Saturday, August 30, 2008

Yellow Dog Books

Do you remember last month when I posted about the providence of finding Yellow Dog Books? I was thrilled to "have to" go to Madison, rather than Jackson for ballet simply because I knew I could walk across the street to this wonderfully personal bookstore.

Mr. W even bought me a gift card for my birthday, so I could shop without guilt.

They are closing.

They just didn't have enough business to merit hiring help, and 70 to 80 hour weeks were draining the retirement age father and mother of two small children daughter. Barnes and Noble moved a few miles from them at the beginning of the summer. I don't know if sales dropped, but I do know it couldn't have helped.

I hate that. I hate that BN advertises discounts on bestsellers creating the illusion that all books are discounted when they aren't. I hate that the perception of quantity and discounts moves us to shop, rather than quality of service shown in carefully selected titles and personal greetings.

I am so disappointed that I can barely enter the store to shop their 20-60% off every book in the store closing sale. The closing is just too depressing.

Okay, perhaps I have been able to purchase a few books.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

That is too bad. And happening all across the continent.

Jennifer said...

I hate that small businesses don't receive their due in tax breaks. We need to bring back the entrepreneurism our country was built on. We need to do it fast, before we lose all of our downtowns to ugly, cold, box stores.

I'm sad, Wisteria. Yellow Dog Books having to close is as depressing as my mother considering buying a next-door neighbor's home that is about to go into foreclosure. There's no joy in scoring a deal out of someone else's misfortune, but better to help relieve them of their inventory than not.

Hoping for better days ahead...

Anonymous said...

Oh, that's sad, Wisteria. I was looking forward to going there. I'm sure B & N's looming presence did the store in. It happened here in our town years ago, and the wonderful independent store had to close.

Anonymous said...

This seems to be the way it goes with most independent stores, whether they sell books or clothes. The Wal-Mart down the road is adding on to become even bigger, gag. Fortunately, most of the stores in our town are able to hang on because people like me just aren't willing to spend the money on gas to go further than we need to. And really, what you think you end up saving at B&N or Wal-Mart on the "discounted" merchandise, you spend on gas and time...

Wisteria said...

We don't have any big box stores in our town, but in the somewhat larger towns 20 miles away, there are some of the biggies. Becky, you are right, people will waste gas, when the same products can be found at home. I don't shop the big boxes, unless there is an emergency.

I actually entered a Wally World this morning looking for wide mouth canning jars. They didn't have them either. We bought nothing.

The local hardware will be able to get them for me next week. We wanted to get the honey chambers off the bee hives before the storms come, but we'll just have to wait.

Wisteria said...

Susan,
You would love this store.