Urban bookstores
Tuesday, October 03, 2006
Don't get me wrong, I'm a huge fan of the big box bookstores but urban independent bookstores are pretty cool too. The smaller retailers will never be able to keep up with the prices at Borders and Barnes & Noble but they have found a niche as a gathering place for art exhibits, author readings and book signings. People don't buy books in bookstores anyway -- do you? Both spots are great hangouts and I'm happy to support either kind of this "educational entertainment".Here's an interesting take on the impact bookstores have in urban areas (from today's Orlando Sentinel).
"Another source of support for general independent bookstores -- at least in fashionable neighborhoods -- is coming from an unusual place: developers.
The builders behind the upscale, mixed-use Glen Town Center near Chicago, for example, bought the neighborhood's 9,000-square-foot Book Market at Hangar One when the owners went bankrupt this year. Then the developers found a bookseller to manage the store for them.
Here in Orlando, the developers behind the upscale Thornton Park Central founded Urban Think when the commercial and residential development opened in 2001.
Bruce Harris, who bought a majority stake in Urban Think two years ago, said market research showed that a bookstore was a key component of the kind of trendy neighborhood the developers were trying to foster in the then-iffy area of downtown Orlando."
posted by Michael Tavani @ 10:27 PM |
