Let me start by saying, my general attitude towards place to buy books is this: locally owned bookstore = best, used bookstore = better, Barnes and Noble = good BooksAMillion = okay. That said, for a very long time, as a Fleming Island resident this was the only place even close to being convenient for me.
Because this location is so close to the movie theater, you're best off to park at Belk or another anchor store and walking then using the main outside entrance. In the past few years, the set up has changed a lot. Near the outside entrance is the clearance section. It's just sort of piles of books in general categories. Sometimes you can get something good here but I don't generally have much luck myself. They do have a large selection of magazines and you can often find the new issues here before most places (though that is also true of Barnes and Noble). They have a cute kids' section but I don't have much need for that.
They used to have a little cafe near the mall entrance. It is now a frozen yogurt place. First off, I'm shocked it's still a yogurt place, I thought that fad was on it's way out. Second, there is now not one coffee place in the OP mall (I mean, you can get a coffee at Chickfila but it's not the same) but there are 2 fro-yo places. I just don't understand why they would put a yogurt place in a bookstore.
The customer service is pretty hit or miss. Like Amy said, if you ask for help sometimes you just get a hand wave in the general direction of where you can find a book. I also find the pushing of the discount card to be too much. Before e-readers I used to purchase a lot more brand new actual books but it's just not worth it for me anymore. I get it, I used to work in retail and had to push credit cards but if I tell you no, I don't want to know the "other" benefits to the card.
Overall, I think my dislike of this place is a dislike with the way BAM does business in general. If you're at the mall, it's worth a browse but, imo, if you really want to do some book shopping or browsing, head over the bridge to Barnes and Noble. read more