Lake Erie Book Company is a charming bookstore located in the historic Rees' Drugstore building in…read morethe downtown Geneva. Rees' (circa 1910) was known for its soda fountain which lives on at Lake Erie Book Company. I was so excited to visit this bookstore, and extremely disappointed with my experience. I'm a lover of indie bookstores. It's the first bookstore I would never consider visiting again.
AMBIANCE: Festive storefront looks inviting and cozy. The bookstore looks preserved in time with elements of the old pharmacy and bookish wooden accents. One room or the bookstore is devoted to book shelves and children's area. The second room has open space, checkout, and soda fountain bar. Plenty of space to roam. The store closes early on weekdays and weekends. Check their hours before you go.
INVENTORY: The inventory includes children's books, mystery, fantasy, romance, used books, and other genres. There is a small selection of souvenirs like tees, coloring books, Christmas ornaments (currently on sale), and dates with a book. The latest book releases are on display at the front of the store. Some new merchandise looked well loved. I purchased bookish coloring with folded cover ($9.99) that wasn't marked down as used, no bag available.
SODA: The store has a soda fountain and caffeinated drinks. Soda fountain bar offers Italian Soda, Dirty Soda, and Ice Cream Soda (priced from $3.25-$7). You can select your soda, syrup, and ice cream choices. Unfortunately, the syrups are not in-house. My drink was strawberry ice cream and Sprite. Strawberry ice cream was very tasty and contained seeds. My friend tried dirty soda and it tasted artificial.
SERVICE: The service at this store is terrible My friend and I were excited to visit this indie store for a book club and drove over an hour.
We felt unwelcome and considered leaving. It's not your typical welcoming and friendly bookish vibes. Allow me to elaborate. We arrived on time to the book clubs. The group already gathered and acted annoyed when we arrived. We RSVP'ed on Facebook so our arrival was no surprise. There was no participant or business introduction. The book club was book presentation or monologue. There was no room to discuss and any sideline reflections were quickly talked over by the organizer. There was no room for attendees to connect. I didn't get anything out of this bookclub because it was not an open discussion. It was rush through. My smiles at the organizer were met with frigid attitude. Given the newness of this book club (few months), I really wanted to give them grace but our experience continued deteriorating. There were no options to shop and order books for next book clubs. Questions about the store's history and drinks (as we ordered) were met with an attitude. The book club concluded in less than an hour making me excited about all this time about shopping and trying soda. Guests weren't invited to shop or have soda, and instead rushed out. There was garbage cleaning and active statements about needing to close. I wasn't allowed to get or pay for more than a small size ice cream float and wasn't allowed to shop. Some guests lingered outside to talk because the store was immediately closed and lights shut off.
Interactions with store employees made me very surprised at their rudeness - rushing us out before the allotted time, lack of a warm welcome, rude and short answers to our questions, sideway glances, and generally making us feel like intruders. I've visited many bookstores and never had such a derailed experience.
I am not interested in visiting this store again based on my disappointing experience. I can't recommend it. While the concept and history of this charming bookstore are great, the unwelcoming culture was a real downfall. I hope that this store improves its service to create a positive customer experience. It has so much potential!
