About Bookstores

In mid-December, Northshire Bookstore in Manchester Center, Vermont, concluded a seven-month expansion project, which encompassed both new construction and renovation. According to Chris Morrow, general manager of the store, the newly constructed spaces include a 3,000-square-foot children's book department and the 3,000-square-foot Spiral Press Café, seating 70 and serving full breakfast and lunch, coffee, and snacks.

The 63-year-old Concord Bookshop in Concord, Massachusetts, called one of the "jewels of New England," by Rusty Drugan, executive director of the New England Booksellers Association (NEBA), is embroiled in a public dispute between the staff, headed by three longtime booksellers who serve as the management team, and the store owners, members of three families, headed by Morgan "Kim" Smith, president of the store's board of directors.

A coalition of seven independent bookstores in the Lansing area of Michigan recently decided to work together to organize a community reading event that would encompass not only Lansing, but its surrounding suburbs as well.

Last month, Canterbury Booksellers in Madison, Wisconsin, hosted Al Franken for a sold-out event at the 1,800-seat Orpheum Theater, a recently renovated movie house. Studs Terkel, who introduced Franken to the crowd, then went to the store following the event for his own very successful book signing and reading. Canterbury Booksellers, which hosts over 100 events a year, sees this super-sized event as a model for a regular series of more grand-scale readings.

When does a 300-square-foot bookstore have enough space to encompass millions of book buyers and thousands of books? Answer: When National Public Radio's Susan Stamberg asks its manager to recommend some holiday gift books and the response is aired on the popular Morning Edition radio program. On December 4, three independent bookstores were represented during the radio segment titled "The Hunt for Books That Are Better to Give."

With 49,900 square feet of space, over 250,000 books and 60,000 CD and DVD recordings, and a full-service Cajun restaurant in its main store, Chester County Book & Music Company (CCBMC) in West Chester, Pennsylvania, may not give the appearance of a local mom-and-pop store. But, in fact, it is just that.

As national headlines about the beginning of the holiday shopping season used words such as "cautious optimism" (National Retail Federation), "solid sales" (USA Today), and "yawn" (New York Times), so too did independent booksellers' post-Thanksgiving sales experiences vary. Some were reporting gains of 20 percent or more for the past weekend and generally good results over last year, and others have yet to see a turnaround from recent years' poor results.

News Flash -- Oakland, California: DIESEL, A Bookstore, established in 1989, is not closing, not for sale, and not under new management. The founders/owners, Alison Reid and John Evans, are looking for one or more new partners to share equally in the operation of their "high quality, independent neighborhood bookstore celebrating a California urban aesthetic, a cosmopolitan gathering point for those who love good writing."

On Monday, December 1, Ruminator Books in St. Paul, Minnesota, sent an e-mail to its listserve offering shares of common stock for public sale at one dollar each, with a minimum investment of $250. This offer is available only to residents of Minnesota. The 33-year-old bookstore hopes to raise between $450,000 and $1 million to offset its growing financial woes, and the outcome of the stock sale will likely determine Ruminator's survival.

Ed Conklin, manager of Dutton's Brentwood Bookstore, calls the new Dutton's in downtown Los Angeles an "experiment." That's appropriate as all 300 square feet (give or take) of the new Dutton's is located in a theater renowned for offering experimental entertainment: the Roy and Edna Disney/CalArts Theatre (REDCAT). "[REDCAT] is a space for alternative theater, music … and there's an art gallery there as well," said Conklin. "It's avant garde and a brilliant umbrella for non-mainstream and offbeat endeavors."

Holidays 2003 -- Will your sales records be filled with comfort and joy or will your store suffer too many silent nights? After a rocky year, booksellers around the country are looking for innovative ways to bring people into their stores or onto their Web sites to maximize sales. Stores may be using holiday promotional techniques that, although they worked in the past, are now failing to bring in customers. People are jamming stores later and later in the season, waiting for big discounts or simply leaving gift shopping to the last minute.

Here, Andy Weinberger, co-owner with his wife, Lilla, of Readers' Books in Sonoma, California, takes a look at customers who take it upon themselves to act as morality cops, and he makes the case for tolerance, diversity, and the public's right to information. This column originally appeared in the November/December issue of "One for the Book," an occasional newsletter from Readers' Books.

By Andy Weinberger

Susan Danner, owner of Danner's Books in Muncie, Indiana, noted with a laugh that her store was only open a week before it moved. That's because, Danner explained, in 1995, she purchased the bookstore from a friend with the understanding that the travel agent next door would be expanding into the space occupied by the bookstore. As a result, the bookstore would have to move down a door.