It’s only the third day and Barnes and Nobles is starting to disappoint me. I understand that they just opened, but I feel that the disappointments are only going to continue. The selection of books is minimal; on par with or less than the regular selection at the Deptford store. Being “faculty,” I will be able to request that they stock a few extra copies of books I “recommend” (not require) but these books will not be in the general circulation; they will be upstairs with the rest of the textbooks. The Art (and thus Architecture) section is undersized, as well as the Social Sciences/Cultural Studies. This means that Geography and Planning books have a very small, blink-and-miss-it section of shelf in the general circulation.
Currently, the wifi in the Cafe section does not work, so when this is posted, it will be later, from on campus. This should, I hope, only be a temporary inconvenience. Last night, on their second day open, I stopped by at 9:30 after grocery shopping. They were closed. The Cafe, while able to be open for a longer period than the main store, is not. Both the bookstore and the cafe are going to close at the same time, 9pm. This is an incredible disappointment. I also found from the Cafe staff this morning that there are no currently no plans to change the arrangement, even though I heard B&N staff inform the police (during a walkthrough on opening day) that the cafe can be open later. I know “can” and “will” are two very different words, but my hopes are diminishing.
Maybe I have to wait for more of the Rowan Boulevard project to be completed. After all, this B&N is the only commercial building on the street. From where I sit, I can see work proceed on the mixed use “A-1” building, which will hopefully generate more of a street life on Rowan Boulevard. I still have high hopes for the project overall, but even after it is complete, if Glassboro’s going to roll up the streets at 9pm, the only incentive I have to live in the ‘Boro is that I’m within biking distance of Rowan.