Town in Texas Finds The Best Use of a Walmart Ever

What to do with Walmart? Or rather, what to do with an abandoned Walmart? According to Walmart’s own website, there are more than one hundred such stores waiting for lease or sale. Since the average Walmart Discount Store is over 100,000 square feet and the Supercentrers are even larger, this can pose a problem for communities faced with these giant, empty buildings.

The town of McAllen, Tex., however, has come up with the perfect solution: Convert the whole thing into a library. The result has everything from study rooms to public meeting space to computer labs (including 16 specifically dedicated to kids and teens). And in case you're worried about kids reading amidst industrial shelving and linoleum, never fear. the store has had a total makeover and the ambiance is awesome (you can check out photos here). Unsurprisingly, library membership has increased 23 percent since the new space opened. I mean who wouldn’t want to join? I kind of want to join and I live a thousand miles away.

And as an added bonus, at 124,500 square feet, it’s also the largest single-story public library in America. Well, I guess everything is bigger in Texas.