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Manhattan Bookstore Comes To Rittenhouse Square With Some Buzz

PHILADELPHIA( CBS) --- Another bookstore in Philadelphia? In Rittenhouse Square, with a coffee shop? Shakespeare & Company wants you to bookmark it.

The buzz about Shakespeare & Company is its "Expresso Book Machine."

"It can print a book in about three to four minutes," said CEO Dane Neller, "about the time it takes to order a cup of coffee."

Neller says while you're sipping coffee and nibbling on pastry, Shakespeare's will print and bind bookstore-quality paperbacks not on its shelves.

"You can go into a little bookstore and have instant, infinite, or practically limitless inventory," he said.

His 1632 Walnut Street location, scheduled to open this summer, is less than two blocks from the Barnes & Noble.

"We are about a 2500 square foot store," Neller said. "They are, and I'm guessing, a 30,000 square foot store."

Neller took over the last standing Shakespeare's in New York in 2015 on the Upper East Side. It's morphing into a small chain. He's opening two new stores there as well, on the Upper West Side and another in Greenwich Village.

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