Illinois Booksellers Make the News

Illinois, the land where Abe Lincoln plowed the fields with a book in his pocket, currently abounds with news stories featuring independent bookstores, many of them Book Sense stores. Business and consumer magazines, along with suburban newspapers, have recently published articles touting the various passionate and community-minded people who run bookstores around the state. The stories don't conceal the difficulties of operating independents in a world veering toward corporate consolidation and chains of super-sized bookstores, discount retailers, and Internet sales. But despite these difficulties, the featured bookstores are clearly offering customers unique shopping experiences.

The January 2005 issue of Illinois Country Living, the monthly magazine for members of Illinois' electric cooperatives, ran a cover story titled "Seeking Independents: On the hunt for independent booksellers in Illinois." Of the seven bookstores included in the article, the three stores carrying primarily new books -- The Sly Fox in Virden, Copperfield & Company Booksellers in Macomb, and Blue Kangaroo Books in Danville -- participate in the Book Sense program.

All are in areas still served by the not-for-profit power cooperatives, founded during the Great Depression to provide electricity for the sparsely populated rural areas, where the cost of connecting homes to large utility companies was prohibitive. Perhaps because the Illinois Electric Cooperatives are also locally owned, small businesses, the plight of independent booksellers resonated with them, mused George Rishel, owner of The Sly Fox.

Rishel opened The Sly Fox over six years ago in a building that, beginning in 1922 and continuing until 1991, housed a hat shop and then a women's clothing store owned and operated by Rishel's aunt, and later his mother.

Rishel is realistic about the opportunities in Virden, population 3,500. "We are a small town 20 miles away from Springfield and the malls, Sam's Club, Wal-Mart," he said. "I don't bother stocking hardback bestsellers. I specialize in children's books and mysteries -- many are imported and hard to find." Rishel told Illinois Country Living, "We have to look for niches instead of trying to be everything to everybody."

The Business Ledger of Oakbrook, Illinois, a business newspaper in suburban Chicago, also selected January 2005 to publish a piece on bookselling, titled "Independent Bookstores Struggle Against Giant Chains." Interviewed were Jane Stroh, owner of The Bookstore in downtown Glen Ellyn; Heidi Schmitt, manager of Townhouse Books in St. Charles; and Candy Purdom, head of publicity for Anderson's Bookshop with stores in Naperville and Downers Grove -- all Book Sense participants.

In the article, Schmitt echoed Rishel's comment that bestsellers, offered at 40 percent off at warehouse clubs, are hardly worth stocking. Townhouse makes the most of its limited space and adjusts its inventory to cater to its niche markets. "Boutique shopping is back in style," said Schmitt, "and it's refreshing."

Finding a niche, according to Schmitt, includes promoting something the store does particularly well, or identifying a group that it can cater to on an ongoing basis. Smaller stores have other advantages, noted Schmitt. "We can order a book today and have it here tomorrow. We don't have to go through a clearinghouse or wait for 18 stores to place their orders before ours gets shipped."

Both Stroh and Purdom mentioned successful Polar Express events held at their stores this past Christmas. Special events, author signings and dinners, book clubs, and a knowledgeable staff, are all the special strengths of these independents. Stroh noted that although a knowledgeable staff is absolutely vital, "so too, is a knowledgeable community."

Community can refer to the store's customer base, but as Augie Aleksy, owner of Centuries & Sleuths Bookstore in Forest Park noted, it also includes the local government, financial institutions, developers, and business associations.

Recent media coverage has been kind to the owner of the 15-year-old history and mystery specialty store. In August, Aleksy and Centuries & Sleuths were the subject of a half-page photo in the Chicago Tribune's Tempo Section. Over the past four months, Aleksy and his store have been mentioned in three in-depth stories about local communities in the popular Wednesday Journal, the newspaper covering several Chicago suburbs. His store's migration, from the pricey village of Oak Park to the up-and-coming Forest Park, illustrates the importance of a small business-friendly atmosphere.

Aleksy described to BTW how disenchanted he became with the affluent Oak Park suburb where he founded his store in 1990. He pointed to the Oak Park Development Corporation as interested only in bringing large, high-profit retailers to the village. When he relocated five years ago to Forest Park, he noted a great contrast. "A local banker helped me find a location and negotiate a lease and the loan," Aleksy said. "After 10 years in Oak Park, no one did anything to keep me there."

About 20 of the downtown (Madison Street) businesses of Forest Park have formed their own alliance. Its aim is to draw customers with improved marketing and special events, all with the cooperation of the village's Chamber of Commerce and established 'Main Street' board.

In a December 28, 2004, article titled "Is Oak Park Unfriendly to Small Business: The tale of several merchants who now call Forest Park home," Aleksy and others mentioned a panoply of practices that have given Oak Park its poor reputation among small business owners: a lack of responsiveness by officials, particularly for building and zoning permits, and an over-zealous response to parking ticket issuance; escalating rents; and a generalized unhelpful, inhospitable attitude. "'People are nice in Forest Park. They treat you like they want to help you,' [said one retailer], while Oak Park seems to 'want to emulate a big city.'" --Nomi Schwartz