I’m not complaining, mind you. I’m just making a socio-cultural observation. I spend many nights after dinner at Barnes & Noble when I’m in Bergen County. It’s medicinal. My main haunt now is the store in Riverside Square Mall, but I’ll still pop over to the one on Route 17 South now and then, as I did earlier this evening where I took this photo. A significant square footage of the upper level of the store has desks and large chairs. I am not exaggerating by saying that on weeknights 90% of the chairs’ occupants are of Asian heritage.
I admire the collective intellect and academic dedication of the swarm. Like Jews, Asians are people of the book. Or given the amount of floor space progressively being dedicated to its electronic reader, B&N might prefer to say “People of the Nook”. It seems to my untrained eye that the Cafe area is populated by people purchasing beverages or food in the store, whereas the seating areas elsewhere cater to Asian students who have brought their computers, notebooks and textbooks from home and have basically adopted the store as a study hall.
As someone browsing B&N and buying at least one book but often more each time I go in, from a business standpoint it would seem wise for the store to make sure folks like me – who are rapidly dwindling in number – have a place to sit and contemplate potential book purchases. After all, isn’t that the store’s primary function? My hunch is that the economic model of these stores will not be tenable much longer.
