A couple of years ago one of our local shops closed down, and in the end, they threw away tons of books - as in metric tons. They had a couple of weeks where people could basically just come in and take whatever they wanted, but still, tons of leftovers.
I have fond memories of those shops, but, they had their quirks. Inventory systems were typically non-existent, and some of those shops were a mess.
But you know, even those things had their charm. Reminds me of the older mom'n pop stores and shops that didn't have the 100% cleanliness or neatness of modern big-box stores, where everything has been designed and optimized to perfection, and just looks...sterile. The modern stuff is excellent when your only goal is to go in, find your stuff, and get out - as fast as possible. But it's not that great when you just want to exploring/treasure hunting.
The old and unorganized stuff was great for that - treasure hunting. You didn't get the flippers or re-sellers that would swoop in 9AM on a daily basis to get the most valuable stuff, because their inventory trackers had notified them that store XYZ just got in rare item ABC.
I have fond memories of those shops, but, they had their quirks. Inventory systems were typically non-existent, and some of those shops were a mess.
But you know, even those things had their charm. Reminds me of the older mom'n pop stores and shops that didn't have the 100% cleanliness or neatness of modern big-box stores, where everything has been designed and optimized to perfection, and just looks...sterile. The modern stuff is excellent when your only goal is to go in, find your stuff, and get out - as fast as possible. But it's not that great when you just want to exploring/treasure hunting.
The old and unorganized stuff was great for that - treasure hunting. You didn't get the flippers or re-sellers that would swoop in 9AM on a daily basis to get the most valuable stuff, because their inventory trackers had notified them that store XYZ just got in rare item ABC.