The bookstore-less streets of Laredo Laredo, Texas, is set to become the largest U.S. city without a bookstore. The B. Dalton in the Mall del Norte, owned by parent company Barnes & Noble, is slated to close next month. When it does, it will leave the city's close to 250,000 residents without a single bookstore. The Associated Press reports that letters from schoolchildren had no effect on the corporation's decision to shutter the B. Dalton; Barnes & Noble announced plans earlier this year to close all remaining B. Dalton outlets. "Corporate America considers Laredo kind of the backwater," said Jerry Thompson, an author who lives in Laredo and is a professor at Texas A&M International University. Barnes & Noble, however, says it does think that Laredo can support a bookstore. It has its eyes on a site for a "large format" Barnes & Noble -- but that won't be ready until 2011. With no independent bookstores in the city and the last chain outlet slated for closure, residents will have to travel about 150 miles across arid ranchland to San Antonio to buy books. Unless they have an Internet connection, that is.
For some reason this made me seriously LOL. It's almost as if they made a big deal about the bookstore thing in the article, then at the end they go "yeah, but I guess it doesn't really mean anything".
I guess this might seem amusing to some folks, but I think it is a travesty. My kids practically grew up in bookstores and the library. While I hope there is a decent public library in Laredo, anyone who's truly a reader will tell you that a public library, by itself, simply isn't enough. This is a bummer, even if it was only a B. Dalton.
Those evil corporations, not opening stores where they lose money. The outrage! What about libraries?
Amazon killed B. Dalton. I don't see a future for most b&m stores. People spend more money at the bookstore's Starbucks than on books and magazines. Most people go to the web for magazine articles or to purchase books.
Yeah, one of their few saving graces is selling uppity stuff like the Journal, Times or Barron's; which probably isn't stocked anywhere else in that entire city (it certainly isn't in Omaha).
the west side used to have Shakespeare & Co and Murder, Ink, both killed by B&N (+ Starbucks) and Borders. the latter is in Chapter 11, and former just launched a Kindle competitor. the only difference between either and B. Dalton is scale (and there are probably more people on the 20 square blocks of my neighborhood than there are in Laredo. but then, the west side is not Texas, so not as easy a target for muckky markyyy). Independent bookstores are a dying breed; ironically, i had drinks with an editor from Penguin tonight...we talked about christmas, and agreed that He was extremely well adjusted for an only child...
7-11 has all the readins I need. Don't even have to pay.... Except for those black and glossy covered books.
Totally, 80's mall culture lives on. I bet they still have Wicks & Sticks, Kay-bee toys, Piercing Pagodas, Orange Julius' and a Foley's. Obviously no Waldenbooks, however. edit: and a Visible Changes, can't be a mall without a VC.
My sister had one of those deals in h.s. where you could work half the school day at B Dalton's in Northwest Mall In 1985
Corporate America? This is your chance, Jerry! Go open an independent bookstore. You have no competition! Btw, doesn't the university have a bookstore?
Haha, I remember that B Dalton's well - it was towards the end of the promenade anchored by the JC Penny and the coin fountain. Also in that corner was the Visible Changes, the Toy Store (Circus? then changed to Kay Bee), the Wolf Camera shop, and the Music store. OK now I feel like fatty fat with that reminiscense.
My parents live in East Texas and their B Dalton just closed up shop too. Now the only place they can go browse books is WALMART. They are depressed by this.
