No Surprise Here

Drove up to a local used bookstore. There was only one other car in the general vicinity of the parking lot ..... "Wow it's really looking slow tonight," I thought. From my car I could see what looked like empty magazine racks. "Wonder where they moved them to?" A closer look revealed an empty store. A quick glance at the neon sign .... No bright neon, it was dark. I walked up to the entrance to read the out-of-business notice. I guess I shouldn't be too surprised. Actually I'm surprised that it didn't happen sooner. From the day they opened three years ago, the place has had zero soul, no atmosphere. A poor selection of books. It was cold (not farenheit-wise) and felt empty. It didn't invite one to come in, look around and stay awhile. It seemed obvious (and I'm certainly no business major) ..... No seating. An unattractive shelving style and use of floor space. No music being played throughout the store. Only a tiny boombox at the checkout counter, no doubt to aide in keeping the attendant from falling asleep. A "used" bookstore with very few used books. No extensive sections or genres. (unless you were into comic books.) No cool nooks and crannies with eclectic but interesting book titles. Nothing beyond the mainstream. There was always more employees milling about than customers. It was kinda like being in walmart (minus the trashy feel) except that there were never long (or even two person) lines at the cash register.

I would venture a guess that most visitors to a bookstore, while they may have a title or two in mind that they are looking for, also want to explore and see what else they might come across. The atmosphere needs to be conducive to cause a person to feel that they'd like to stay awhile.

For the first year or so after opening, I kept thinking that they would make improvements to the look and feel. Certainly I thought, whoever was in charge had to see what I was seeing. And even moreso, what I was feeling. But it never happened. Why bother going into business if you're not willing to spend the money to make a place like that, a destination for people? It was so bad that once in the door, I almost felt obligated to buy something just to help them out. I actually felt badly on a few occasions as I slinked out with no purchase in hand. I would often try to make my exit when there were no employees close to the door in order to avoid having to make eye contact. I genuinely felt badly for them.

So again, I'm semi-mourning the loss of another bookstore. Except I'm not really all that sad because I've always expected it to happen since only a few months into their existence. Their existence being three years according to the posted notice. Now that was truly surprising. I would have thought much less.