Barnes and Noble on Harbison to close
Bookworms in the Irmo area will be left without a traditional new-book store come year’s end, when Barnes and Noble on Harbison Boulevard closes its doors.
While management has not confirmed details to the media, employees are telling customers that the store’s lease at 278-A Harbison Blvd. is not being renewed at the end of the year, The State reported.
The Books-A-Million store across the street from Barnes and Noble recently converted from a traditional bookstore into a new model called 2nd and Charles that buys old books, DVDs and electronics to resell, according to The State.
The Barnes and Noble chain has faced economic struggles recently, with its second quarter sales down 7.4 percent from the previous year, USA Today reported. Its CEO abruptly resigned in July.
With the rising popularity of digital reading platforms, traditional bookstores have been on the decline nationwide for years.
— Sarah Ellis, Assistant News Editor
Sisters arrested after strip club fight
Two sisters and a third woman were arrested following a fight in a bathroom at a Charleston strip club, according to WIS.
Sisters Tabitha and Bianca Burns, 25 and 23 respectively, along with 27-year-old Martha Castellanos-Avendano have been charged with third-degree assault by mob.
They are accused of attacking a 40-year-old woman at Thee Southern Belle Gentleman’s Club on Sunday. The victim, an attendant at the club, told authorities she entered the lady’s restroom and saw the sisters enter a handicap stall. She told the women that only one person was allowed in each stall at a time according to the “rules of the house.”
Tabitha Burns confronted the attendant by cursing and then shoving her. Burns’ sister and Castellanos-Avendano joined in the fight, according to a witness.
Deputies reported that the witness, a couple of dancers and security had to come to gain control of the situation.
The incident report said that a bag of cocaine was found in the stall.
— Maxwell Bauman, Copy Desk Chief
Police say man with machete attacked group
Police say a man with a machete attacked a group of people having a bonfire in Spartanburg on Saturday, according to WIS.
Logan West, 39, of Inman, is accused of attacking three people. Two victims suffered from lacerations on their hands, and a third was cut on his shoulder blade.
Police say West’s motive hasn’t been identified. But one of the victims, who called his landlord to identify West as the attacker, said that West once lived in the house where the incident took place.
West is being held on $25,1000 bond and is charged with three counts of second-degree assault and battery, one count of trespassing and one count of malicious injury to property for breaking the back window of one of the victims’ vehicles.
— Maxwell Bauman, Copy Desk Chief