What the fuck is wrong with Dymocks at Broadway?

Gosh, how times have changed. It's been quite a while since I last browsed the Dymocks at Broadway. Once upon a time, that wondrous space (in the old Grace Bros building, now Broadway Shopping Centre) was home to a very classy Collins book store. It had an intra-store Gloria Jeans and as many uni students working behind the counter as you could poke a stick at. They knew what you were talking about when you asked for a particular author or title, the range of books and categories was exemplary and as a consequence shopping there was a very pleasant experience.

A few years later I wandered in for a browse to find the shelves almost completely bare, even though the doors were open for business. Bugger. Bankruptcy. In its place, after some time, came a Dymocks. Oh well, I thought. Its a great space, they are bound to treat this as a second flag ship store. But no, no, no this was not to be the case. On the rare occasions I browsed there I found the staff to be only a fraction short of hostile and not at all short of ignorant and the layout and range of books hopelessly compromised.

But until my visit today (to spend a gift voucher), I haven't had an occasion to visit any other Dymocks stores for a very long time, but I can't imagine that their business model could have changed so radically. I never saw them as anything more than a suburban chain store, selling a pretty limited selection of titles, but this! The visual merchandising is appalling. Books are laid out on bargain tables, the shelves are dishevelled, everything is muddled together with racks of tacky knick-knacks and worst of all some sale items and subject categories are marked with badly hand scribbled labels on plain paper sticky-taped to the shelf.

So many questions, so few answers on the website. Doesn't the Dymocks franchise owner provide standard maroon and white signage for the stores? Are other Dymocks stores now like this? Who owns the Dymocks Broadway franchise/store? And what the fuck are they thinking???

Long live Gleebooks, Better Read Than Dead, Elizabeth's, Ariel & Berkelouw I say!