far as I’m concerned, libraries rule. But some people don’t like to touch books which have been God-knows-where. People take them into the bathroom ya know!..