I ranted and raved about our incompetent local government here, tying the entire rant into the closing of a local proprietorship - Thackery's bookstore. Idly stumbling around the Internet I found a site listing independent alternatives to Borders Books. Edward Champion, the author over at Reluctant Habits - a cultural website in ever-shifting standing, published a list of independent bookstores (AKA proprietorships, for any city council members who might be reading this) for cities that have a Borders bookstore. Edward's efforts can be seen here, a List of Independent Alternatives to Closed Borders Bookstores. Perusing the list with the faint hope of finding an alternative to Barnes and Noble, I found - nothing. The Borders bookstore in Toledo is closing and the only other alternative is B&N.
The local governments (Toledo and others) could have prevented this. They didn't, mainly because the people that make up those governments are even more greedy than they are incompetent.
I miss Borders. They closed down here a couple of years ago. A trip to Borders usually resulted in walking out with five or six extremely good reads for less than $50.00.
ReplyDeleteI shall miss them as well, but I miss Thackery's even more.
ReplyDeleteThis give Barnes and Noble a virtual monopoly on the retail bookstore business in Toledo, Ohio, and very likely in a lot of other places as well. Good for B&N, not so good for the average consumer.