192 Books — Attraction in New York

i've walked by this bookstore many times and finally went in with my husband and baby. i love a local bookstore and this one looks so cute from the outside. there were two women working there at the time and the second we walk in, one of them immediately comments loudly to her coworker at the desk that there's a cute baby in the store, but that "it's not as cute as so and so's baby...." i was stunned by this completely rude comment but ignored it, and found the children's section (more like a haphazardly random pile of books) to try to find a nice book for my baby.

while i'm trying to find something, the same lady comes over to talk to my husband and my baby in her stroller and is just badgering him with questions and making nonstop comments about my daughter. i was so distracted i couldn't focus on finding a book, i then look over and her hands are in the stroller touching her toys that she literally chews on and my baby is visibly stressed at this stranger being in her face. at that point i had enough and decided to leave. we go to the door and she like was like "you can't leave, my coworker needs to see the baby" and was interrupting her coworker who was helping another customer. we couldn't leave fast enough. how this person has a job working the front is beyond me. very bizarre and uncomfortable experience with completely...

This place was a pretty big disappointment for me. I was walking back to my car when I saw it, and it certainly is very cute and well curated. I'm a sucker for any cute, local bookstore that is curated with love and car. I also have a huge problem with some of them and this one was no exception unfortunately. I found a super cool design book here and brought it up to the cashier because it had no price tag on it. The cashier, who was very nice, told me the book was $60 - honestly sounded accurate for a brand new, well made design book. I had a hunch though that it could be overpriced and when I went to look it up online, I found the exact same book, also at mom & pop bookstores - not the big chains or Amazon, selling it for $20 less. There is no reason to up-charge such a large margin even if your store rent is high, or your costs are a bit higher, that's a huge 33% margin. I'm not saying that all of the books there are this way, but this one being marked up that much just rubbed me the wrong way. Just my two cents, but the store is nice and the...

I want to support independent bookstores as much as possible, but the experience here just wasn't it. The staff did not bother greeting us when we entered the store, and were curt when we asked for help. This would've been understandable if they were busy — except the staff were enthusiastic and friendly to the white women who came right after us, proactively making conversation with those customers and asking if they needed anything. Left a bad taste in my mouth.

As other reviewers have pointed out, prices here are often higher than elsewhere. A book they listed for $30, I found for less than $20 at another small bookseller. I'd recommend doing a bit of research on titles you're interested in before shopping here. Personally, with so many great indie bookstores in the city, I will never...