Contrasts

XiXi took us to a bookstore today, and things couldn't be more different at this store than the ones I work in. Some of you reading this may not realize that the independent bookstores I work with have been struggling to survive the last several years. One issue stores in the US face is generating foot traffic. There are times I walk into one of my accounts and there are 6 staff people and me-that's it.

What I experienced today was crazy. First, you need to picture a Borders Bookstore. Now make that store have 5 stories to it. Now fill it with so many people, you can only "scootch" along. Add a stroller in front of you, and an 11 year old behind you getting shoved from his behind and you might get a feeling for what I'm talking about. I have never seen so many people looking and buying books. You literally could not walk, but had to do a sort of tip-toe through the crowd. Now granted, this store is also the supplier for text books, and today is the start of summer break. So being Sunday, parents are bringing their kids to buy books so they have something to do for the summer. Here is the other contrast-what are our kids looking to do for summer break-it sure isn't reading and studying. Dawn reminds me they have no balance. True enough. And, I just read that 5.5 million kids are graduating from college this year in China, and will be competing with 700,000 kids who could not find employment last year. Still, is was interesting to see so many people buying so many books. I wish the stores I see saw even a fraction of the traffic I saw today.

Most of the books were obviously in Chinese, but they did have bilingual books and had a pretty good section of English only books. I saw the book I bought in the US for $7.00, here it was $11.00. Howver, Dawn was able to buy quite a few books that are bilingual for $20, and would cost maybe, $50 in the US. We also bought 10 DVD's of the good and legal quality for $30. At home these would have cost between $250-$300. We watched CARS and were able to watch it in English, but I was unable to get rid of the Chinese sub-titles. That's ok, it will help us learn Chinese.