A bookstore owner in Portsmouth, NH, arrested Monday for writing bad checks, charged customers a $5 ‘browsing fee’ for the privilege of looking at books in his Antiquarian bookstore on Route 1. He also assaulted and insulted customers. More at Seacoastonline.
The browsing fee seemed like a crazy business strategy to me — charging people for the right to consider buying from you?? — until I remembered that catalog sellers like Spiegel used to charge $2-10 for their mail order catalogs. Does anyone do that anymore? Some auction houses also charge prospective buyers an entrance fee.