Zoe visited New York City over Christmas and, among other things, visited the Strand. Zoie points out on the postcard that it’s not called “the Strand,” a thing she discovered during her visit.
And I do see that it’s just “Strand” on the bag. But the back of the postcard itself says, “Altogether they created the Strand’s beloved idiosyncrasies” So the bookstore itself does use “the.” Maybe it’s “Strand Book Store” (no the) and “the Strand”?
Anyway, Zoe said the bookstore was pretty fun, but ranked it below Powell’s.
She also reports that she spent a lot of time in New York on transit, which was restorative. I agree that it’s nice to have some restorative public transit time.