About Bookstores

By Neal Coonerty

Whew, this Christmas stunk! Or, to be more precise, this Christmas retail season really stunk. As we closed the doors of our bookshop at 7:00 p.m. after an exhausting Christmas Eve, our sales were down 5.6 percent. Not only was the season bad, it was scary. On December 14, our sales were running nearly 10 percent down, and we were wondering if it might get even worse.

On December 10, Austin-based Liveable City, a local nonprofit group, released an economic study claiming that local merchants contribute significantly more money to the local economy than do retail chains. Steve Bercu, owner of Austin's BookPeople, told BTW that the study proves what local retailers have known all along through anecdotal evidence. "We knew that chain stores impacted the local economy in a negative way," he said.

Farley Kern, an owner and founder of Elm Street Books in New Canaan, Connecticut, must not waste much time sleeping or eating. Otherwise, she and her staff could not possibly have started up a brand new bookstore, directly across from the town's train station, in a mere seven weeks.

Fern Jaffe, owner of Paperbacks Plus, with author Robert Caro

When Paperbacks Plus in the Bronx, New Yo

By Bob Sommer

"The Book Sense Gift Certificate potential is still woefully untapped, and ... we are still sending $$$$$$$ to the chains ... every day." -- Carl Lennertz, ABA

His Honor, mayor of Three Rivers, Michigan (population 7,500), and owner of the town's eponymous Lowry's Books and More, is also the new owner of a bookstore in Sturges, Michigan, 22 miles away. The new Lowry's, formerly a 40-year-old Read-Mor store, is half as big as the 4,000-square-foot Three Rivers store in the larger, more affluent town.

Spurred by reports from regional trade shows regarding an increase in new independent bookstore openings, Bookselling This Week decided to survey each regional booksellers association to see if it was true. Was there an increase in newly opened bookstores joining regional associations in 2002?

Would it be suspect if Lawrence, Kansas -- the hometown of legendary crime writer Sara Paretsky -- did not have a bookstore specializing in mysteries? Fortunately, for the past 15 years, it has.

The December 9 issue of The New Yorker, which goes on sale December 2, will include the latest Book Sense insert, "Booked for the Holidays." The special feature presents the holiday picks of 13 independent booksellers, and the titles are drawn from the November/December Book Sense 76 list. (The full 76 can be reviewed here.)

By Joann Jacobsen-Wells

As a boy, Tony Weller assumed the staff of his father's downtown Salt Lake City bookstore -- an eclectic bunch of bibliophiles who were the denizens of the book-shelved forests he explored -- were just normal folk. You know -- well read. Articulate. Each an expert in some literary endeavor, each an evangelist for the glory of the written word. "It was not until I was in college that I recognized what a peculiar bunch of lovable weirdos and oddballs had been around me my entire life," Weller said.

High school students in Vermont and Wisconsin are taking the idea of working after school in the local bookstore to a new level. These students are doing more than just stocking bookshelves part-time -- they are helping to open and to manage new bookstores. It's all a part of two separate high school initiatives to teach literacy-loving students the ins and outs of small business administration and the rewards of bookselling.

The spirit of Dayton, Ohio's illustrious past is being channeled into the state's oldest bookstore, Wilkie News. This latest foray into history is yet another passion of Wilkie's owners, Jim and Pat Latham. Thanks to them, the 3,000-square-foot bookstore now offers a new café, a tribute in its décor and menu to the late, legendary neighboring Rike-Kumler Department Store.

By Peter Schertz, co-owner of Maria's Bookshop in Durango, Colorado

Last week, Book Sense and the History Channel announced that Maria's Bookshop in Durango, Colorado, was one of three bookstores recognized for their efforts in orchestrating a Fire on the Mountain fundraising campaign (for full story, click here). In the following article, Peter Schertz, co-owner of Maria's Bookshop, details the store's winning promotional campaign, and the steps taken to create it.

Willard Williams

When 19-year-old Willard Williams opened the Toadstool Bookshop in 1972 in his hometown, Peterborough, New Hampshire (population 5,000), he knew "absolutely nothing" about bookselling…. He does now.