Holiday Weekend Report: From Wonderful to Disappointing

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. Bestselling titles ranged from The World According to Mister Rogers by Fred Rogers (Hyperion) to Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code (Doubleday). And the availability of Book Sense gift cards and unique sidelines were cited by some as having bolstered early holiday sales.

In Philadelphia, where it rained all day on the Friday after Thanksgiving, Chris Saad of Chris' Corner, a children's bookstore, said, "It was busy, but we weren't as busy as we would have expected." Saad also remarked that though sales weren't stellar this holiday weekend, she did notice a huge improvement in sales over last year for the entire season so far. "There aren't more shoppers, but there are bigger purchases. Last year lots of shoppers bought a couple of paperbacks, this year more people have disposable income to buy books for their kids. The season as a whole has been really great." The classic Free to Be You and Me by Marlo Thomas (Running Press) was a top seller.

Sarah Zacks, owner of Books on the Square in Providence, Rhode Island, was also a bit disappointed with the post-Thanksgiving turnout. Her initial impression was that business was up, but upon reviewing the numbers, Zacks said they were significantly lower than she expected, and also lower than last year. Zacks told BTW that she supposed sales were disappointing "because of how late Chanukah occurs this year as opposed to last year." She speculated that this season her community, which has a large Jewish population, would start shopping later and that December would make up for the slower November. To help prepare for the holidays, Books on the Square participated in off-site events at the Jewish Community Center's celebration of Jewish book month.

In Bristol, Vermont, Deerleap Books' Carol Wells provided a glowing report about Black Friday sales. "It was probably the best day-after-Thanksgiving in the last five years," she said, estimating a 20 to 25 percent increase over last year. Wells attributed some of the success to the town's recent campaign that brought merchants together to encourage consumers to shop locally. In the small town of 3,800, eight new shops have opened, generating a lot of local interest. Many of the new businesses, along with Deerleap, pooled their resources and advertised in Bristol and nearby areas. Wells judged by her increase in sales that "people decided that instead of malls, they'd [visit] all the new businesses in town."

Two years ago, Wells said that sales were so awful her only consolation was that they couldn't get any worse. The next year's rock-bottom sales proved her wrong, but this year has brought a much-appreciated turnaround and has been the best in the store's five year history. She noted a "more positive feeling this holiday season. Last year everyone was depressed. This year everyone seems more upbeat. Not just for Thanksgiving, but for the whole month of November."

Almost all the booksellers in the Southern region of the U.S. who spoke to BTW noted sales were up from, or at least equal to, last year. In terms of bestselling items, most mentioned The Da Vinci Code. Said Ray Hinst of Haslam's Bookstore, Inc. in St. Petersburg, Florida, "Da Vinci just keeps selling in a quiet way. It just slips out the door and then you look at the day's sales and think, How did it do that?" Other booksellers echoed these thoughts, stressing that sales for the title, while maybe not overwhelming, have been remarkably consistent.

In Florida, cooler temperatures over the holiday weekend helped boost sales about 10 percent over last year, said Mitch Kaplan of Books & Books in Coral Gables and Miami Beach. "People got into the holiday spirit because there was a bit of a chill in the air," he said.

Kaplan mentioned that electronic gift cards sold quickly. "We had lots of people buying them," he said. "People were buying multiple cards. Parents were buying them as gifts for teachers. Someone from the university was buying them for faculty members. People are very impressed with the cards."

Valerie Koehler at Blue Willow Bookshop, a general bookstore in Houston, Texas, told BTW, "It was a good weekend for us. We're not in a mall situation, so it was not a big day, but I was very pleased with the numbers. I've been very pleased with the entire month! We were definitely up from last year, and last year was better than the year before that."

Koehler surmised that store sales have increased because "we've built up a nice customer base. People like [the store] and will buy a whole family-worth of gifts." Additionally, the Houston economy has improved, she noted. "Two years ago we were devastated by 9/11 and the local fallout from [the Enron scandal]. When energy does okay, we go along with it."

In addition to The Da Vinci Code, "all the Christmas titles are doing well…. And we're still doing strong sales with book club titles." She added that she's seen a spike in The World According to Mister Rogers by Fred Rogers (Hyperion) and the autobiographical The Pythons by the Monty Python troupe (Thomas Dunne). As for sidelines, the board game Apples to Apples is doing quite well, she noted.

Phil Smith of Brace Books & More in Ponca City, Oklahoma, said the store had a "very good weekend. The past Friday was better than last year's [Black] Friday, and the weekend was about the same." Smith had not yet come to a conclusion on why this year's sales figures were better, but explained that "we did extra sales specials … and put the Christmas books on sale."

"The weekend went fine," said Tom Lowenburg of Octavia Books, a 2,000-square-foot independent located in a 100-year-old building two blocks off Magazine Street, the landmark New Orleans shopping strip. "Friday was more like a Saturday -- we got off to a good start -- and Saturday was like a Saturday. We're already feeling a build-up to the season, though [the Thanksgiving weekend] is not everything the media says it is. That's a shopping center idea; for us, it's the building point to the holiday season. But it was a brisk day on Friday…. Our busiest day is December 24 -- [that day] is just amazing." Lowenburg noted that Never Give In: The Speeches of Winston Churchill (Hyperion) has been an unexpected hit this holiday season. "It's a gift book and a strong one lately," he said.

At Haslam's Bookstore, the Thanksgiving weekend "exceeded expectations," said Hinst, who added with a laugh: "Of course, our expectations are modest ones these days."

Sales for the weekend surpassed last year's, and, as for the remaining holiday season, "we are cautiously optimistic," he told BTW. "There are so many variables that affect the consumer. The competition has become so heated, online and in bricks-and-mortar stores. Based on only this weekend people seem positive, optimistic -- brows aren't as furrowed as they were last year. I'm hopeful that this same mental state will continue through the pre-Christmas season."

In Natchez, Mississippi, a tourist town located on the Mississippi River, the independent Turning Pages Books & More had a great Friday, said Mary Emrick, the store's owner. "Friday was a really big day," she said. "We served refreshments and had a special discount for the day after Thanksgiving. We had a signing with a local author."

Emrick said that, even though the weekend was good, sales were still below last year's. The town suffered an economic downturn when International Paper Company moved out, she explained. "People in Natchez are slow to get going," she said. "I'm pleased with how it went … due to the economy people are cautious." As for bestsellers, aside from The Da Vinci Code, Gregg Iles' novel, Footprints of God (Scribner), and A Very Southern Christmas, edited by Charline R. McCord (Algonquin) have been selling well, she reported.

"It was wonderful, really busy all day," said Suzanne Ledford of Fireside Bookstore in Forest City, North Carolina. "We were busy all day Friday and all day Saturday, it was one of those constant [streams of] families, everyone coming in to order for the holiday. There were also a lot of people from out of town." Ledford said it seemed busier than last year, but "it always seems that way!" Still, the economy is suffering due to the closure of a couple of local plants, she noted. "A lot of people are out of work. A Lowe's superstore recently opened up, though, and some people are getting work there."

Most booksellers in the Midwest who spoke to BTW reported some increase in sales from last year. The weather, always an influence on holiday shopping in this part of the country, was generally good -- no mammoth snowstorms or painfully low temperatures. Experienced booksellers tended to be cautiously optimistic and were taking a "wait and see" approach to the coming months.

At Howard's Bookstore in Bloomington, Indiana, owner Joie Canada explained that she never expects huge sales during the post-Thanksgiving weekend. "We're a college town," said Canada, daughter of the store's founder. "The weekend was okay, but this is never a busy time since the students are gone and most of the faculty is on vacation. Books sent overseas have already been shipped. We had a big event for the lighting of the town square, and then around December 10 business cranks up. It hasn't varied much in the last six years." The 30-year-old store appeals to a variety of people and not all of them are aiming for December 25." Many of our customers celebrate the solstice, Chanukah, and Kwanzaa, so the shopping time has a broader spread," said Canada.

Canada is satisfied, though. "We had a whacking good year," she explained. But the year hasn't been so kind to all Bloomington businesses: five of the 20 in the downtown shopping district closed this past year. "There are big holes," said Canada. She noted that hot items this year include George Bush playing cards (for more about the cards, click here) and Warrior Woman by James Alexander Thom (Ballantine). "We're here for people who don't want electronics or gizmos, who aren't interested in fighting each other at Wal-Mart."

After strong sales through October, Left Bank Books in St. Louis, Missouri, experienced a slight downturn in November. "Sales were about 10 percent off," said co-owner Kris Kleindienst. "I'm not worried," she said. "A lot happens the week before Christmas. People are done with the malls and come to us. We're located in a turn-of-the-century neighborhood with lovely antique shops and good restaurants. The media ignores the neighborhood stores and gives regular reports about the parking in the malls. A major new shopping center just opened, the second in two years, and they are getting a lot of free publicity. The first Books-a-Million in the area is there, and other new stores."

Kleindienst, who will celebrate her 30th anniversary at the 44-year-old store in a few months, said that the store sells a lot of books by Molly Ivins, Michael Moore, Al Franken, Jonathan Lethem, and Barbara Kingsolver. "The DaVinci Code is still selling very well, so is Vernon God Little (Canongate), and the new books by Sara Paretsky and Paul Krugman. Titles by two authors based in St. Louis are also selling well: Queen of Christmas by Mary Engelbreit (HarperCollins) and Horses: Photographs, a coffee-table book by Michael Eastman (Knopf).

Left Bank has already begun selling the Book Sense gift card. "We've ordered the generic cards, and now we're ordering ones with our store name imprinted," said Kleindienst. "I'm using them in our promotional store baskets…. When I attend book events, I put out e-mail sign-up lists and signers have a chance to win a gift card."

Harold Boatman, co-owner of The Book Shelf in Carlinville, Illinois, told BTW that sales were up by 20 percent on Friday and Saturday. Opening on Sunday was a mistake that Boatman "won't do again," after selling maybe one book all day. The 10-year-old store is in a town of 6,000 (including the metropolitan area), the county seat of Macoupin County, "on the town square in the center of town in the center of Illinois."

In the heart of downtown Dixon, another Illinois community, with a population 15,000, is Books on First, which also saw a healthy rise in sales over last year. According to owner Larry Dunphy, "Business is 10 percent above last year, and it was good last year. But I've only been open for five years and [in that time] business has only been down for three months."

Dunphy opens his store at 7:00 a.m. to take advantage of the big coffee and newspaper business. The store also carries jazz and blues CDs that may not be available any closer than De Kalb, 40 miles away, or Chicago, 100 miles away. Dunphy explained that he "only carries CDs that I would want to take home." To help increase business this year, Dunphy is underwriting NPR programming and advertising in local papers. He fills about 30 to 35 special orders per week.

Kim Moppert, co-owner of Mr. McGregor's Garden, a children's book and toy store in Fort Wayne, Indiana, reported "good business over the weekend…. We were just about even [over last year] but we're heading in the right direction." Moppert said that unfortunately some popular sidelines, particularly toys, were unavailable and will not be in until January. Moppert has begun selling Book Sense gift cards. "They're great," she told BTW. "We look like we've moved into the next century."

McLean & Eakin Booksellers in Petoskey, Michigan, had a "bang-up weekend," according to owner Julie Norcross. "It was better than last year, better than the last couple of years: sensational. We were up by 15 percent. We get lots of visitors in this small resort town. We call it the Martha's Vineyard of the Midwest. People here like to shop in independent stores -- not the giant chains." Located at the northern point of Michigan's Lower Peninsula, Petoskey is four and a half hours from Detroit and six hours from Chicago.

Bestselling books this season include the new Gary Larson collection, The Complete Far Side (Andrews McMeel) and America 24/7 (DK Publishing), the collection of photographs that allows buyers to customize their front cover. "People can bring in a photograph, we have someone here to scan it and e-mail it to DK. [The customer] can come back and pick it up in a week to 10 days. We provide that as a service -- it helps people overcome their resistance to the process when they buy the book, and, hey, that's what independent bookstores do."

In over 4,000-square-feet of selling space, Norcross features "huge" Book Sense displays. "We've already redeemed a bunch of gift cards, and people were buying them for gifts -- the holder makes a lovely presentation."

Northern Lights Books and Gifts in Duluth, Minnesota, saw increased sales over all three days, owner Anita Zager told BTW. "Regional titles were strong sellers: from Sleeping Bear Press -- V Is for Viking: A Minnesota Alphabet (by Kathy-jo Wargin, illustrated by Karen Latham and Rebecca Latham) and The Edmund Fitzgerald: The Song of the Bell (also by Kathy-jo Wargin, illustrated by Gijsbert Van Frankenhuyzen). The photography book for us this year is Looking for the Summer by Jim Brandenburg from NorthWord Press. We've had a very full schedule of events: We have five regional authors signing on December 6. On November 9, we really got things rolling with a visit from Jan Brett (On Noah's Ark, Putnam). Over 500 people came, and we sold 350 books."

Farther West, Dick Noyes, owner of Chinook Bookshop in Colorado Springs, Colorado, characterized sales on the Friday after Thanksgiving as good, but Saturday and Sunday as "modest disappointments." Although news reports are trumpeting an upward turn in the economy, Noyes expressed his belief that the upward surge still hadn't made it to that area of Colorado. Noyes said, "We've been hoping for a turnaround for the past three years, but it didn't happen over the Thanksgiving weekend…. But there's still time, though."

Titles that are selling well at the Chinook Bookshop are National Book Award-winner The Great Fire: A Novel by Shirley Hazzard (FSG) and Almost French: Love and a New Life in Paris by Sarah Turnbull (Gotham Books).

At Second Story Bookstore in Laramie, Wyoming, Catherine Mealey described sales for the holiday weekend as fair, but she was hopeful they would get better. "October was up from last year," said Mealey, but she had yet to tabulate sales for November. One of the store's bestsellers this weekend was Home Baking: The Artful Mix of Flour and Tradition Around the World by Jeffrey Alford and Naomi Duguid (Artisan), which, she pointed out, had been touted in a holiday gift guide as a great gift under $50.

Things got off to a "very good start" at Morley Horder's Eagle Bay Book Company in Bainbridge Island, Washington, where he estimated that sales for the Thanksgiving weekend were up 20 percent over last year even discounting the effects of a local downtown festival. Horder attributed this year's success to "doing a good job getting the word out through our store newsletter about titles and other things we have to offer…. And we've doubled our sidelines … added quality stuff." In addition, Horder credits his core staff, which he said knows the store and its customers well, for the happy start to the holiday season.

Among the titles selling well at Eagle Bay, Horder cited The Complete Far Side, Flora: A Gardener's Encyclopedia by Sean Hogan (Timber Press), and Tattoo Road Trip: The Pacific Northwest by Bob Baxter (Schiffer Publishing). Among the sidelines selling well is the store's selection of greeting cards of which Horder said they "were selling tons." -- Reported by David Grogan, Rosemary Hawkins, Karen Schechner, and Nomi Schwartz