Bookstores: How Independent Shops and Large Chains Interact

In the past, giant chains have targeted local independent bookstores as a matter of policy. It is therefore difficult to believe K-mart-owned Borders’ western regional manager’s claim (“Chain Reaction,” Sept. 29) that she was “dismayed . . . that we were going to be such a close neighbor of such a respected bookshop” (as Sisterhood, an independent bookstore across the street from Borders’ new Westwood location).

Equally unbelievable is her statement that she hopes Sisterhood will “do a better business because of spillover from us. Our employees will be instructed to refer people to Sisterhood.” I doubt that Borders’ customers who are in the market for Harlequin romances, Madonna videos and the latest Stephen King thriller will throng to Sisterhood.

The first time I took my daughter to the Sisterhood bookstore, she accurately remarked, “It’s the kind of place where you want to spend a rainy afternoon.” This is what the cavernous, impersonal Borders will never be.

FRANCES LONGMIRE

Los Angeles