Sitting in traffic to dig through someone's moldy garage is not the hobby, the books are the hobby. Used to be all about the thrill of the find, but last month I scored a clean copy of The Left Hand of Darkness off a library sale page for 3 bucks while eating breakfast. Meanwhile my buddy spent his whole Saturday hitting estate sales and came back with two water damaged Tom Clancy books. The hunt sounds fun until you remember the gas money and the sunburns and the sellers who want 20 bucks for a book with a cracked spine.

Did that guy paint little smiley faces on his clipboard?

Coordinated push" feels like a stretch to me. Bookstores have always had trends, and romance is what sells right now, especially in tourist spots where impulse buys happen. Those tiny shops probably just realized they can't compete with Amazon for nonfiction and history, so they double down on what actually moves. I've seen the same thing with little hardware stores doing just tools and paint, not because someone told them to, but because that's where the money is. Same two-week gap in Minneapolis just means the second owner copied the first one's good idea, which is how all retail works. Lazy curation? Sure, maybe. But it's also just smart business for a small space.