POWERHOUSE on 8th — Local services in New York

I am a huge fan of local bookstores and do my best to support them instead of online retailers. I’ll happily pay a bit more and wait a bit longer for my books to support a brick and mortar community of book lovers. However, I’ve been very disappointed with PowerHouse Books on 8th Avenue for their overall lack of communication and seeming disregard for their customers who go out of their way to order books from their store. I ordered two books over one month ago at the bookstore and was told that it would arrive in about two weeks. I didn’t receive any follow-up emails, calls or texts about my books being delayed. I’ve had to call about 4 times once every week to check to see if my books arrived, and each time was given a very general answer as to why they weren’t yet available. I have ordered from other local bookstores in the past, and they’ve been much more communicative and strived to create a sense of community with their customers. No such effort was made here at PowerHouse Books. There are other bookstores in the neighborhood that I would recommend supporting over this...

It's a small, local bookstore but one that can be better described as more of a long hallway sparsely lined with bookshelves rather than a bookshop as such. Emphasis on the small: the selection has some interesting items, but there's really nothing interesting, and not much to see overall. The children's section, on the other hand, is a good fifth of the store and has a great, varied selection. There are a lot of parents in the neighborhood (or visitors looking for gifts) who would be happy with these, but there's not that much for adults. It's still worth popping in and taking a look. The staff working is pleasant...

I’m a nanny in the neighborhood and love Powerhouse. It’s a great place to grab a quick gift and the children’s section is wonderful. I’ve always had wonderful experiences with the staff, including my visit today. I’m leaving this review and giving only 4 stars instead of 5 because I never want to enter a book store to the sound of aggressive screamo rock music blasting. And when I say blasting I mean blasting. It was honestly hard for me to even concentrate on finding what I needed, the music was so loud and aggressive. I would have left and gone somewhere else if I...