Best Bookshops 'Are the Ones People Want to Shop In'

 

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"The independent bookstores that have proved successful are uniquely suited to the community they're in. Some are big. Some are small. Some are homey and stitched together with found shelving. Others are practically works of art and architecture. They stock the books that the community wants, and, while their selections are minuscule compared with Barnes & Noble, the staff can speak to the books on those shelves with authority. In other words, they are all different.

An analogous example sits right across from the flagship Barnes & Noble, in Union Square, in New York City: a greenmarket that draws in people who want to browse, socialize, and take photos of pumpkins, even if they can buy the same foods and products at the Whole Foods Market on the south side of the square. The brick-and-mortar stores that do best today are the ones people want to shop in, not the ones they have to."

--David Sax, in a New Yorker piece headlined "What Barnes & Noble Doesn't Get About Bookstores"

via Shelf Awareness