The worst library is still better than the best corporate bookstore.
We are talking about book stores, meaning there is a desire to own the book being read. You don't get to own the books in a library. As someone who heavily annotates my books—except fiction—I will need to own a physical copy (or a digital edition). I haven't been to a book store in a while, but I recall the last two times being quite disappointing. Meanwhile, on Amazon, or other online providers, I can find what I need more often than not.
FYI, Home Depot will sell you a box truck for about $44k; which I think is a pretty good deal.
I've bought a lot of books from the thrift store that had library stamps in them.
Still, for availability, the real winner is the not-necessarily-legal archives where you can find, say, OOP foreign books that I'd have to cross an ocean to find in a library.
"They certainly have Asimov and European classics."
I live in a top 5 city in Poland. My local library *has only school readings and harlequins". Interlibrary loan or anything else? Nope, they don't offer that.