Well, it’s one part bookstore and one part coffeeshop. A competing chain of B&N. I come here because, aside from Starbucks and convenient stores, it is the only place in Redstone where I can get frou-frou coffee after 5pm.
There are two downsides, the first is that the WiFi here is so bad that while I can read websites, I can’t participate. Trying to comment sends everything all to heck. Too little upload bandwidth, I guess. The second downside is that they don’t let you use the bathroom without an escort. They don’t escort you into the stall, of course, but rather they have to unlock the bathroom for you. This is not good for a place that serves coffee.
In order to compensate for the Internet, I have my phone rigged up for tethering. Since I’ve started relying on WiFi at home, I have bandwidth capacity to spare on my plan.
Here’s an odd thing. The poster for this place here in Redstone has a mildly hipster-looking guy a tattoo and a wedding band. The same guy, I’m pretty sure the same picture, back home in the South has neither the tattoos nor the ring. They’ve been photoshopped on, or off. Either one got the poster before the other, or it has something to do with market research. That would be some pretty wicked market research: I would actually bet that people (whites, anyway) around here are more likely to have tattoos, and more likely to marry young.
I arrived in time for happy hour, which is buy-one-get-one-free. Frustratingly, they won’t let me buy one now and get the free one later. I guess they’re betting I say “never mind the second one” but the end result is that I get two, just in case. I may put the second one to waste. Or drink it cold with a bit of a chip on my shoulder about the coldness.
Sitting here alone with two cups of coffee on the table makes me feel oddly lonely.
Next door to this place is a Rent-a-Center. The existence of Rent-a-Center brings out an unpatriotic side of me. It… should… not… exist. At least not in its current form. A more stunning indictment of American consumerism/capitalism does not come to mind.
“Sitting here alone with two cups of coffee on the table makes me feel oddly lonely.”
Do what I do: take one cup home and drink it accompanying a meal prepared from Microwaving Cooking For One.
Good times.
The existence of Rent-a-Center brings out an unpatriotic side of me. It… should… not… exist. At least not in its current form. A more stunning indictment of American consumerism/capitalism does not come to mind.
I really don’t see why it shouldn’t a brief look through wikipedia doesn’t really say much. There are a bunch of lawsuits, which is either indicative of some poor management (e.g. gender dsicriminatory hiring practices) or really uptight-ness on the state’s part. In fact, it overall looks like a great idea. What am I missing?
You can rent an $900 television for only $25 bucks/week and, after a year (if you don’t miss a payment), you’ll own it.
Their entire business model is built around allowing people to get really nice stuff they cannot afford. Most of the deals you get at Rent-a-Center are – from what I’ve read – not as half-way decent as the one Jaybird.
My antipathy does not run so deep as to outlaw it or regulate their business model away (my antipathy isn’t solely directed at the store, either, but also the customers and to an extent society at large). I still don’t like it one little bit.
“Their entire business model is built around allowing people to get really nice stuff they cannot afford. ”
Will, why do you hate black people?
Will:
How do you know that folks can’t afford the stuff? Maybe they just can’t pay for it up front, which is a different case.
Except for emergencies, there are few things I believe you should purchase that you can’t pay for outright. Not most electronics and not any furniture, which is the bulk of what RAC sells. If your credit is sufficiently bad that you can’t get a credit card, or you’re stretched to the limits of the card you do have, you probably shouldn’t be going out and renting or renting-to-own stuff.
Does using a credit card count as “paying outright”?
Sometimes, but not always. In the context I am talking about, probably not. I meant using the credit card in the “emergencies” exception to the “pay outright” rule, but forgot to… you know… say so.
Gotcha.
We had friends who got into trouble using Rent-a-Center. It was just part of their general practice of trying to have more than they really could afford, and using the monthly payments approach to fooling themselves into thinking they were affording it. They used their credit cards the same way. We weren’t happy when Rent-a-Center started calling us to try to get hold of them.
they don’t let you use the bathroom without an escort.
Weird. I actually went into a B&N today specifically for that purpose (rationalizing it as OK because I spent a bunch of money at one last weekend), because it had been a long drive and I didn’t want “Can I use your bathroom?” to be my first words to the prospective customer.
I’ve never been at a B&N that didn’t allow restroom usage, though B&N wouldn’t touch Redstone with a 60-mile cattle-prod. This chain, whatever its faults, will. So it does score points for that.
Barnes and Noble still has a competing chain?
Half-Price Books?
Not HPB. The word “competing” may be a bit strong, as there are substantially fewer of them. They have 150 or so locations. They just happen to exist virtually everywhere I’ve lived.
Well I’ll be. There is in fact a major bookstore chain that I’ve never heard of before, because they don’t have any stores on the west coast.
Great post.
In my experience B&N exists mostly to let teenagers drink coffee and read Japanese comic books without paying for them.