Category: | Used Book Store |
Address: | 1302 N 3rd St, Harrisburg, PA 17102, USA |
Phone: | +1 717-236-1680 |
Site: | midtownscholar.com |
Rating: | 4.5 |
Working: | 8AM–9PM 8AM–9PM 8AM–9PM 8AM–9PM 8AM–10PM 8AM–10PM 12–7PM |
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Krystle-Dawn Tiedeman
My husband and I saw a brochure for this bookstore on our visit to Hershey last year. As a librarian, I was thrilled to learn of such a large and beautiful store. Today, we drove the two hours to Harrisburg just to visit the store. We planned to make a day of it; browsing books, enjoying the cafe, and then touring the area. We were extremely disappointed to find the brochure was incredibly inaccurate. The bookstore is in a terrible location. It did not feel at all safe or welcoming, especially in comparison to the other "tourist" destinations advertised in similar brochures. People in front of the store were requesting money and rides, yelling obscenities across the street, etc. Our idea of touring the area was quickly shot down. We entered the store to find it much smaller than the brochure suggested. What had appeared to be an open and cheery space in the photos was actually very cramped and dark, with tables blocking most of the walking space. The "cafe" menu was very limited (basically just coffee and a few very sad looking muffins), which also ruined our plans of enjoying a snack at the location. There also appeared to be very few options for food in the immediate area. We ended up driving almost an hour away for our meal. The inventory was not at all as impressive as the brochure claimed. Many of the shelves were completely empty, most of the books were in poor condition, and the organization made it difficult to locate anything. The photos online and in the brochure are misleading. The space is not nearly as "immense" as it portrays and -even with the empty shelves and very few browsers- it felt very claustrophobic. It was evident effort was made in the childrens area to display materials, but the selection was again quite sparse. So much for our plans of spending hours casually browsing. I had hoped to at least find some interesting purchases, but I found the prices to be rather high for non-rare merchandise with torn dust jackets. This bookstore advertises itself as a tourist destination, claiming to house the largest used book collection from New York City to Chicago. The creatively drawn map of the store leads one to believe the space is roomy, comfortable and inviting as well as well organized. In fact, Midtown Scholar is none of these things. I applaud them for their creative advertising, which caused me to waste half a tank of gas and leave hungry and disappointed. While Midtown Scholar may be a wonderful "local bookstore" it is certainly not worth the drive for visitors.
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A Private User
Zero customer service at the internet warehouse. They rarely answer their phone. You have to wait for them to respond to your emails. Also, on Alibris they are sneaky because they sell the same books under two different names--Eric papenfuse and Midtown Scholar--even though the former owns the latter and it is the same books sold from the same location. Update: After over two hours of calling Midtown Scholars internet warehouse and reaching only the answering machine, I sent an email. My email was answered the same day but the email response was worthless. The email response was one sentence that did not answer my questions and did not help me in anyway. In the end, I bought my book from Barnes and Noble where I got free shipping and used a 15% off coupon. It ended up being cheaper to get my book new from Barnes and Noble than to buy it used at Midtown Scholar. The book was $31.95 at BN and in the end cost me $28 something with coupon and free shipping and tax. With tax and shipping (or gas to drive an hour there), the book would have cost me a total of $31 something at Midtown Scholar. Midtown Scholar lost a customer. STUPID THEM. If I would have gone to them to pick up my book, I would have ended up shopping in their store and buying more books. They are very foolish to not answer their phones and to force customers to wait for their worthless email responses. Update 2: I drove there in person. The bookstore is beautiful. It would be a good place to spend the afternoon browsing. I probably wouldnt buy many of their books, though, because they are overpriced. Almost every book I picked out there I was able to find cheaper just looking on Amazon quickly with my phones web browser. No doubt I could have found everything cheaper if I had been using my home computer instead. All in all--immensely overpriced used books.
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Sheila Api
This bookstore being at this location is so good for the community in midtown. Its a good place to go and read or have a meet up with friends. People not familiar with the region should be more alert when visiting here because some interesting characters roam the place, mostly harmless but this is a city location that is getting there in terms of urban aesthetics but still has some work. The midtown bookstore for me symbolises an establishment saying"I root for Harrisburg!" when there seems to be meagre hope and that is just bold and beautiful. They might not also have exact titles but they seem to have titles for every category. As an aside, I just wrote a negative review about horrible customer service about an establishment and not to be one of those people that only write reviews when they get horrible service, Im also writing about a place I think I had a positive experience at and the midtown scholar was it for me.
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Christopher Khalid-Janney
The Midtown Scholar represents the bookstores and libraries we grew up seeing in movies, where it looks like you can find secret doors to escape to places within the book you are reading, or that you might literally be transported into an adventure like Narnia or The Neverending Story. The people working there and the people visiting are hard to tell apart because everyone feels like a neighbor you grew up with. The snacks and drinks are just right for visiting or for holding a meeting or other event, and there are always special happenings taking place. You certainly cannot be disappointed by the huge supply and diversity of literature available on just about anything, and you might just find yourself coming to sit and relax even without a book, just for the people and atmosphere. This is definitely one to check out for anyone who would like to fall in love with a bookstore again!
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A Private User
This is a cut above your average bookstore, not only for the ambiance, but also because of the wide selection of books and great customer service. I have always gotten great service at the coffee bar, and I have always had an employee go out of their way to help me find a selection. I have even called up and asked them to hold on to a copy of a book that I wanted and they willingly (and without additional fee) held the book for a couple of days for me until I could get down there. The events held at the bookstore range from book signings to live music to poetry readings. I also know that there is at least one book club that meets there. Its these type of activities that ensure that the bookstore is an integral part of the larger community - right in the revitalized downtown 3rd street corridor. I highly recommend a visit there - and to the entire area.
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Natalie Geiger
Midtown Scholar felt like a mini version of the library in Beauty and the Beast. You walk in and the majority of the walls are covered in books! If there are no books on the wall, the space is occupied by a beautiful mural, artwork, or posters showing upcoming events. They seem to have just about every subject of book and the categories are clearly marked. There is even a downstairs that I briefly looked at. I cant say much for the prices of the books as I did not see much pricing, but I only looked at a few books, so maybe I am missing something. The bookstore also has a cafe and seems to hold many scholarly events throughout the week. Overall, it seems like a great place to casually book browse and there is a very calm, quiet atmosphere. I definitely want to come back and spend a little more time here!