Oh, you think the ones in the
mall are
bad? Let me tell ya -- you ain't never seen a
bookstore as bad as the one in
Liberal, Kansas.
Here's the
story: Several years ago, I lived in
Liberal (an
experience I don't
recommend to anyone), and being a
literate, book-lovin' type o' guy, I sought out places in town where I could buy
books,
magazines, and
comic books. Well, there was Second Street Bookstore. They had a
decent selection of magazines, a
small collection of books, a very large (and mostly
ooky) collection of
pornography, and decent supply of
comics. Not that bad, considering the size of the town.
Well, the place was
dirty and
infested with cockroaches. The
owners were
sullen, and they had a large
sign posted on the back wall telling you all the things you were not allowed to do. Not perfect, but I'd seen
worse. I'd drop by every few weeks to
feed my comics
jones.
When I finally got ready to move to another town, I dropped by one more time to get a
final dose of comics. There weren't many good comics out that week, and nothing really jumped out at me. I
flipped through a couple of books, but decided I didn't really want to
buy them. On my way out the door, I wave
good-bye, and the owner says, "
Don't come back."
Thinking I'd mis-heard him, I said, "
Excuse me?" He replied, "You
read that comic without
buying it. Don't ever come back."
Of course, I wasn't coming back anyway, so I
smiled very happily and said, "
Okay!"
Oh, not
convinced yet? I later heard from someone else who visited that store once. He had found a number of books he wanted and was
strolling through the
stacks carrying an
armload of books when the owner came up to him and said, "You've been here too long. You need to
check out now or
leave." My friend decided he didn't want to give the guy any
money, so he left.
And yeah, last time I checked, the store was still in
business. There's a
lesson somewhere in there about
capitalism...