Subtitle

Thanks for the comment, Tony. We’ll tweak the article to remove the contradiction. But for the record: the word “bookstores” did not appear in the subtitle in either the original 1989 edition or the 1997 paperback reprint.

Then i suddenly appears there in the 1999 edition. I don’t know if Oldenburg said something about bookstores in new material for the 1999 version. But he doesn’t in the 1997 paperback, which is the version I’ve read.

Scott McLemee, columnist at Inside Higher Ed, at 7:35 am EDT on March 28, 2007

Well, I have to first qualify myself because I actually worked for the “Great Satan,” and actually, I do have to give some support to Borders. Granted, I worked at the company when it was still owned by Tom and Louis Borders, and before it was the corporate monolith. But while Cleveland always had some good indie bookstores, I have to say that none of them ever took my breath away like my first ever visit to a Borders, at the flagship store in Ann Arbor. I had never seen so many books in my life at a bookstore. Even though I was a flat-broke undergrad, I immediately bought up far too many books than I could actually afford, because it was so intoxicating! This was before books could be purchased online, and it was tough to get books that you really wanted. Most indies in Cleveland had fairly good selections, but they were fairly deep in some areas (nearly all in fiction), and usually very shallow in areas I wanted, such as history. But Borders had it all. And when I had a chance to work for Borders and open up their first Cleveland store, I jumped at it. It was a great place to work, and while some people were unhappy with us because of the competition, others were ecstatic, becuase they too had never seen such breadth in what the store stocked. And yes, some independents did close, though the original Cleveland location wasn’t in a “neighborhood,” but in an outer-ring suburban shopping center. And the staff was hardly a bunch of die-hard business types. Most had worked for independent bookstores, some actually owned their own bookstores. Our wages were higher than other retail stores, and turnover on our staff was virtually nonexistent, which is really odd for a retailer. The truth is, we all loved books, and loved sharing that with our patrons. And we gave them intensive customer service as well. I have mixed feelings now, because when the company went public and acquired WaldenBooks, the corporate hierarchy was suddenly filled with WaldenBooks execs, and the whole mindset of the company changed. It was more about sell, sell, sell ... rather than being the cool place to hang out it had been. The company turned into giant mall stores, rather than the well-thought, well-stocked, bookstores run by bibliphiles that they once were. That said, I still shop there, because while I can get anything I want from online sellers, it doesn’t compare to being able to BROWSE ... to read the shelf, find an interesting title, pull it off, and sit there a while and read, and decide if I want it. You can’t do that electronically. And while some people are all about the “new” with anything technological, I don’t think books are ready to be replaced. It’s hard to cuddle up to an electronic book.

And let’s also keep historical perspective ... ALL retail has been getting bigger and bigger, so it’s not just independent booksellers who are feeling the pinch; it’s been independent grocers, it’s been small car dealerships, small shoe stores, small appliance stores, etc. It’s becoming more difficult to be a retail entrepreneur today because of the rush for massive size and limited service. Bookstores are just another in the long, long list of retail concepts that have been “super-sized.”

Chris Dawson, Manager, Funding Opportunities at Cuyahoga Community College, at 10:56 am EDT on March 28, 2007

corporate monolith benefits

I used to be a Borders employee, and at least in our town, they treated their workers much better than the Barnes and Noble did. We had a great scheduler, were paid about 25-50 cents more an hour at entry level, had good benefits, and were given several employee perks like Christmas shopping days with huge discounts. I am a HUGE fan of independent bookstores, but in a mid-size Midwestern town where the nearest bookstores were either crappy mall stores with bestsellers only, or a used bookstore almost twenty miles away, Borders was a godsend.

Now, when I get books or media I don’t like for birthdays or Christmas, I exchange them at Borders because even if my gifters didn’t buy it there, I feel like the corporation is large enough to “take the loss.” Does anyone else have that sort of reaction to the monoliths?

grad03, at 12:21 pm EDT on March 29, 2007

An earlier comment noted that “ALL retail has been getting bigger and bigger, so it’s not just independent booksellers who are feeling the pinch; it’s been independent grocers, it’s been small car dealerships, small shoe stores, small appliance stores, etc. It’s becoming more difficult to be a retail entrepreneur today because of the rush for massive size and limited service. Bookstores are just another in the long, long list of retail concepts that have been ’super-sized.’”

Very true, and I agree completely. However, books aren’t just another bottle of ketchup. They aren’t mere merchandise. They represent ideas and history and facts and dreams. So if we lose indie bookstores, we lose something much more important to this nation than a place to buy shoes and appliances; we also lose the tremendous variety of voices and views that are available to us, and by extension, a hefty chunk of our First Amendment rights and intellectual freedom.

It’s important to note that the handful of individuals who determine what books Borders and Barnes & Noble will carry in their stores have extraordinary power. They literally decide what the vast majority of U.S. book consumers see on the shelves. And quite frequently what’s displayed prominently in these stores is there thanks to large amounts of “co-op” dollars from publishers who pay for the privilege. (Many indies get co-op, too, but it’s piddling compared to what the chains receive.)

If the big-box retailers continue putting indie bookstores out of business — and make no mistake, they’re gunning for them — the places where Americans are free to buy books will become fewer, and the variety of books available to us will dwindle.

Laundry detergent at a deep discount is one thing (and regrettable in its own way when it puts mom-and-pop stores out of business), but homogenizing bookstores and watering down America’s literary culture is something else entirely.

Larry Portzline, Executive Director at National Council on Bookstore Tourism, at 5:51 am EDT on April 5, 2007