Books-A-Million — Local services in Joplin

I used to love BAM Joplin. I would stop in every week or so, until COVID stopped that. I have been shopping mostly online, but needed to renew my card, and a religious calendar for Mom's Sunday School class, so we stopped in Wednesday.

It's a joke. DON'T come here if you have medical problems and/or have problems walking. The benches in the back by the magazines are gone, and the ONLY places to sit down in the bookstore side are FOUR chairs up by the front. So if you want to look at anything and can't stand and/or squat for very long, like my Mother, then you're just out of luck. If the chairs are occupied, you're just out of luck. Joe Muggs is obviously NOT an option - I'm sure the barista at the counter is lovely, but you shouldn't need to feel pressured to buy a drink or a snack just to look at what you might want to purchase. It's also far from the back, which means you have several magazines or books or items to look at, you have to gather them all up, bring them back across the store, then walk quite a bit again to put them back. I made at least four trips to take our items back.

Mom also had a hard time finding the books she was looking for, and she never did find them. She finally gave up.

Christopher up front was lovely, but by that point Mom was hurting, and so we wanted to go home.

I'm lucky that I can still stand and squat and move at least fairly easily; I know several people who can not. BAM Joplin is currently not very accessible for...

I have been in the store several times shopping for different books, and when u each time that u have to go find somebody to help u find a certain book they often act like ur putting them out to help u there maybe a problem i mean thats what they get paid for is helping customers.. And then i was waiting for a book to arrive and they told me on 5 different occassions to buy or order it online because its cheaper but i explained i would rather buy from a store in person.. Then the book i wanted came in and i reserved one in the store and when i showed up to get it they had lost the book i was after.. Then they stated they had 10 copies of this book and lost ALL of them.. Really?? How do u lose 10 of the same books in 1 day?? So again their offer to me to fix the problem was to guess what.... Go on line and order it for cheaper.. As a book store shouldnt u think they would be more organized? Not to mention 30min before this i had recieved a conformation that my book was reserved for 48hrs.. I would imagine if u want to make up to ur customers for being disorganized that u would come up with something better then telling them to go online to get it discounted.. Thank goodness i have more than one book store...

I hate to admit that it’s been several years since I’ve visited a bookstore, an unfortunate sign of the times. There’s something about it, nostalgic but not dated that I really enjoyed recently.

I decided on a whim to stop in, quickly reminded of what makes places like this special. I was greeted by a sea of literature, beautifully organized and with every interest imaginable on display. This was an unexpected experience and one I’ve since repeated.

I was pleasantly impressed by the selection of coffee in their ‘Joe Muggs’ shop inside the store. Walking to the counter I discovered that they have a line of Harry Potter inspired coffee options that are excellent!

As a diehard fan of the franchise, one that visits the parks one to two times a year, the butterbeer coffee made my day! I highly recommend the iced version, but the frozen wasn’t bad either. If you are a fan like me, sipping your beverage while browsing the shelves is a...