A Good old fashioned Book Store by Tony Green

Image of a book store opening its gates

I used to get promotional emails from Borders advertising discounts for members of their rewards club before they closed many their stores after filing for bankruptcy.

More often than not, I would get the coupon on my Blackberry and head to my nearest Borders and purchase my newest reading material.  I read books online but sometimes I enjoy reading a book the old fashioned way.

After all of the Borders in my area had closed I was walking in downtown Pleasanton, California on a break from work. By the way, this works wonders for clearing my head and I stumbled upon this traditional book store.

I had forgotten these places existed. Many small, family operated books stores fund themselves unable to stay in business due to not being able to be competitive with the large mega book chains and on line sales.

Then I recalled while I was at Borders children and their parents were relaxing, reading or otherwise killing time in spite of the fact most people with Internet capability can purchase books online and have them shipped directly to their doorstep. I bet if you measured the amount of time to walk into a brick and mortar book store and pay for a book versus the time folks spent browsing it would be much longer. Could the act of going to the bookstore have more importance than a place to purchase your latest reading material?

In my view, these smaller local family run bookstores may be making a comeback. Think about how relaxing it is reading a book occasionally over a tall latte?