Vroman's Hopes Fine Writing Will Be a Success Story

The old adage, "When one door closes, another one opens," certainly rang true this month for Vroman's Bookstore in Pasadena, California. On January 19, Vroman's Bookstore, which has three locations, all in Pasadena, closed its South Lake Avenue store, and, two days later, opened Vroman's Fine Writing, Gifts, and Stationery, just a block away from the original Vroman's Bookstore, Karen Watkins, vice president and general manager of Vroman's, told BTW.

The new 3,700-square-foot store will not sell books, Watkins said. Instead, it will handle what has been a staple of Vroman's non-book business for the past 50 years: high-end writing instruments, in-house printing, wedding invitations, and business and personal stationery, among other things. Until the new store opened, the stationery and printing business was handled at the main Vroman's store on East Colorado Boulevard.

"We are one of the premier dealers of high-end writing instruments," said Watkins. "[The new store will] be a somewhat high-end and extremely high-end service, one-on-one [printing and stationery] store."

Even though Vroman's just closed one of its stores, Watkins is optimistic that Vroman's Fine Writing, Gifts, and Stationery will be a success. The South Lake store, she explained, got off to a rocky start due to circumstances beyond its control and never truly recovered. Originally named Vroman's Museum Collection, the 10,000-square-foot store, located about a half mile from the main Vroman's Bookstore, "took a successful area of the main store and expanded on it," she said.

However, just two months after signing the lease for the new store in March 1999, and seven months before the store opened, a major retailer in the area declared bankruptcy, sending the area into a tailspin from which it has yet to recover.

Soon after the large retailer left, "the neighborhood started to degrade," Watkins said. "The vacancy rate went up; the [area] changed significantly over the last few years." Because of the dire situation, she said that Vroman's had been contemplating closing the South Lake store since about a year after it opened. However, in an attempt to make the store a profitable business, it was transitioned into a bargain bookstore. And while this change increased the number of transactions, the average transaction value decreased, Watkins reported, and, in November 2002, the decision was finally made to close the South Lake store soon after the holiday season.

"Between our main store and our Hastings Ranch store, we absorbed almost all of the inventory," Watkins noted. "We're either selling off the furniture or moving some of it into the new location and the main store." She said that, following the holiday season, the South Lake bookstore was left with less than $50,000 in inventory. By the time it closed, there was only $20,000 left. Moreover, the stock was sold without the benefit of a clearance sale, she said.

Watkins noted that there were a number of obstacles to overcome in getting the new store opened by January 21. "There are always challenges in getting a new store opened," she said. "We were originally scheduled to open in August, but there was just problem after problem. Three days before we did open the Fire Department decided they wanted a more sophisticated Fire and Life safety system, which cost us an extra $15,000." Since the Fire Department's request could not be met in three days, she continued, this meant obtaining a temporary occupancy permit from the city to allow the store to open and remain open while the fire system was installed. The permit required a $20,000 deposit, she noted.

Fortunately, since the new store opened, "the response has been terrific," Watkins said, even though technically the official opening is not until February 1. She added that the new store has done more in its first week than the South Lake store's weekly average, even though "in the first three days, 90 percent of our inventory was still in boxes." --David Grogan