(SPOT.ph) There was once a time when book stores were some of the most popular hangout spots in Metro Manila. Many of you may recall when Fully Booked—one of the largest bookstore chains in the country—opened its first branch in 2003 at Power Plant Mall. The shop was a gargantuan space that carried every genre imaginable in a maze of shelves you could literally get lost in. These days, they don’t quite have the same market power and in fact, that once-enormous store space in Makati has shrunken significantly over the years, a shell of its former glory. Unforunately, bookworms, it looks like the book shop is only continuing to downsize: Fully Booked announced today, January 13, that they are permanently closing three of their branches, namely those at Torre Lorenzo in Manila City, Century City Mall in Makati City, and Ayala Malls Vertis North in Quezon City.
Fully Booked Permanently Closes Three Branches in Metro Manila
Fully Booked announced these three closures through a Facebook post, which stated that the Torre Lorenzo store officially shut down on January 12 while the Century City Mall branch closed its doors today and the Ayala Malls Vertis North outpost will be following suit on February 1. "If you were a frequenter at these branches, we still hope to see you at our other branches," they said in the post, also noting that their store at S Maison in Pasay City will be temporarily closed until further notice.
In 2020, comic-book shops Comic Quest and Comic Odyssey both closed down—the former a 35-year-old institution and the latter a beloved comic haven located inside Fully Booked’s branch in BGC. Though not quite book stores, comic-book shops are a close relative—both being the kinds of places you go to if you love reading printed works and seeing titles stacked against each other on your shelf. Like Comic Quest and Comic Odyssey, Fully Booked had long been considered an institution and its closure—less than two years after the aforementioned comic shops—signifies an undeniable change in the way we consume culture; a dispriting reminder that most people just aren't filling their shelves with books anymore.
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