![]() I had a list of about five books that I wanted to track down. Overall there was an overwhelming air of sadness and failure. In order to find most of the books, you had to go upstairs. ![]() There were also some tables boasting old titles on sale for under $5. Sure, you still have the magazine section and small front display of current bestsellers. The last time I went into a Barnes and Noble, this past winter in my hometown, Milwaukee, WI, the entire downstairs was taken up with games, cards, art supplies, music, Starbucks, and other non-book merchandise. It is quite true that Amazon still corners more than 50% of the market shares in physical book sales, but is Amazon really to blame for the company’s failure? Or did Barnes and Noble lose sight of its original purpose? But in the last few years, Barnes and Noble, too, appeared to be failing. And yet Barnes and Noble has been creeping along for years after the closures of other behemoth bookstore chains such as Borders and Crown Books. For more than a decade, we’ve been hearing about how Amazon has been the death of bookstores all across the country.
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