I came here because it was close to Mr. K's Bookstore, and I wasn't quite ready to go home. I've been to a few 2nd and Charles before, one in Augusta, one in Atlanta (Kennesaw, specifically), and now one in Greenville. And it seems like each one I go to gets worse. The one in Augusta I rated 4 stars. While the pricing was a little more expensive than I'm used to, I found some graphic novels I've been searching for a while, at half price of the original. Kennesaw's was a three star experience where the only thing I got were a few free books in the bargain bin (they were vintage dinosaur illustrated books--pretty sweet!), so I can safely say that this is a "Meh... I've experienced better" bordering on the "A-Okay" side. Since this one fell beneath both of those experiences, I'll rate it as a 2.5 experience, which I guess I will generously kick up to 3 stars because I got a good deal on a Pop vinyl figure.
While this place has tons and tons of books, it seems to favor quantity over quality. The managers aren't the types of people who read, it seems, and they just go out and purchase every book they can get their hands on. I was here for over an hour and I browsed the entire general fiction section and I found ONE book in the entire store that interested me. ONE! They sell both new and used books here, with a focus on High Schoolers' required reading.
It's a hollowed-out bookstore that has absolutely no charm, no quaintness, and (the most important thing in a bookstore) no soul. There's also no consistency with pricing (as almost every single reviewer mentioned), but not only is this the case for records, it's also the case for some books. If you are looking at records, go somewhere else! They have a decent selection, but the prices are laughable. Largely up to whoever is pricing that day, you're likely to find three of the exact same records... for three entirely different prices. Yes, I saw that while I was there. You can also get new records here for about a 10-20% markup of other record stores. Even Urban Outfitters has cheaper records.
PROS:
They had a lot of Pop Funko vinyl toys while I was there--Ender's Game, Game of Thrones, X-Men, TMNT, etc. most were about $10, which means some were cheaper than you could find at other places, and some were more expensive. Just do a bit of comparison shopping.
Selection of records, books, movies, and games. But it's more of a quantity over quality thing, though.
Near to Mr. K's Bookstore.
CONS:
Things are just not in a logical order. Records aren't in their proper place, sometimes books were placed with an author's first name, the Pop Funko vinyl toys were scattered throughout the store and not together.
If you want to laugh, check out the record prices. You're likely to find multiple prices for the exact same record, and you can't expect any kind of pricing consistency there, either.
The staff doesn't know what kind of products they sell! I heard someone ask if they had any Doctor Who stuff and the staff member said "No, all of it was bought up at Christmas." I passed an ENTIRE table dedicated to Doctor Who on my way out of the store.
Slow service. There were two registers open, and the line was about 12-15 people in front of me and about 5 behind me.
It's a soulless corporation akin to Walmart. Even Barnes 'N Nobles had a soul (or maybe the coffee smell made me think that... Well, at least Barnes had a huge selection of books.)
THE VERDICT:
While essentially every business is here to make money, at least at some of the smaller bookstores, you get a friendly staff, large selection of books, and the knowledge that you're giving a new home to an old book. They've scrubbed out all the dust, charm, and quality of a small bookstore and replaced it with their shining, plasticized model. But by all means, come here if you're looking to browse something popular or crappy (they had a lot of Harry Potter and a lot of Twilight), just don't expect the staff to care about you. At least they had a nice selection of Pop Funko vinyl's (albeit, scattered throughout the store and not together). If you want to find a bunch of books, you're better off at Mr. K's. read more