Omaha.com has an interesting Series of articles from a columnist on the battle between the small book stores and Barnes & Noble and Borders. She took some heat for her columns, they are a good read.
\”\”\”You are the killer of businesses,\” one man wrote. People like me are on the increase, he said. \”They are the people who take advantage of the hospitality the businesses offer, complain when they can\’t get more, read and wear out a book, then walk out without purchasing anything.\”
Omaha.com has an interesting Series of articles from a columnist on the battle between the small book stores and Barnes & Noble and Borders. She took some heat for her columns, they are a good read.
\”\”\”You are the killer of businesses,\” one man wrote. People like me are on the increase, he said. \”They are the people who take advantage of the hospitality the businesses offer, complain when they can\’t get more, read and wear out a book, then walk out without purchasing anything.\”The most damning of these was the Monday column written by Susan Walker, executive director of the Upper Midwest Booksellers Association. Walker wrote, \”Perhaps, it is just as well that she inflicts her parasitic habits on Barnes & Noble instead of her neighborhood coffee shop, bookstore or even her local publicly funded library.\”
They almost always have what we\’re looking for. And if we don\’t know what we\’re looking for, they don\’t care if we take three hours poking around and then don\’t buy anything.
The big bookstores don\’t care because they know we\’ll be back. And the next time we stop in, or maybe the time after that, we will buy something. If we ever need a book, they know we\’ll think of them first. I know I have a hard time getting out of there without buying something.
You can\’t tell people to shop at your store because they should, because it\’s the right thing to do, because it will prove they are good people.
We shop where it\’s most comfortable, most convenient and where we get the most for our money.
I find myself shopping at independent stores and chain stores, eating at a locally owned restaurant one night and Burger King the next.
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