What is bookstore etiquette? Are you supposed to make a purchase? Or can you just Sit and read?

[Anonymous]

I love B&N but I prefer to read on a Kindle. So I will go to B&N, work in the cafe, and spend on coffee, food, and always make sure to buy some non-book items. They have great gift items!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You can sit if there's a chair in the bookshop and read but you shouldn't go into the coffee shop to read unless you've bought the book in hand, really.

+1
Politics & Prose even has a sign to that effect, that you can't bring an unpurchased book into the coffeeshop. But if there are places to read *not* in the coffeeshop, you can feel free to sit and read.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What kind? If it's a small, independently owned business the etiquette is to always be sure your purchase covers the time you spend taking up a seat. I wouldn't read in the store "for hours" unless I bought the book there as well as food and drink. I would also never spend more than 10-15 minutes with a book anywhere in the store unless I intended to buy it/had bought it (it's not a library).

But if we are talking about a Barnes and Noble with a Starbucks attached, I think that's different. I wouldn't treat it like a library but long browses are ok. I think most places expect you to buy at least a drink before you take up a seat in the cafe, but I wouldn't worry about how much I spent/how long I sat there. I would totally bring a book I bought elsewhere to the Barnes and Noble Starbucks.

I agree with this.

[Anonymous]

I think I differ from some of the PPs. I think the problem is that some people deliberately use bookstores as a "library," reading for hours with no intention to buy. But if that is not your M.O., I don't think you should be compelled to buy simply because you have browsed a long time but not found anything that e.g. really interests you or seems like it would be a good gift for Aunt Sally or whatever. That just seems like needless overconsumption. (Also, I have found that almost every book I have bought out of "bookstore guilt" has turned out bad - just more paper in a house already crammed with books, magazines, newspapers, etc...)

[Anonymous]

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/28/opinion/barnes-noble-amazon-bookstore.html