Yick.

Watch TV!  While shopping for books!

(via Ed)

Comments

[Kelly Fineman]

Two things:

1. They seek to "reinforce the message that its stores are not just about books", and will have "original programming". What on earth will that consist of, and how can we get them to pay us to write it?

2. "The screens are 'not designed to be intrusive,' Mr. Jones said. Rather, he said, they are 'part of a master plan to create content that will do several things for us,' like directing traffic to the Borders Web site and paving the way to more cross-promotional deals with large media companies. I am now picturing something like Minority Report, where ads bombard one as one walks along, subliminally and directly addressing one.

[Levi]

The grocery store I shop at added TVs in the checkout aisles last year. Nearly every time I'm in line, I try turning it off, just hoping that they will have accidentally not locked the buttons. I've not been lucky yet.

But that's at least a grocery store, where sensory bombardment is the order of the day. A bookstore? Seems like a bad, bad idea.