How are you supposed to know if you’ll like a book if you can’t read some of it.
It had a nice little cafe too, its not like they won’t make money on people buying a few coffees and snacks as they read a book they might not buy.
I live in Taiwan and the humidity kills books and makes them damp and stinky. So some places our books are wrapped.
Most commercial establishments in the US are air-conditioned. Taiwan has — as you point out — a pretty warm, humid climate. Are Taiwanese bookstores not not typically air-conditioned? I’d think that they’d be a prime candidate.
I was reading about public library humidity and temperature control a month or two back, and it sounded like it was also pretty much the norm to air condition those, for the preservation reasons that you mention.
Even if they are air conditioned it’s quite likely that the air conditioning does not run 24/7
Conditional air conditioning as it were. Novel.
Dehumidifier in the store…?
You don’t understand how much humidity is on tropical islands. When I open a bag of chips, the time it gets stale is measured in minutes, not days.
Even with a humidifier on 24/7, you can never drop the humidity to a point that books don’t start rotting.
Cover the books in oil so it repels water?
But what if we refined that oil into plastic and used that to cover the books instead? That way people wouldn’t get oily fingers from reading.
You jest but there is a semi-recent invention of waterproof paper used in journals and the like and it’s ~18% plastic.
Sounds like people shouldnt bother living in such shitholes.
Sometimes the ignorance that people show is astounding.
Sounds like Fully Booked in the Philippines. Books aren’t allowed to be browsed before you buy them, sofas aren’t allowed to be sat in before you buy them. It’s nonsense.
It was Tsutaya in Cambodia.
Is Fully Booked popular? I’ve never seen a bookstore do this, but its the first one I’ve seen in Cambodia so maybe lack of competition lets them get away with it.
Japan does love to wrap literally everything purchasable in stores in plastic. Abroad wouldn’t be immune to this since shared supply chains.
The whole idea plastic waste is bad doesn’t seem to have made it over to Asia.
Japan has made baby steps, while they still wrap individual bananas, many stores charge for a plastic bag, discouraging use.
The younger folk here in Cambodia seem to care about the environment, old folks just throw trash wherever.
Ah, so it’s started a bit now. Good to know!
Fully Booked is popular, but that’s probably because it’s the only actual bookstore franchise in the Philippines. Most other book stores are family owned stores that sell used books. National Bookstore is a joke, and mostly sells stationary.
No way in hell I’m buying a sofa without sitting in it. They never feel like one would expect.
Do you got a source for that? I wasn’t finding anything to explain why or if this is true. Not trying to call BS, I just need to know more.
Could it be the books are wrapped to protect against humidity? This may not be the whole reason why they do it but it wouldn’t be the worst one.
I went to a bookstore two days ago, because I knew they had a copy of LOTR and I wanted to see if it had the map included before buying it.
It was the only book that had plastic wrap on it. I didn’t buy it…
Might have had the plastic so the map didn’t come out?
Schrödinger’s map. It’s both there and not there until you remove the plastic.
Store employee should be able to contact the publisher to ask if it’s there or not.
Seals in the flavor
kinda stupid to given the main reason to buy at a store rather than online is to check out what your buying.
i’m having problems with humidity in puerto rico as well… understandable
it’s so they don’t get flagged as a bathroom book.
One of the many plots that wouldn’t be possible with modern day cell phones.
Maybe most of their business is online.
Also, I imagine most of their walk-ins come in to buy a specific book they found on their website, rather than wait for delivery.
If keeping the books pristine didn’t offset whatever they lose by letting people browse didn’t work for them, they wouldn’t do it.
Maybe, also, the store is located a culture of higher than normal germophobes. People who are overly worried about touching things other people have touched.
It’s pretty common in Japan, but specifically for manga.
It’s really weird that Tsutaya would do this because although it was frowned upon in Japan to spend too long reading a book without buying it, Tsutaya was the one to change that norm. They even introduced cafes on premise where you can bring books that you haven’t paid for.
I’ve seen books wrapped if it has explicit material in it. Especially mangas with explicit material.
