Industry Eye: Furthermore - Marketing & Mobile Minute

Unlike its one-time Manhattan neighbor Barnes & Noble, which began expanding into the country's largest bookstore chain more than 30 years ago, The Strand remains among the last of a dying breed: a thriving local bookstore.

Although The Strand sells nationally via its Web site, Strandbooks.com, it's never mailed a print catalog outside of New York. But in late 2007, the company launched a mobile site that allows consumers to browse and purchase books from their mobile devices.