Bloglanta

With the closing of Walden Books (deep discounts while they last) in Lenox Square, neither of the city’s two premiere shopping plazas will have a book store in them. Lenox barely has a music store (FYE) and Phipps has none. That’s fascinating. Lenox once had two bookstores and had an HMV. They even had the Met Shop. Now, virtually nothing.

Perhaps this says something about our culture. Yes, one of the larger Borders is near by, but one would think that Atlanta’s wealthier shoppers would want more than home furnishings and clothes. One would think they’d want something to read to go with one of the coffee stands around the mall.

Perhaps there is a division between the culture of literature and serious music and the pop scene in our town. Atlanta has not had a serious literary hangout since Oxford Books closed all but the comics store. Tower was one meeting place for serious musicians, but now that it’s gone, now it really does revolve around clubs such as Churchill Grounds and Apache Cafe. Unlike other cities, Atlanta likely could not support a Gibson shop in Lenox.

It is surprising however, that there is not a serious hip hop industry shop in Lenox. On any given Saturday, the ultra-bling set can be seen shopping there and the lack of a store that sells cutting edge electronics, beat samplers, tracks, and recorders is surprising. Perhaps Simon is trying to discourage it.

Ah well, at least Atlanix is there, but with the loss of the music stores, book stores, and museum stores, a serious commitment from the Management at Simon would be a friendly gesture.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 8th, 2007 at 2:18 am and is filed under Looking at the Past, Venues and Events. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.