Back in May, I fretted a bit about the future of the Harvard Bookstore (not affiliated with the university), one of the last great indie bookstores left in these parts. Today comes news that a retired tech executive and his wife have bought the store and intend to keep its operating philosophy intact. New owner Jeff Mayersohn says he’ll continue to focus on great service. “It’s a great store, profitable, and extremely well run,” he told the Boston Globe. “Coming from the high-tech world, I have noticed a trend away from companies that don’t offer customer service, toward those that do, and that is what a local bookstore offers.”
As I argued back in May, despite the proliferation of e-books and Amazon’s Kindle and all that, there is still a place for an intelligent bookstore. To repeat:
Amazon.com is fine with its computer generated suggestions and Barnes & Noble has all the best sellers fit to print. But only at HBS and its ilk do I find tables of recently released obscurities in the spotlight, staff-written recommendation notecards taped on shelves across the store and a cadre of knowledgeable, intellectual staffers ready to assist if I look the slightest bit lost or needy.
UPDATE: The Boston Globe ran a sweet profile of the new owners.
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