[William Moates]

I am quite surprised that a Waldenbooks was able to satisfy the demands of a bibliophile.

That's because my field of choice is SF, and as a thrifty SF fan, I bought mass market paperbacks. Almost all of the hardbacks would come out in mass-market form a year later, and I didn't mind waiting, since I had all these other books I hadn't read yet. At the time, their computer books had a decent selection, too.

I was always impressed with the selection at Borders (part of the appeal), and even the local BN has had a larger selection than Crown did.

Oh, I enjoyed the larger selection of Borders and BN (and my local Borders has a larger selection than BN), but they didn't offer discounts on any book, which Waldenbooks still did. So, I'd go to Borders and BN, browse their selection, and if I found a book I wanted, I'd write down its author/title/ISBN, then have Waldenbooks order it for me, so I could buy it at a discount.

And in that rare circumstance where nobody has what I need, Amazon (or eCampus for textbooks) fills that niche.

Yes, it does, but when Amazon first started up, shipping wasn't free, and the discounts on the non-bestsellers would be completely eaten up by shipping. So, Amazon became another great place to browse, and most any book I was looking for could be special ordered by Waldenbooks. And for the books I couldn't get or order at Waldenbooks, when the list was long enough, I ordered them from Amazon.

So, instead having their systems game me, I did what I could to game their systems. I've got an analytical mindset, so it's not too taxing.

Now on to your questions:

(1) If your local supermarkets have club cards, do you participate?

Initially, I didn't, because I had concerns with privacy. Then I did join a store's club. However, that chain moved out of my state last year, so I now shop at another chain. (Incidently, I use someone else's club card at the new chain. There's a lost & found where I work, and after the card sat there for a year, I took it.)

(2) If the Connect Store is able to provide you with all the books you are looking for, will you rely on them for all of your book needs? (Would you stop visiting bookstores entirely).

By now, you can probably guess my answer: No. I will still visit bookstores, and even shop at Amazon. If we get an e-reader that provides color and print-resolution graphics, then I might stop going to bookstores. There's still that visceral feel to books that can't be digitized. I wonder how we'll feel when paper books are only made by retro-hobbyists?