Ray Bradbury's last visit to Acres of Books

This is Ray's last visit to Acres of Books...

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People & Blogs

Tags:

• acresofbooks
• ray
• bradbury
• books
• love
• longbeach
• state
• government
• local
• grassroots
• outreach

[RolfLarsson]

What, is the whole store just staffed by hipsters?

[laubklein]

Yes it is.

[chart3]

since i've never seen many (if any) people of color like myself in the store, sometimes i wonder if my ethnicity or appearance has anything to do with my shopping experience there. maybe if more of the local community was reflected/represented within the store's personnel, more local customers might patrionize the store, and subsequently there might be more grassroots voices to support pressuring the mayor's office into allowing the store to remain in it's current, historical location.

[laubklein]

First things first...there is plenty of local support for Acres. This is evident in the number of people who have showed up at the meetings in regard to Acres and in what I hear everyday that I have worked there. Not one person has said they cannot wait for us to go. We have support.

All of the people (except one) who work at Acres live not only in Long Beach but most live walking distance to the store. We are the local community.

[laubklein]

In regards to race...there are people of color working there now and have been plenty in the past. So, I'm not sure what you mean by your comments.

[zxygh]

This is depressing.

[TheBookWorm1718]

@lezwitch I hear that, I would go every week, usually Friday when we were out of school for the weekend, and stay about an hour just looking through everything, and I still do that when possible. It's not a big library by any means but they have a lot of books and I consider that a good thing.

[lezwitch]

@TheBookWorm1718 As to libraries. Yes! I know what you mean! I practically LIVED in the library when I was a teenager :-)

[lezwitch]

@TheBookWorm1718 I was BORN in a small town in the Midwest (as it happens). But the chains are having to close because of their high overhead. A small town bookstore can avoid most of those problems...no advertising costs to speak of...lower lighting (less electricity) etc. If you know the right "Book Scouts" (or are trained in that yourself) you can keep your stock replenished at very little cost. Then if you do some mail-order (internet order) business you should be okay.

[TheBookWorm1718]

@lezwitch Oh we're a very small town in the midwest. As to why we can't keep a bookstore here, I don't know, but if even the bigger chains are having to close some of their stores because business isn't good, then I guess it's no surprise the same fate could fall to the smaller places. Thank God though our one library is still in business, if that place ever closes I will be crushed, I go there every week and get a lot of good stuff from there.

[lezwitch]

@TheBookWorm1718 When you say "We didn't have a bookstore here for over 10 years" where is "here"? And what is wrong with wherever it is that it cannot support even ONE small book store ESPECIALLY since there is no competition from the huge Chain outlets?

[TheBookWorm1718]

@lezwitch We didn't have a bookstore here for over 10 years, and we don't have chain stores here, it was a small independent place, and we had another one two years ago, but it only lasted 7 months and then they closed it and turned it into a photographer's studio, and now a chic boutique. But when we did have the book store for 7 months I went in all the time, got a LOT of books for good prices, LOVED browsing through everything, and now we don't have one anymore again.

[lezwitch]

You see the problem? Why it's gone? Acres was set up in a time when people loved to browse through bookstores (particularly USED book stores) which meant a saleperson wasn't all over you. But a lot of the complaints I see here about that beloved place are about "customer service." Times changed. People wanted instant results and there was no place left for browsers. Yes, Long Beach should have declared it a monument---so many famous writers hung out there---Ray, himself, Raymond Chandler so many

[33nickynickster]

I miss this place. I miss a place where I can smell old books, touch them and buy them. I have ZERO interest in going to Borders and Barnes and Noble. I hope we find a place soon. I miss Acres. It should have been placed under historical protection in Long Beach. Maybe we need to lose more of our heritage before our representatives understand the importance of it for our city?

[gensal]

WOW I cant beleave they closed it down :'( it was an awesome place ! old dust i loved it!!!