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I haven't been in my local B&N store in more than a year. Instead, I buy my books at B&N online, and I buy a lot of books for myself, all hardcover (I currently have 43 on preorder). Every month I also buy several books for each of my grandchildren. Each grandchild gets her own set of books. B&N ships them directly to the grandchild. I spend about $100 a month on the children's books (I also only buy hardcovers for them).
But yesterday my wife and I had to go to a small village about 15 miles north of us to take our oldest dog to our vet. Turned out we had to "kill" an hour while the vet treated the dog, so we walked to the local indie bookstore thinking it a good place to pass time. This bookstore does a lot of events; the monthly calendar barely has an event-free day. However, the bookstore does discourage people from sitting and reading -- only in the children's area are there chairs and tables, all kid size.
As it turned out, going to the bookstore was a financial "mistake." I spent $400 on children's books. Our area has a lot of children's book authors and illustrators so the local bookstore carries a lot of autographed children's books, which versions are not available at B&N (the books are, but not with autographs). That is one way in which indies remain alive -- offering something that neither B&N nor Amazon can offer, such as the autographed books. I admit I wouldn't have spent the $400 except that I couldn't pass up the opportunity to buy the grandchildren autographed copies.
Had I been able to buy the books autographed at B&N or Amazon, I would probably have reduced my costs by at least $70 as both B&N and Amazon discount, whereas I paid full list price for each book at the indie.
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