National

 Nagsara na yung Greenbelt 1 branch ng National Book Store and while hindi ako suki dito (My childhood NBS branches are Glorietta, Southmall and Festival Mall) it was still jarring to see a longtime branch closing. I've been seeing some posts on social media saying that it is the start of the end like how the record stores Astrovision and Odyssey died. I don't think they will suffer the same fate but it's not surprising people are thinking that. They discontinued Laking National card (mine expired May 2020 and I couldn't renew it!) and the branches I've been lately dimly lit, understaffed, disorganized and basically malungkot ang atmosphere. Matagal na rin naman na mas supplies na sila than books but even in that area, NBS is lacking na rin unlike before na essentially any school/office supply you may need meron sila with options to choose from. I know e-commerce changed things but there's still a big market of people buying things physically. At the last Manila International Book Fair, I found out the young generation flocked to a certain booth to buy books na apparently sikat sa Tiktok. As for school supplies, face-to-face classes are back so their main market is back! NBS currently has this "Balik National Na Tayo" marketing campaign so they're trying (and self-aware) but the stores themselves sana mabalik nila yung "magic" it once had when you enter it. They have iconic brand recall so I hope they can turn things around.