Growing up, my hometown wasn't big enough for a dedicated bookstore (~1400 residents), but there was a small gift shop on Main Street. It had lots of little knicknacks and other things associated with giving gifts. Past the cards and stationary, the boxes of chocolate, the little porcelain figurines, the bags of potpourri and scented candles, all the way at the back, were a couple small bookshelves. Mostly books for young children, or large format books you'd set on your coffee table with nice pictures in them.

What I remember most fondly was that even though the in-store selection was meager, if you were looking for a particular title, the owner was happy to look it up and order from her wholesale catalog. And she'd take 10% off the MSRP! Me and my other teenage nerd friends became some of her most regular customers, coming in to order sci-fi books.

Isn't that what we get out of aggregating here tho at HN or slashdot? Some banter and the browsing of random subjects.

I'd like the coffee though if someone cld please figure that part out.

Are you suggesting online posting is the same as an in-person conversation in a somewhat intimate environment? I get that it might be the same for you but surely you can appreciate that for most people online discussions are about as personal as a trip to the dmv.

If anything it's better since, in general, one party isn't there just to sell something to the other.

Yep. My little town still has a bookstore downtown that’s been there for years. Run by a retired English teacher who seems to know everything about every book in the store.

I believe they ended up working a supplier deal with some of the local schools that helps with consistent revenue.

Ever since the pandemic started I’ve gone there so much that we’re on a first name basis. :)

This aspect still exits in some areas. Local bike stores are still running and have the same community feel. They are perhaps only around today because people who ride bikes a lot tend to not be the people who want to drive 20km to the nearest mega store.

Why are people creating a community at the local bike shop? I ride my bike to work everyday (or did). But I only went to the local bike shop to purchase a new bike about every five years and went in for parts a few times a year. What in the world are people doing that they are going there so frequently that a community can be built up?

Its probably not quite as good as what is being described with the book shop but if you ride frequently and especially on rough mtb trails then you will probably end up going to the store once a month for replacement parts / services / clothes / new gadgets. And while you are there its common to have a chat about whats going on / new developments in public trails / etc.

Perhaps that is somewhat of a romanticised view or may have been different in your country. I usually found that 2nd hand bookstore staff are usually the cheapest labour they could find, and hardly knew the real worth of most of the stuff they were selling.

I romanticised by implying that all the stores are like that.

My experience is mostly from Switzerland where I grew up and Colombia where I have been living the last 5 years.

In Switzerland pure 2nd hand, non antique shops in general are somewhat rare. It is usually sold directly online or in places run by charities. I think 2nd hand had a bit of a resurgence with the raise of the hipster subculture, but don't know the current state. The ones I went to had a mix between used and new or only new.

In Colombia you get a bigger range from the big, cheap labor second hand book stores as you describe, to the small super personal ones. Here is also where for the first time I have seen coffee service and a few tables/sofas within a bookstore. Never back home.

So yes, true, not every small bookshop you walk into will be like that, but so far in every city I have stayed a couple weeks in in Europe and LatAm, I found at least one.

Unless the person working there is Bernard Black.