Reading Room
When Raenell Sanders did a psychology class project on Barnes & Noble customers last month, she found that most used the bookstore for research or as a place to study.
She observed that few people, at least those who visited the Rainbow Boulevard store, purchased something.
Sanders, 28, relayed her findings while sitting in the Barnes & Noble Cafe on a recent Wednesday, her college textbooks opened before her. She, herself, had no intention of purchasing anything more than the Frappuccino that was close at hand.
Sanders’ unscientific study does not surprise local bookstore managers, who say it has become socially acceptable for people to use bookstores the way they use a library. The bookstores not only allow the practice, they encourage it.
“It’s always a definite future referral type of thing,” said Toni Taylor, a manager at Borders at 2323 S. Decatur Blvd. “If people have an opportunity to come into the cafe, whether it’s for a meeting or to study, they’re going to (eventually) wander into the store and browse and possibly buy something.”
It’s an interesting concept because bookstores are “first and foremost a retail environment,” Taylor said. “It’s unique considering this is also the age of the Internet and you don’t even have to step foot in a bookstore to buy anything.”
The phenomenon of bookstores as hangouts has taken shape over the nine years that Taylor has worked for Borders. When she started with the company, cafes were just opening in the stores. It was a novelty in the beginning; now, people work the bookstore cafe into their schedules on a regular basis, she said.
Of customers recently surveyed at two local Barnes & Noble stores and two Borders outlets, all said they chose the bookstore over the library because they could eat and drink.
“Who doesn’t like being able to get a slice of cheesecake and a Frappuccino while they’re studying or reading?” asked Tracy Shouse, community relations manager for the Barnes & Noble at 8915 W. Charleston Blvd.
At least three times a week, Sanders finds a table in the Barnes & Noble Cafe at 2191 N. Rainbow Blvd., buys a coffee or pastry, and studies for two to three hours.
“I don’t like the quiet of the library,” she noted. “They have the music playing here and the buzz of people talking in the background. It’s not too loud and it’s not too quiet.”
She wasn’t alone on this recent Wednesday. Nearly every cafe table and lounge chair was occupied by people reading magazines or books off the shelves, writing on laptops or studying.
Customers have been known to spend entire days in the cafe, said Barnes & Noble Cafe employee Stacy Harbur. She sees regular customers every day and has gotten to know the habits of many of them.
It seems natural to college student Edien Negasi that people feel so comfortable in bookstores. The 22-year-old spends three to four hours a day, three times a week in a Barnes & Noble Cafe, splitting her time between the Maryland Parkway and West Charleston stores.
“I thought that’s what they’re for,” she said.
On this day, Negasi was studying organic chemistry for summer school while her little sister, Adyam, read the latest Harry Potter book. Adyam already was on Page 100 and wanted to see how far she could get before buying the book.
Negasi said she and her study group prefer the bookstore cafe over the library because of the food, ambience and music.
“And I can’t find as many books at the library as I can here,” she said.
Sometimes, Negasi will take a break and peruse magazines and cookbooks for new recipes. She has thought that she should probably buy before using the materials, but it hasn’t deterred her yet. Countless others do the same thing, she said.
“Is that a bad thing? I don’t know,” she said.
Retired college administrator Roy Burrows, 68, spends about an hour in the bookstore three times a week. He grabs a few magazines, either on grilling or ancestry, buys a cup of coffee and reads. He wondered whether that was acceptable, too, at first.
“But I see everybody doing it,” he said. “It’s probably about good will. It probably sells magazines.”
Store managers expect that the books will be used, and they don’t mind so long as they’re kept in like-new condition, Taylor said. That means no stains or binding breaks.
Customer comfort with bookstores has extended to using them for business meetings or conducting job interviews.
“Once a woman came in and said she was here for the interview with Michael. I said, ‘We don’t have a Michael here,’ ” Harbur recalled. “He was a customer sitting at a table and doing interviews for Java Detour.”
On weekends, the Borders cafes are standing room only, Taylor noted. Nearly anything goes with the exception of bringing in outside food. That is a health code violation.
Libraries are taking note of the evolution of bookstores, said Robb Morss, deputy director of the Las Vegas-Clark County Library District.
“You’re seeing it more and more all the time. Some libraries are actually following the model,” Morss said, referring to the Paseo Verde branch in Henderson, which features a cafe where patrons can purchase snacks, coffee and other drinks.
Currently, the cafe is closed because it’s changing ownership, said Gayle Hornaday, assistant director of the Henderson Library District. But it has been a popular amenity to the library, she added, though it doesn’t increase book circulation.
“It’s kind of a progressive trend in libraries to make it easy for users to get a snack or a drink,” Hornaday said. “It has turned out that drinks and food in the library is not the problem that it was in the past. I think that the cafe has served as an example that can work and people do appreciate it.”
A space has been designated for a cafe when the Centennial Hills library is built, Morss said.
“People love to curl up with a book or magazine and a cup of coffee,” he said. “I’m all for people reading, whether they buy the books or not.”
