Going to National Bookstore: Hitting the nostalgic feels

So after my morning walk with the dogs from Ampon Alaga I was just in time for the mall opening and I remembered I needed to get a mechanical pen for one of the projects that I am working on.

Usually for paints, markers, and other hobby stuff, I get online as I would buy several items at once but since this is a single item and it would take several days to be delivered if I don't pay for extra same day shipping as lately the usual 2-3 days delivery has become a week.

Good thing there is a National Bookstore that is still open. For more context National Bookstore or NBS for short is National Bookstore Inc. which had been running since the 1930's but was formally established as a company in 1942.

It had the lion's share of the market in terms of books and school/office supplies as one of the earliest memories of kids as they start to go to school. Every May, before the school season starts, you and your mom troop to NBS as you buy the pencils, ballpens, art supplies and even bags. The smell of those paper products and the feel of the plastic covers that you will use to wrap your notebooks and books.

You need books, you of course went to NBS. It supplied the educational book needs of an entire generation as they start from Elementary all up to College and even post graduate courses like medicine, law and others.

It also carried books to be enjoyed. Every topic imaginable from Filipino Literature to New York bestsellers. It had photo and travel books, cookbooks and at one point even comics and manga.

I got into reading and this where I would buy my books. It still had at that point little chairs and sofas to encourage people to pick up a book and read. I remember being able to read several books without buying it, just spending the time and remembering what page I was if I can't finish it in one sitting.

So it was sad news to me when I heard that one of its original stores in Greenbelt 1 (one of the malls in Manila) was closing last December. It was just a perfect storm of so many factors as brick-and-mortar shops like NBS had problems during the pandemic as a lot of schools and offices made the transition online, then the Online shopping market just exploded and ate up a lot of their market share as people opted to order supplies and books online and have it delivered.

NBS did establish an online presence and tried to shift to the e-commerce model as well while still maintaining their physical store but everyone could see the writing on the wall as the stores become smaller and smaller and some had even closed.

Just take this branch in Powerplant Mall in Makati. I remember it being in the 2nd floor and was massive. It even had this huge comic book and manga section in the middle that showed the latest publication and even limited release series.

It also where I bought all my Wheel of Time and Game of Thrones books as it generally had a good book selection.

The art supplies section here carried everything from paints, markers, pencils and paper crafts. It had the a massive glue section as there were several rows on glue alone.

I saw it through the years becoming smaller and smaller as sections got removed. One of the first things was the comic book section, the book section become so limited that I had no choice but to switch to Fully Booked, a competitor, for new books. It didn't help that it had a great cafe next to it that was also ran by Fully Booked. Coffee, cakes or soup and sandwiches, and Books was such a great combination and I often had dates there.

Then it was closed for renovation and was eventually moved to its present-day location in the basement with it almost 1/8th the size of it before. The book section is now 3 shelves. Majority of the stuff they carry is more of school and office supplies. The glue section is half a shelf together with tapes.

It was such a hit in the nostalgia seeing such a big part of my memory being a shadow of its former self and I wonder how could it have better made decisions that made it remain competitive in today's market. At this rate we might see it go the way of the likes of other companies that operated for decades but eventually faded away.

If you went to National Bookstore what were your memories?