The Curious George thing was confusing; it was hardly even a book store at that point. I'd argue it probably hurt them more than it helped them. But fair enough. A few bookstores have shut down around there, including ones with similarly legitimate differentiation (like that rare book store around the corner.)

Sorry, I didn't mean to imply that they picked the location to compete with Amazon. In this case, I mean "beat Amazon" to be synonymous with "surviving." Perhaps "coexist with Amazon" would have been a better way to put it.