At the end of the year, the only book store in Tracy will be closing.
There will still be a few places where you can buy books, but the selection is limited.
Barnes and Noble at the West Valley Mall will be closing their doors for the last time at 6:00PM on New Year’s Eve. The bookstore will be replaced by a sporting goods store.
The bookstore has been open for about 11 years. I have many memories of the store and will be sad to see it close.
One of the things that I will miss from the store is the large mural above the newsstand that shows some of the history of Tracy.
I will also miss being able to go to the bookstore and browse through the books. I can always order books on-line, but I really like to look at them before I buy them.
The mural shows scenes from both Tracy and San Joaquin County. In this portion we see a picture of an old hotel in Stockton. I also really like the cartoon tomato that represents agriculture in the county. For years Tracy was home to a major tomato processing plant.
Here we see a few more scenes from Tracy and Stockton. In the middle at the bottom is a view of the Tracy Inn Hotel that is still standing in our downtown area. Now it is home to a restaurant and retail shops.
I also like the picture of the family with their automobile. It makes me think of Grapes of Wrath.
I also really like this postcard that is in the mural. The caption says that it is The Home of the Tracy Bazaar. The buildings are still standing today and this picture gives a nice view of what they once looked like.
I wonder what will happen to the mural. Perhaps Barnes and Noble will donate the mural to the local museum. I doubt if it will be incorporated into the decor of the new tenant.
Another possibility would be to move it to a hallway in the mall where it can continue to be enjoyed by the shoppers at the mall.
However, my gut instinct is that it will disappear and only be retained in memories and photographs.
Hopefully we will get a new book store in Tracy. It is sad to see a city the size of Tracy without a bookstore, but then again our county seat Stockton is consistently ranked near the bottom when it comes to most literate city lists.
Our literary desert is expanding.
Steven
For some good news see: Book Store Opening
Braman's Wanderings 
Do hope you get another bookstore. Sad not to have a bookstore.
Devastating. One because it’s books. Two because it’s another retail store. My husband and I started listing all the store that have gone out of business in our hometown and where we now live in the past 20-30 years. Shocking. First Barnes and Noble replaced the independent booksellers and now they too close stores. Will we lose retail completely and have to buy everything sight unseen from Amazon or ebay?
I hear you! Further up I-5 in Elk Grove we lost our book store when Borders went out of business. If we want to go to a bookstore, we have to go further north to Sacramento. So I just order on-line, pretty much exclusively now. If I want to test a book before buying, I order a copy from the library. 🙂
I agree with Current Descendent that it’s devastating. I hope that at least the mural will be saved.
Oh no! That’s a real shame Steven. I’m sorry to hear it. I hope it’s not indicative of what might happen everywhere soon. I have a bad feeling about it though. I’m doing my best to continue to patronize our bookstores. Routinely buying several magazines -vs- subscribing. Buying my books there instead of Costco and I also did a lot of Christmas shopping at the book store. You should investigate the future of the mural, it’s too special to meet a demise. Hope your New Year is a happy one with the exception of this bit of bad news. Cheers!
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