Round Lake Bookstore 216 Bridge Street, Charlevoix, MI 49720

"We stopped into this store to browse and purchase a few books. I told my son to pick out a book. The employee asked his age/grade level; then told him that he should choose more age-appropriate books. Won’t be back."

"Cutest bookshop in the area! There are many choices in every genre and some of the best popular books available."

"I’ve been coming to this bookstore for years. It’s always been a highlight for me. I won’t be going again. I’m pretty sure it was the owner behind the counter. It’s just time for her to be sell or take a long break. We all have struggles so maybe it’s been a hard few years and I have tons of empathy. Unfortunately, it’s showing in a big way with how you deal with your customers. Questions get annoyed responses She doesn’t enjoy her customers at all. Especially if you have kids. Even the well behaved ones. I worked for years in a small store on a tourist island. It can get annoying of course, but without the tourists the business would fail. So you put on a smile and try to connect and make it a great experience for everyone so that they come back. I won’t be back to this store though."

"My son shares my love of books and bookstores and he was so excited to find this one. I walked around the book store with my son looking at different books and trying to narrow down our selection. We both had 4-5 books in hand when we sat down to look through them. I proceeded to quietly read aloud to my son from one particular book. We were enjoying ourselves for about 10min when my son said, mom, I think we have this one at home. As I stood up, the clerk asked, “would you like me to ring this book up for you?” I told her, “I think we might have this one, do you know if this author has written any other books?” Barely looking up from her internet browser, she responded, “I don’t know, but if you spend so much time here looking at a book, I’d appreciate it if you’d purchase it”. I was shocked. We had no less than 8 hardcover books in our hands to purchase, well over $100 and this snarky comment is all we get?! And no willingness to properly answer my question as to whether they had any other titles from the same author! Needless to say, I put all but one book back on the shelf and instructed my son to do the same. We made our small purchase and promptly left. I rarely leave reviews and certainly never a negative review, but I’m so upset over the experience I just had. Maybe others are correct and this store just doesn’t like children/families (although my son is 10 and was very appropriately behaved in store). Maybe I missed a sign instructing people not to open any of the books. Maybe they should remove the cozy seating to limit time spent there. In a world where everything can be bought (often times cheaper) with the click of a button, I enjoy supporting brick and mortar, small businesses. This was quite sad."

"Do not visit with kids - other reviews back this advice up. I am so sad to have had such a negative experience in this place. I grew up in this town and used to frequent the bookstore all the time. Today I read my 4-year-old a book that we were considering buying. Instead of signage or a warning, the clerk came over to tell me that we had to buy the book if we read the whole thing because they weren’t a library. I knew that and had a stack of books we were planning to purchase - and we were very gentle with the book? I just don’t know where this came from. She told me not to come back and I never plan to."