What?! A New Bookstore Is Opening Near Me!
.jpg)
I think I did a double take when I saw that a new Brick & Mortar Bookseller is opening in a plaza about a five minute drive from where I live. I don’t remember what store used to be in the vacant space. Currently, there’s a grocery store on one end of the plaza and a pet store on the other with a pharmacy, an urgent care place, and several shops that I don’t remember in between.
A few years ago, B&M Booksellers shut down several locations in my area (one of them was kind of a cool store). I’m more into used books (especially stuff published before 1970), so I’m more concerned about the disappearing used book stores, but I’m still glad that B&M Booksellers might be making a comeback.
Here’s an article from Publisher’s Weekly that suggests maybe book sales are on the upswing, but there are mixed signals. Of course, there are always mixed signals. If there weren’t mixed signals, decision making would be easy.
B&M Booksellers is usually too expensive for me (I’m a cheapskate), and it’s a chain, but I like having a bookstore nearby, so I might have to buy the occasional expensive book just to support a (chain) bookstore.
Back in the 1990s, B&M Booksellers was seen as the villain by some bibliophiles because its dominant presence was shutting down smaller bookstores. Now some book readers have more sympathy for B&M as it’s trying to survive Amazon’s onslaught.
I’m actually kind of fortunate. I have a decent used bookstore less than five minutes away from one of my current jobs, and now I’ll have a B&M Bookseller five minutes away from my home.
I’d rather have a used bookstore 5 minutes away from me, but I’m not going to complain about B&M Booksellers. At least, not until I see the prices of the books I want to buy.
*****
A grammar-obsessed English teacher falls in ‘luuuvvv’ but discovers how chaotic and dangerous ‘luuuvvv’ can be.
The Sunset Rises: A 1990s Romantic Comedy
Get a signed copy of my one and only novel, The Sunset Rises: A 1990s Romantic Comedy! My handwriting is actually legible too. Postage included in the United States.
$20.00
Or you can buy a copy here on Amazon!
Not sure? Read a sample chapter of The Sunset Rises: A 1990s Romantic Comedy.
Dysfunctional Literacy 
I’m all in favor of there being B&N physical stores. I personally prefer to shop at small independent stores even though they may charge a bit more. but yes please let’s have stores that sell books. all types of stores.
As a former employee of said B&M Booksellers, I find myself getting a little defensive. We/they only ever charged what the publisher printed on the book as it’s price, and often times sold it for less, via some sort of sale or discount, or buy one get one offer. I’m no longer affiliated with them, so I don’t know why I feel the need to defend them, but I do, and apparently am. I don’t even shop there anymore, because going in there reminds me of a rather stressful time period, but I guess I feel like they’re good people and get an undeservedly bad rap.
I understand what you mean. I’m just writing from the perspective of a cheapskate who spends way too much time in used book stores.
The books at Brick&Mortar cost more than the books at the used bookstore, so I unfairly say that B&M charges too much. But I’d still rather have a B&M near me than not have one.