This is sooo awesome. I stopped going to BN specifically because I’d chat with employees and ask about various authors not on their shelves.

The answer was, “corporate controls everything.”

The employees did get one single end point for “staff recommendations,” but that’s it.

Everything else in BN was turning into Spencer’s Gifts. I was half expecting sex toys and supermodel posters to appear.

To hear they put the stores back into local control and that it’s been successful is one of the most hopeful signs for our collective future.