Books-(And Other Things)-A-Million

As with most stores, the layout of the store isn’t just something that makes it easier to navigate or to make the store look appealing enough to venture into. The layout usually has some deeper meaning or ulterior motive that sucks the customers into it without their knowing, and this isn’t necessarily a bad thing, as it accomplishes the store’s goal of making money from their generally large collection of this and that.

With Books-A-Million, they do just that. Immediately upon entering the store there is a very unnoticeable force that gently pushes you to the front left side of the store where conveniently placed are odds and ends of your favorite movies, books, comics, etc. and I will refer to these unique purchases as merchandise (merch on the layout). Along the left wall once you walk past the book themed board games, you also find the best sellers with their attractive covers facing front for all to see as you reach the corner of the store and find yourself lost in the titles, curiously checking for names you know and things you don’t, possibly finding a new book for yourself that you didn’t know you wanted.

As you walk along the left wall, you venture into categories such as how to books for those who would like to have a guide or for those curious to learn a new skill, and to the right of you will be the comics, manga, and young adult books for you to peruse so after reading your new how to book you have a book or two to read in your down time. Right off the bat, the lower left corner of the store has some of the most important books in the store, the educational books, the popular good reads, and the ones that appeal to individuals based on their interests alone.

Upon reaching the back-left section of the store things get a little overwhelming with the amalgamation of reference books, various tables of more fiction and young adult, and unique but slightly unsettling works of history that you didn’t know existed. Finding yourself in such a section you’ll be seeing what crazy history conspiracies you can find along the shelves or browsing the reference books to see what other authors or work contain topics that interest you and where to find them. Another section in this area of the store is the very corner containing the baby books and parenting books. Why so far away? Well, once you find a book to read in your personal time, a book to learn a new skill, and maybe a book for a friend, you’ll have made it to what you were looking for, a book on what to expect while pregnant, and even the child’s first book once they are old enough to read. Leaving the first half of the store so to speak, you’re already carrying three or more books possibly when all you wanted was a leisurely read.

As your curiosity gets the better of you and you stroll into the back right of the store, you’ll find a large selection of works for young kids and teenagers along the walls with a mixture of various merchandise that are from major game franchises or popular book series that ‘every” child has read. Once again you may find yourself picking up a book for a friend or for someone’s child in hopes that they will enjoy it. Already at four or more books, you venture into the last section of the store, the middle right-ish area where the adult fiction, poetry, and philosophical books await a wandering soul to enlighten with their words. After you’ve accidentally found a book for everyone in the family besides yourself possibly, it’s your time to unwind and browse the works of the enlightened, along with every erotic fiction book you’ve never heard of. By the time you leave the final section of books, you find yourself approaching the counter to finalize your purchase of five or more books.

Before you can spend more money than you intended to, you must first navigate the “Pillars of Merchandise” that slow your journey’s progress. These columns of trinkets and other cute or cool items sole purpose is to attract your eye and convince you to spend even more. Finally, you reach the counter and you’re ready to buy your five books, five individualized bookmarks, two magnets for your fridge at home or college, and a cool new key-chain to put on your backpack or keys so everyone can see it next time you’re out and about.

 

Now to discuss this huge collection of books and items that Books-A-Million has obtained is sort of complicated. Overall, the collection they have is not personal as we like to think collections are, such as someone’s stamp collection or anything else they have sweated over to accumulate. BAM has a collection that is meant to be dwindled and sold, one that is meant to be turned into someone else’s collection of pride and joy, something that reflects who they are. In the words of Walter Benjamin, “ownership is the most intimate relationship that one can have to objects. Not that they come alive in him; it is he who lives in them.” (Benjamin, 67). This large expanse of books and merchandise does in fact reflect who BAM is, which is a store that thrives of the capitalist ways of the country, that’s just how business works. Benjamin also states that “The acquisition of books is by no means a matter of money or expert knowledge alone. Not even both factors together suffice for the establishment of a real library, which is always somewhat impenetrable and at the same time uniquely itself.” (Benjamin, 63).

The only thing lacking from this assortment is the personal touch that a collection emanates just from looking at it. If someone has spent years collecting every quarter for every state, for each year a new one was issued, just hearing of such a feat would induce an amount of respect for them, as they put blood, sweat, and tears into such a thing that they find near and dear to them. “The phenomenon of collecting loses its meaning as it loses its personal owner.” (Benjamin, 67). Upon walking into BAM, you just get the sense that they are trying to stock something for everyone in order to make a living, there is nothing personal about a chain book store, yet it has its own identity because of that along with how it presents itself to the public.

Overall, Books-A-Million is a place with a collection of its own that holds no personal value, a hallowed collection if one will. It has a collection that does not define itself, but one that is meant to be available to the public for those individuals to build their own collection and to shape their own experiences with these books and the experience of shopping in this store. While this store has little to no personality since it is a chain store and has standards to follow, the one common goal they all have in mind with what they sell is for individuals to expand their collection and to enjoy doing it.

 

Sources:

Text:

Benjamin, Walter. Illuminations. Schocken Books.

 

Photos:

Layout courtesy of basic Microsoft Paint skills

Facebook for the logo

 

Annotations for picture:

https://www.thinglink.com/

BAM! – Books a la Mall

As a book-lover and strong supporter of retail therapy, I have to say that I was a little excited to leave campus on a typically busy Wednesday afternoon to find myself in a Books A Million: cozily situated between a pizza shop and a Joanne’s Fabrics in a local shopping mall. However, it was with a bit of skepticism that my friends and I entered the supposedly run-down mall to go to a bookstore all of us had apparently seen before in our own hometowns. Books A Million, the second largest bookstore franchise in the United States, was a place that all of us had seen before in other locations across Pennsylvania… so what was going to make this one unique?

The locale of this particular Books A Million is within the Susquehanna Valley Mall, which sits along a strip of retail and food franchises connected to Selinsgrove’s main road, Market St. Just shortly after entering the strip, one can turn left into this large, yet slowly running mall which resides a variety of shops including department stores, health and beauty suppliers, knick-knack shops, and American food restaurants. Books A Million sits in one of the far corners of the mall near a rather large AMC movie theatre.

{ABOVE: a map of Selinsgrove’s main area of commerce. Because this area of Selinsgrove has so many restaurants, department stores, and retail chains, tagged in this map are some of the main staples. The mall itself is surrounded by several restaurants and other small shops, while North of it lies superstores such as Target, Walmart, and the shops of Monroe Marketplace. Susquehanna University and the heart of Selinsgrove lie South of this area.}

When first entering the Susquehanna Valley Mall, this is the map customers will see in order to direct them to all that the mall has to offer.

Despite the vast amount of things to do in this standard shopping mall, it was very much so empty (although it was the middle of a rainy afternoon on a weekday when I had the opportunity to visit). Those that were browsing the mall, and even the Books A Million itself, seemed to be retired men and women that wanted a casual way to spend their afternoon, a few college students that may have had some free time in their day, and mall security guards that found themselves with little to do on duty. Considering the majority of people that reside in Selinsgrove, however, this isn’t much of a surprise. With 35% percent of the population being college age (18-24) and a whopping 40% of the population being 50 years or older, the lack of bustling customers in this mall makes sense, (Selinsgrove, PA).

Even the mall itself was emptying, from the looks of it. Wandering through the mall, I saw that there were about 3 or 4 stores that were going out of business in the upcoming months, and even more vacant spaces for new stores to fill. Tons of stores had big red signs indicating 80 and 90% off “going out of business” sales, and those that were already closed had big metal bars blocking their entrances. Overall, despite the little clusters of life in those stores that managed to keep themselves a float, the Susquehanna Valley Mall was the opposite of what you would expect from a large shopping mall: quiet and empty.

 As we made our way to the Books A Million, my friends and I couldn’t help but be mesmerized by the endless displays of romantic novels for Valentine’s Day, fan merchandise for fantasy series, and stuffed animals big enough to take up most of our dorm room beds. I, of course, bee-lined directly to the Harry Potter displays and had to talk myself out of buying a Hedwig stuffed animal for my dorm, which I’m sure proves the purpose of BAM! positioning its merchandise the way it did. Those that were in the bookstore were browsing the large, flashy displays of popular novels and the accompanying merch that went with it… not so much the long, winding line of bookshelves organized by genre. As a bookstore that seemed to be so full of life in such a quaint shopping mall, its place, or as Tim Cresswell describes it as “a space in which one defines as meaningful” or “sense of place”, was quite intriguing, (Place: A Short). Those that go into this Books A Million go for that book that they heard about from a friend or on social media, or so that they can get a new t-shirt to represent their beloved series. Books A Million is not just a house for books in the Selinsgrove area, but a place for entertainment and fan culture. Not only did Books A Million have those classic novels for the older generation of Selinsgrove’s population, but it also had the books of popular culture Susquehanna University and Selinsgrove School District students are desperate to get their hands on.

Books A Million is not the only bookstore available for the local reader and writer, and in my opinion certainly not the most aesthetically pleasing, but it certainly does show itself as an opportunity for books in the bustle of everyday life. When there isn’t a chance to get cozy in a café or library with a book, Books A Million is the place to go for the books everyone seems to be talking about.

 

Sources:

Cresswell, Tim. Place: A Short Introduction. Blackwell.

Fluke, Sarah. Books A Million Storefront. 6 Feb. 2019.

—. Susquehanna Valley Mall Map. 6 Feb. 2019.

“Selinsgrove, PA.” Data USA, datausa.io/profile/geo/selinsgrove-pa/. Accessed 10 Feb. 2019.