Children not allowed to read at Bookazine

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Tuberuse

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We just left Bookazine at Prince's Bldg where my 5 yr old daughter was told she is not allowed to read books, because "Bookazine is a bookstore and we sell books". She is however allowed to "browse" the books!!!!!!!! i confronted the staff but was told this is their policy! Have been their VIP for a long time and I'm so disapponited and angry!

I want to warn all parents who plan on taking their kids to bookazine to not do so because your kids are not allowed to read there and you can't read to them either. Go to other stores instead. We were at Dymocks last Friday spent 45mins reading and bought 2 books! My daughter asked me why she wasn't allowed to read at Bookazine............
 
It's also ridiculous that they wrap the kids books in plastic. Like I would spend $150 on a book that i couldn't open to check out first.
 
Sounds like a classic problem of the employee/staff not really understanding the policy of the store or taking the policy too far. I'm pretty sure when I browse at a bookstore, I read the books...not sure what browsing is supposed to entail otherwise.... If you have a generous spirit you might try to speak to a manager to have them educate their staff on what 'browsing' is in the context of a bookstore. But then again not your responsibility to train their staff; agree that places like Dymocks, Metrobooks, etc, are family friendly and therefore should get our business.
 
personally, i HATE it when they wrap books, especially kids books. but i don't think bookstores are for reading. libraries are for reading.

maybe you could make a trip to the library and find the books that you want to buy then go to the bookstore?

besides places like book buddy and book castle have a MUCH better selection of kids books anyway.
 
i do, too.... but i buy A LOT of books (for myself and 2 playgroup centres).... to ask them to unwrap every book i want to look at is a bit of a pain in the neck... i can spend hours there looking at books and often walk away with thousands of dollars worth of books...
 
wouldn't it be cheaper to order them in bulk online then?

i always save my 'mass' book buying for my trips to taiwan! they are so much cheaper there and the bookstores are so much nicer!
 
Grrr, I hate the plastic wrapping of ANY books. I've started boycotting the stores that do that. Before, I would just help myself and rip the plastic off so I could have a look inside. I never asked anyone if I could. Figured if they wanted me to make a purchase I had the right to inspect the wares.

Reminds me of when I had my 3 year old with me, entering a library when I was stopped by over-vigilant staff saying children could not go into the library. He is well versed on library etiquette and loves going in there, so I asked the lady if she would like to babysit him for me. When she said no, I just proceeded in with him and ignored her.
 
ozmerc, that reminds me of the over zealous exhibitor at ARTHK11 who were complaining about how the 'art' wasn't for school tours and that they didnt' know how to appreciate them anyways!

I was told this by a friend. If i had been there I would have loudly said 'well then, let's go to another booth and appreciate OTHER art so that when you grow up and make money, make sure you don't buy from THIS person'
 
HK bookstores are crap and overpriced. I miss the bookstores in London. Even Taiwan has far better bookstores than HK.

I buy all my books online. There's a good online bookstore in the UK which ships for free worldwide including HK (no minimum purchase amount required). They often charge slightly less than the UK RRP although admittedly don't give the same discounts that Amazon can offer. I "browse" and read the reviews at Amazon, but often place my order at bookdepository.com.
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i do purchase books online, too. but i much prefer browsing in a shop to ordering online. i always find stuff that i wouldn't have been looking for...good for me, bad for the pocketbook.
 
Sorry, back to the original post! They have a reading area with beanbags and a little table, what do they expect the kids to do there!!! Maybe it was just one stroppy member of staff, I've been there with my nearly 2 year old and he looks at the books while I browse. I usually do make the effort to buy something if he's been looking at a lot of books though ;-)

Agree with those who've said HK bookshops are particularly crap, they only have 'bestselling' authors, they are poorly laid out and that book wrapping thing is idiotic - I just take the wrapping off myself, no-one's ever said anything about it.
 
Carang I agree with you that it's nice to actually be able to flip through the books in a bricks-and-mortar store.
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same reason i haven't bought a kindle... i LOVE the flipping pages, the real, paper books! just not the same... tapping a computer screen...
 
My thoughts are that the purpose of most, if not all, businesses in Hong Kong is to make money. They aren't all that interested in treating the customer well or presenting a good image. So, if you and your child are hanging out in the bookstore reading books and not buying in their minds you're taking up space, wasting their time and not filling their pocketbook so you'd better leave. I'm not saying that this is the way I think it should be but this is my impression of the way it is. Having said that, if some bookstore worker came up to me and made a stink about it, I would make just as big of a stink about it right back at them. In fact, I would refuse to make my child stop reading their books and force them to seek higher management to deal with me. Then, I would write a letter to the CEO of their company or whatever to voice my opinion. Often, I find in HK, people with very little authority try to throw whatever weight they have around and all it takes is you just saying, "Uh, no. I won't be stopping what I'm doing and what are you going to do about it?" for them to back off and leave you alone. Anyway, I hate the bookstores here because they never have what I need/want even if it's a popular book. So, I'm going to be shopping at Amazon.com from now on.
 
Anyone see the full page ad for Bookazine on the back page of the SCMP 'Family Post' section? A large photograph of children enjoying reading books INSIDE the Bookazine store. Ha!

I order real books and Kindle books from Amazon. I LOVE my kindle, mainly because it's an instant book fix. And I was surprised it's nothing like reading a computer screen.
 
Did anyone else see the ad in the paper today for Bookazine with kids laying on the floor reading? Thought it was quite ironic given the chat here.
 
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