Quote:
Originally Posted by John F
When I think bookstore, for this discussion, I think a store who's primary business is selling new books. From the Google's I did, I don't think there were any (or few) outliers (art supply, news stands, airports). There were some used book stores. There were some college.
If you are only talking B&N than fine. But if you are talking historically, IMO, for my definition of bookstores, they are not just in/were in the biggest cities. I seem to recall driving through towns in the 70s and 80s, and many smaller cities had bookstores; they weren't the size of the modern B&N, but they were not boutiques and they sold new books, and you could order what they didn't carry. My town had a bookstore, and it wasn't even in the top 100 for population in our state.
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When I moved to Twin Falls, Idaho in the early 90s, there was a local book store downtown, a B. Dalton (or Waldenbooks?) in the mall, a Hastings (which also sold records and rented and sold videos, but the book section was the most prominent), and the "new" Barnes & Noble in one of the strip malls around the mall. The local bookstore went out of business shortly after the B&N came in. This town had a population of 28,000 in 1990, so it wasn't huge. I can't remember exactly when B. Dalton/Waldenbooks went out, but I think in the early 2000s. I think Hastings lasted until 2007/2008 recession (maybe longer). Now B&N is the only local choice in Twin Falls.
In the 80s almost every mall had either a Pickwick, B. Dalton or Waldenbooks (sometimes a Waldenbooks and a B. Dalton). Most towns I lived in also had local bookstores downtown.