A sprawling Barnes & Noble in Los Angeles in 2010, as it started to lose market share to Amazon.
Photographer: Gina Ferazzi/Los Angeles TimesA Bookstore Revival Channels Nostalgia for Big Box Chains
Fond feelings for the big chains of the ‘90s help to explain a renaissance for mall bookstores in the U.S.
When the final Harry Potter installment was published on July 21, 2007, bookstores across the U.S. celebrated with midnight release parties — some with booze, befitting a series whose earliest readers were now in their 20s. These parties took place at thousands of bookstores at a time that was, in retrospect, Peak Bookstore.
“That era, 1997 to 2007, was truly a sweet spot for readers,” Jenna Amatulli reminisced in HuffPost in 2017. “They watched the fandom bloom from nothing, lined up willingly outside of a physical store — oftentimes without a celebrity-sighting incentive — and read without the fear of a push-alert or Twitter spoiler.”