In article ,
Bill Baka wrote:

WTF? That was one of my favorite stores to hang out and spend $$$ when I
lived down there. What happened? They always seemed to be thriving and
had books on other subjects. Fry's simply never had the books to compete.

If I recall correctly, they were bought up by another company (or, at
least, changed names) and then finally closed.

I don't know what the economics of their close-down were. I suspect a
combination of factors: rising rents (things were getting a big crazy
during the dot-com bubble), competition from online book-sellers such
as Amazon, increasing cost of purchasing inventory, and increasing
cost of maintaining stock (business taxes on unsold inventory).

Is there anything in the Sacramento area or even the Silicon Valley area
anymore?

There's another technical bookstore called Digital Guru, located in
the next strip-mall section northwards from where Computer Literacy
used to be. They don't carry as broad a stock as CL did, but they
aren't bad.

These days, I tend to look on-line first.

--
Dave Platt AE6EO
Friends of Jade Warrior home page: http://www.radagast.org/jade-warrior
I do _not_ wish to receive unsolicited commercial email, and I will
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Dave Platt wrote:
In article ,
Bill Baka wrote:

WTF? That was one of my favorite stores to hang out and spend $$$ when I
lived down there. What happened? They always seemed to be thriving and
had books on other subjects. Fry's simply never had the books to compete.

If I recall correctly, they were bought up by another company (or, at
least, changed names) and then finally closed.

Damn. That was the best technical book store I have ever been in. The
last time was 1998 when I was working down there and they seemed healthy.

I don't know what the economics of their close-down were. I suspect a
combination of factors: rising rents (things were getting a big crazy
during the dot-com bubble), competition from online book-sellers such
as Amazon, increasing cost of purchasing inventory, and increasing
cost of maintaining stock (business taxes on unsold inventory).

Rents I believe. Even in this depression people are trying to raise the
rents. I know from experience owning a TV/electronics repair shop. At
exactly 1 year the girl representing the landlord told me that since we
were a success and made it a full year they were going to raise my rent.
My answer, "Sorry, greed doesn't get it, I'm closing.".
That was easy because business sucked except for the truckers and my CB
tuning skills at 5:00 A.M.

Is there anything in the Sacramento area or even the Silicon Valley area
anymore?

There's another technical bookstore called Digital Guru, located in
the next strip-mall section northwards from where Computer Literacy
used to be. They don't carry as broad a stock as CL did, but they
aren't bad.

Maybe, just maybe.

These days, I tend to look on-line first.

Me too.
sigh
Bill Baka