Same Store?

I was surprised to see your story about Austin’s TravelFest (“Store Trek,” March 5). I lived in Austin when TravelFest opened, and it seemed the author and I had visited different places.

TravelFest is just a travel bookstore with limited luggage and a few travel agents at its nether end. The founder of the Bookstop/Bookstar chain, who built TravelFest, seems to have stayed with what he knows. Perhaps 18,000 people indeed visited the first week, enticed by daily promotional giveaways of lavish vacation packages. Each patron was greeted with letters asking for investments in TravelFest, the store of the future.

JOAN STULLER

Los Angeles