Rainy Day's Call to Action Draws a Reaction

Rainy Day Books of Fairway, Kansas, launched an e-mail campaign this week that seeks to keep a developer from bringing a Borders Books & Music to the new Gateway development in nearby Mission. A day after the e-mail went out, the developer, The Cameron Group of East Syracuse, New York, acknowledged it had previously talked with Borders about the development, but denied it has any deal to bring the chain bookstore to its new mix-use development.

On Tuesday, October 10, Rainy Day Books' Vivian Jennings and Roger Doeren -- responding to persistent rumblings that Borders would anchor a new development located on the former site of Mission Center Mall in Mission -- sent an e-mail to their store's customer base urging them to call the local companies participating in the development project to let them know "that you don't support their participation in a development that enriches out-of-town developers at the expense of Kansas taxpayers and Kansas businesses." The Gateway development is less than two miles from Rainy Day's Fairway, Kansas, location.

In their e-mail, Jennings and Doeren noted, "The Gateway is being financed with the help of Kansas taxpayer dollars.... There is no projected market growth for the retail book business in Johnson County. Without question, this taxpayer-subsidized store will cannibalize sales from book retailers around it. Two of these stores are Rainy Day Books and I Love a Mystery, community-based, locally owned booksellers that have contributed to the Kansas City community for years."

Karen Spengler, owner of I Love a Mystery, first heard rumors about Borders coming to the old Mission Center Mall site back in November 2005 and penned an op-ed about it for the Kansas City Star. In March 2006, she "took the bull by the horns" and moved her bookstore to a much larger space, one that is farther away from the new development. Her new store is now 2,600 square feet, three times the size of the previous store.

For a while, it didn't appear that anything would be happening at the Gateway in the near future, Spengler said, but then the rumor mill began heating up again. Soon after, she called Jennings to discuss the situation.

Said Jennings, "After Karen called, we decided the matter was serious enough that we're going to warn [residents] instead of waiting.... We're going to let people know, while they can do something about it."

A precedent had already been set in Mission in 2004: When residents had learned that Wal-Mart wanted to build on the Mission Mall site, their concern that the superstore would drive local retailers out of business, and a subsequent petition drive, prompted local politicians to pass new zoning laws that deterred the superstore from building on the site. The zoning change limited a store's footprint to 50,000 square feet, required that 75 percent of parking be in a garage structure, and that buildings conform to Mission-style architecture. The hope for Jennings is that Mission residents will once again band together -- this time to keep a bookstore chain out of the Mission Mall site.

Rainy Day's e-mail appeal to its customers certainly called attention to the matter. A number of the store's customers called the developer and other policy makers, whose contact details were listed in the e-mail. And, a day after the e-mail was sent, columnist Joyce Smith covered the story in the Kansas City Star. In her article, Cameron Group's Valenti denied signing any tenants to the Gateway development yet and said he was looking for locally owned merchants. He also said he would call Jennings, which he did.

Valenti reiterated to BTW that, though his company had talked with Borders, there is no deal to bring the chain bookstore to the Gateway. "We talked to Borders, but we don't have a deal. I'm going to ask [Jennings] if she would like to be a tenant there."

On Wednesday afternoon, Jennings and Valenti met for about two hours to discuss the situation, and the idea of Rainy Day Books moving to the Gateway development. Jennings noted that Valenti was extremely interested in her store's successful event marketing and saw that the events had the potential to draw a lot of people to the store. As for taking Valenti up on the offer, "I have to think about it," she said. "I feel like one always has to consider all possibilities, so I'll listen to what he has to offer."

As for Borders coming to Gateway, Jennings said she would still move forward with the idea that this is still a real possibility, though she thinks her e-mail did prompt Valenti to reconsider bringing in a chain. Overall, "what this shows me is that we made the right decision to give people a heads up. We're continuing as if Borders was still a real possibility." --David Grogan