Our economic situation is not a surprise, either, but there it is: Olympia with another empty building that will eventually be replaced by an irrelevant store having nothing to do with literature or music. I'll say it again: If you always buy stuff online, your town gets no money or tax revenue out of what you would have spent locally, and shops you even mildly enjoyed will continue to close.
Local stores and even chains continue to be caught in this Catch 22--not strong enough financially to keep any depth of product on the racks, while that very lack of inventory drives potential customers away. To paraphrase a friend: "I just discovered a great author at Borders and found out that they've written five other books. Did the store stock any of the older titles so I could investigate them? Of course not."
Borders was in bankruptcy and I suppose almost anyone who loves books knew this might happen soon. Here's a rather awkward conversation I had with a Borders employee yesterday as I purchased a small item at 30 percent off at their going out of business sale:
J2: "I'm really sorry about this--I was just in here, browsing, last week" (translation: "Sad that you're losing your job; everything felt normal on my previous visit)."
Cashier: "Sorry about that" (translation: "If you bought an item last week and had to pay full price for it, I apologize)."
We weren't even on the same page, were we?