It's the model of every book store local to me. I won't patronize them. If I can't get it at the library in a decent length of time, or if I want to own it, I just buy it online now.

It may have more to do with proximity to publishers' warehouses than anything, but I really don't know.

Locally, Religion and Religious Fiction are the two biggest sections at the local B&N as well. Science sections are minute. Regretably, this does seem to reflect the local market.

ETA: Originally, BAM *specialized* in unsold inventory, so a lot of books in the store just hadn't been that popular to begin with. And their stock tended to be a bit older than B&N or Borders.

I found the discounts at BAM to be some of the best -- 30% off used to be common, with 10% more off to card holders.

They "skew Christian." I stopped going into them when I saw them featuring the child-beating books by Michael Pearl.

Worked in one for several horrible years! They are based in Alabama and they take over stores from chains who close, such as Crown Books and now Borders. They lean far far right!! Used to drive me nuts when we would get all of the books by people like Ann Coulter, Sean Hannity, etc., in large quantities and we would get one copy of a book by Clinton, or any other left-leaning author. Then the religious books started showing up. I also found it very amusing that while all the right-leaning family values books and religious books were being sent in droves, the number of erotica and sex manuals that were being sent skyrocketed. I miss my Borders store too! Don't think I can bring myself to go into Barnes; heard they're right-leaning too! I wish someone would start up a new chain, but that's probably a pipedream, huh?