Bookstores Swallowed by Starbucks

In some of the newer big-boxes I’ve visited, the obligatory coffee shop corner has grown almost into the coffee shop quarter

A bookstore should sell primarily books.

Now this isn’t a statement that prohibits them from selling other kinds of product, though it does assert that any entity claiming to be a purveyor of printed material should ensure that more than say, eighty percent of its total sales area be reserved for actual books.

This is not a rant against big-box bookstores; I have never discriminated against an outlet based upon the area of its geographic footprint. I am, however, here to finally give voice to a conspiracy that I feel the public has remained blind to for far too long.

Starbucks is an expansionist empire.

Yes, beneath that delightfully frothy top layer steams the heart of a superheated, caffeine-charged juggernaut ready to spread across the map like coffee on a term paper.

I have no moral qualm against Starbucks myself – though I do tend to prefer coffee that can be ordered in one breath and without cashing a cheque – but I have noted with alarm that, in some of the newer large-scale outlets I’ve been to recently, the quiet little coffee area is getting bigger, and when paired with the proportion of space usually devoted to non-book items, the actual books themselves are getting pressed into the back! (I suspect a covert alliance between Starbucks and the decorative-box industry.)

So take this as a call, readers of the world, to storm your local conglomerate and demand that the coffee tables back-off so that the bookshelves may retain their rightful place, i.e. the majority of the store’s sales floor!

Well alright, finish your latte first, but then get to it!