Monday, July 30, 2007

Comfy Chairs at your library

Major bookstores like Barnes & Noble and Borders are reducing their "soft seating" aka comfy chairs. They have found that the chairs encourage people to stay for hours without necessarily buying anything. They also had problems with people falling asleep, spilling coffee, and leaving food trash. I can see their point, but one Barnes & Noble I visited recently required that you purchase something from the cafe, in order to sit in that area. I thought that was a little extreme, especially considering I had just purchased 3 books from their store. The thing about libraries? We want you to come and sit for hours. We won't make you purchase anything. True, most libraries don't allow food, but we have comfy chairs!

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