On Dec 22, 4:38*pm, Gene wrote:
On Tue, 22 Dec 2009 10:29:54 -0800 (PST), Jack
wrote:





On Dec 22, 12:12*pm, wrote:
On Tue, 22 Dec 2009 01:37:26 -0800, jps wrote:

LAREDO, Texas — The final chapter has been written for the lone
bookstore on the streets of Laredo.

With a population of nearly a quarter-million people, this city could
soon be the largest in the nation without a single bookseller.

The situation is so grim that schoolchildren have pleaded for a
reprieve from next month's planned shutdown of the B. Dalton
bookstore. After that, the nearest store will be 150 miles away in San
Antonio.

I assume the "book stores" can't compete with Walmart. I know around
here B&N is having their ass handed to them by Target, Walmart and the
public library. I see lots of people milling around but not many
actually get into a checkout line. If it wasn't for the coffee they
might not be making any money at all.
There is also a lot of pressure from the internet
Amazon will make it tough for anyone who has rent to pay in a mall.
I would never buy a DVD in a store. You can usually get a disk or a
book sent to your house cheaper than the best bargain bin deal in a
store.

Unlike some here, I notice that you caught the lie in that "news"
report. *There will be plenty of "booksellers", just no dedicated book
stores. *The mouthbreathers among us read it, believed it, and
reposted it as the gospel. *Too funny.

"Booksellers" could be the grocery store, if you consider National
Enquirer fair game.

A metropolitan area that big that won't support even one dedicated
book store has a cultural and literacy problem. The top 10 least
literate cities in the US contain El Paso, Corpus Christi, and San
Antonio.

A metropolitan area that big that wouldn't support even one dedicated
building supply would be seen as a problem. Wal-mart might sell
hammers and nails, but that isn't a building supply.

In the same way, a "bookseller" is not a dedicated bookstore.....

While that's all true enough, there are still some facts left out of
the story repeated here. Such as the fact that they were shutting
down *all* of the outlet stores (not just the one in Laredo) in favor
of the large, complete line stores. The fact that B. Dalton is
planning a large store for Laredo in 2011. And the fact that, as was
already pointed out, Laredo is 94% Latino.

The problem isn't Texas, it's demographics and an extreme case of
immigration. Down here in dumb ol' South Carolina, I can just about
throw a rock and hit 3 big-box book stores. And they're thriving.