A Small Personal Favor:

[LMNO]

Well, it runs through Concord and Leominster, for starters.

[Kai]

My dad recently discovered Amazon. He no longer feels the need to go into the megachain bookstores, and only shops at used and local places when he actually goes out. It was quite the revelation for him; he had only used eBay before, and then my mom (being the master of library and information science) pointed Amazon out to him. I hear it was a funny event.

[Nephew Twiddleton]

Well, it runs through Concord and Leominster, for starters.

Good point.

[Suu]

Yes and explain Rte. 2 also. I never have any reason to go to the part that runs through MA, so I'm not sure what's wrong with it.

Rte 2 MA is not Rte 2 RI.

Rte 2 RI starts as Reservoir Ave in Cranston and goes all the way to the Sound. The entire stretch of it through Warwick and West Warwick is the suburbanite shopping strip for the entirety of Kent County. It's all strip malls, auto malls, real malls (Warwick Mall and RI Mall are literally across 295 from each other while both being on Rte 2), every chain restaurant you can think of and every big name chain store, all strung together in a 2.5 mile mess. Long story short if it ain't on Rootwo Wahwick, it doesn't exist. I seriously think something like a quarter of the states population works on Rte 2. That's like 400,000 people!

That strip of the state defines everything that is wrong with America. You don't Rte 2 unless you have no other choice. I really only go down there if I need to hit a certain amount of stores within a close proximity of one another in a certain order between Tollgate Rd and 113. Other than that, I avoid it, because it's always an epic clusterfuck, and go elsewhere in the state or up to Washington St. in Attleboro, which is almost the same thing, but for some reason not NEARLY as much of a nightmare and has less sales tax anyway. Rte 2 requires heavy artillery and at least an extra hour in the time budget for traffic between stores, even if they're the next plaza up.

What sucks is that it's where the only Trader Joe's in the state is.  

[Suu]

See? Even God doesn't like Rte 2.

[Nephew Twiddleton]

Damn.

[LMNO]

Oh, so it's Route 9 in Natick. 

[Mangrove]

I'm going to need an enormous inducement to boycott B & N. Something along the lines of "conclusive evidence that B & N participate in genocide" or similar.

a) Our local store is pretty good.
b) Being a B&N member, I've saved a nice chunk of cash.
c) I've spent many hours of quality thinking/studying time in the cafe.
d) I've gotten to know a lot of the staff in there and, for the most part, they're really nice.
e) I have a Nook.
f) B&N is located very near to where Mrs Mang works. Very convenient.

Thus - No, I will not stop going there, buying their products or using their services.

[Epimetheus]

My local B&N has a Teen Supernatural Romance section. 

[Cainad (dec.)]

Most B&N places I've been to run a nicer store than Borders, overall.

But any local bookstore is preferable, obviously. There's a terrific discount bookstore near my school that knocks a chunk off the prices of various books that are not in pristine condition.


Cuddledimo, yuo must share with us the tale of B&N's depraved evil schemes. Otherwise I might not be sufficiently committed to Sparkle Motion jihaad against them.

[Fredfredly ⊂(◉‿◉)つ]

Ima go with NO unless you tell me they murder kittens or something

[The Good Reverend Roger]

Ima go with NO unless you tell me they murder kittens or something

IMA GO WITH NO UNLESS THEY DON'T MURDER KITTENS.

[Mangrove]

Most B&N places I've been to run a nicer store than Borders, overall.

But any local bookstore is preferable, obviously. There's a terrific discount bookstore near my school that knocks a chunk off the prices of various books that are not in pristine condition.


Cuddledimo, yuo must share with us the tale of B&N's depraved evil schemes. Otherwise I might not be sufficiently committed to Sparkle Motion jihaad against them.

I do support independent stores when I can find them. Mondazzi in Windsor CT, Weiser Antiquarian in Maine and this wonderfully unhinged '50% off everything!' store in Salem. MA. Mrs Mang & I frequent Library fundraiser sales too which means we get cheap books and the libraries get to stay open. Yay.

(The Borders we had used to be fantastic but it's been in decline over the last couple of years and it's kind of sad in there now.)

[Iason Ouabache]

WTF? People still buy books from brick-and-mortar stores? Hurry up and get to the 21st century, spags!

[Cainad (dec.)]

WTF? People still buy books from brick-and-mortar stores? Hurry up and get to the 21st century, spags!

Main appeal: I can go to a meatspace bookstore and read a comic book while I'm there, and if I'm so inclined buy and read a book now and not next week.

Also: excuse to be out of the house/off campus.