I live in Taiwan and the humidity kills books and makes them damp and stinky. So some places our books are wrapped.

Could it be the books are wrapped to protect against humidity? This may not be the whole reason why they do it but it wouldn't be the worst one.

Sounds like Fully Booked in the Philippines. Books aren't allowed to be browsed before you buy them, sofas aren't allowed to be sat in before you buy them. It's nonsense.

How are you supposed to know you'll like a book if you can't read some of it?

Judge it by its cover, obviously.

I went to a bookstore two days ago, because I knew they had a copy of LOTR and I wanted to see if it had the map included before buying it.

It was the only book that had plastic wrap on it. I didn't buy it...

I remember some manga stores in Japan where the staff would go around stopping you from opening them whenever they saw it. I'm a very slow Japanese reader. I just wanted to get a taste of it and wouldn't have read that far, but they would have none of it.

It's pretty common in Japan, but specifically for manga.

It's really weird that Tsutaya would do this because although it was frowned upon in Japan to spend too long reading a book without buying it, Tsutaya was the one to change that norm. They even introduced cafes on premise where you can bring books that you haven't paid for.

Seals in the flavor

kinda stupid to given the main reason to buy at a store rather than online is to check out what your buying.

i’m having problems with humidity in puerto rico as well… understandable

Why everything gotta involve plastic.

it's so they don't get flagged as a bathroom book.

more plastic misuse. disgusting.

Some online booksellers will let you download a few pages of a book to read before purchase.

You can do that and decide if you want to buy the physical copy.

That said, fuck this place. The joy of opening a new book and reading some of it is part of the process. I’d never come back.

Maybe most of their business is online.

Also, I imagine most of their walk-ins come in to buy a specific book they found on their website, rather than wait for delivery.

If keeping the books pristine didn't offset whatever they lose by letting people browse didn't work for them, they wouldn't do it.

Maybe, also, the store is located a culture of higher than normal germophobes. People who are overly worried about touching things other people have touched.

Yeah, that bookstore looks pretty upscale, nearly a boutique, especially in a developing country. Not unlike others built for bookworms where browsers are free to read almost anything.

In such a bookstore, the customer is not always right.

Asides from the protection from humidity and dirt, I feel they also don't want to sell a frayed damaged book or magazine -- I feel that would count for them as a loss -- unless the customer paid for it, so they put limits on casual browsing. This, RFID tags and CCTV cameras to deter shoplifters.

Otherwise and in some places they put out a selection of open unwrapped publications and let anyone, provided they also pay for the coffee or hang around and pay by the hour, to read at their leisure in a dedicated cafe.

Only sure way for you to know a new book is to scope out the copy online if it has an ebook equivalent.

Soo why go there to buy a book instead of ordering it cheaper online?

you pirate it first and then buy it from a different store. Go in there with a pen and paper to write down the titles you will look up later or just take pictures with your phone. If they ask say "Im going to look up if I want to buy these later since I cant look inside it" and then if they're responsible for the decision behind the wrapping you tell them "thank you so much for treating your customers as annoyances and opting to hinder their purchasing decision-making. I appreciate the efficiency in communicating your priorities"

She’s dead. Wrapped in plastic

I've seen books wrapped if it has explicit material in it. Especially mangas with explicit material.

You read the synopsis on the back? That's why that's there. It also makes sure that books stay new instead of getting covered in greasy fingerprints and folded pages, people genuinely do not care about other people's stuff.

Who still buys books without investigating them online first?