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Bookstores never really were the place to get specific books. Yes, you could, but in essence you'd just place a remote order. Bookstores always were places to
by groby_b 4y ago
Bookstores never really were the place to get specific books. Yes, you could, but in essence you'd just place a remote order.
Bookstores always were places to make discoveries, to learn, to have people recommend books for you. My first bookstore experiences go back to the late 70s, and the ones that stick in my mind as memorable? Two stores that had fiercely opinionated voracious readers as employees, who both knew books and their customers. (I could literally go there, as a kid, and ask "what book do I want to get my dad for Christmas", and they'd inevitably make fabulous recommendations that I wasn't old enough yet to figure out by myself)
This extends beyond bookstores - all stores are ultimately in the business of caring about customers and being deeply knowledgable about what they sell. The rest is logistics.
- ghaff 4y agoAnd, historically, those remote orders were sort of an exception process whereby your order would often not get sent to the bookstore until whenever they next got a delivery from whoever the publisher was.
- groby_b 4y agoHuh. Now I wonder if that system is regionally different. My experience was back in Germany, and delivery times were (unless it was a rare book) pretty predictably about a week. Still miss that store :)
- ghaff 4y agoI'm talking about the 1980s or so--so a long time ago. There were some big city bookstores that would have a special customer service desk but my recollection from rarely using was that it would take a while. In general, I remember special orders for books not in the store as not really being a customary thing generally. (And for out of print books being pretty much on you to look through individual stores.)
- groby_b 4y ago80s as well. But then, I was but a wee lass, and maybe my choices were easily available, just not in store. Still, now I'm deeply interested in reading an account of how different book selling systems in the 80s worked. (Yes, I'm avoiding other tasks, why do you ask? ;)