Gary Farber links to a bizarre rant from a failed bookstore. With an attitude like that, I can't imagine why anyone would have been shopping there in the first place.

Overall, I'm pretty unsympathetic to the whole independent bookstore good/chain store bad mentality. About ten years ago I tried to support my local independent bookstore by asking them to order a book that was already out at the local Barnes & Noble but that I was in no hurry to read. So I asked if they could order it for me; in other words, I came up to them with a guaranteed sale. They check their system. They tell me it's not released yet. I tell them I've seen it elsewhere, but I want to buy it from them. They say they can order it so they get a copy when it's released. How long will that be? About six weeks. I give them my information and they tell me they'll call when it arrives.

Two months later, having heard nothing, I bought the bloody book from Barnes & Noble, and yea, it was good, and the independent store lost a guaranteed sale. Eventually -- and I mean, months later -- they called left a message telling me the book had arrived and did I still want it?

I didn't call back.