This is a photo from a tweet I saw recently—just the photo.

A bookstore in a mall. Maybe some local, regional, or independent Waldenbooks clone.

But it’s not a mall, and it’s not a Waldenbooks clone. This is an airport terminal shop—in the Milwaukee Mitchell International Airport—and it’s a classic overstuffed, pack-rat’s-dream used book store!

This is a very rare breed in retail. From Atlas Obscura:

It’s likely this was the first airport-based used book store in the world when it opened in 1979, and it’s currently the only one of its kind in the United States (Another used book store, 2nd Edition Book Sellers, at Raleigh-Durham International Airport closed in 2017.)

What’s odd isn’t the store, but the location. Airport stores are almost always chains, or very bland, indistinguishable independent places (deli, convenience store—rarely anything interesting.)

The original tweet from which I learned this store exists is part of a thread which give some fun details. For example, the guy manning the checkout is Orange Mike, who goes back to the store’s opening in 1979. From the thread:

The store’s existence comes down to the airport taking bids from local bookstores to occupy the space, and accidentally including used bookstores in the list. The owner shrugged and submitted the high bid. The airport tried to stop it but after six months of legal spats failed.

I asked where the stock came from. Did people lug their used books to the airport? No. It’s a combination of ancient stock from the owner’s multiple warehouses and...the employees going to thrift stores constantly and picking up every Harry Potter and the like that they see.

This store just shouldn’t exist. The airport doesn’t want them there, it makes no revenue, they have a hard time moving product, and all of its underpaid employees are at retirement age. And yet it persists.

Here’s the first tweet, picture and everything else:

Give his fun thread a read, and if you’re ever flying through Milwaukee, check out the store!

Related Reading:

A Bridge Too Far

Nothing to Write Home About

Clean Those Tiles Up

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