Cody's Closes SF Store; Poisoned Pen Ends Phoenix 'Project'

Last week, two independent booksellers decided to close their bookstore branches, each owner citing a lack of sales due to varying reasons. Cody's Books announced that it would close its San Francisco bookstore on April 20 after falling well short of sales projections, and, on April 4, Barbara Peters decided to conclude her Poisoned Pen Central "project" after losing two weeks of sales when the city of Phoenix closed the building in which the bookstore was housed due to code violations.

Cody's Books, San Francisco

Late last week, Cody's Books announced that it had decided to close its Stockton Street store in San Francisco on April 20. The decision to shut its doors comes 18 months after the branch was opened and six months after Yohan, Inc., a Japanese-based bookseller, publisher, and wholesaler, acquired Cody's. Cody's Books in Berkeley will remain open.

Melissa Mytinger, marketing director for Cody's, said the reason for closing was "very simple. The store, despite its vastness, and being incredibly beautiful and comfortable, never came close to bringing in sufficient revenue." She noted that sales never approached the levels store management had anticipated when they opened the location. The situation was compounded by "major construction" next door that blocked part of the sidewalk.

The store's layout was another factor that inhibited sales, Mytinger speculated. "Ninety-five percent of the store was below street level," she said. "Unless you walked onto the escalator ... a lot of people didn't see that the bulk of the store was downstairs. People who did make it downstairs were extremely loyal."

Around 20 people will be laid off due to the closing, but because staff in both stores belong to Service Employees International Union, those with the most seniority will be retained at the Berkeley store. "The union takes care of it," she said.

Though the store will close on April 20, Cody's will continue with most of its scheduled events, holding them at its Berkeley location or off-site. "We did not have to cancel much," she said. The store averages about 40 events per month. On the positive side, sales at Cody's Berkeley location are "doing well, sales are up," said Mytinger, and Cody's will concentrate its efforts there.

Poisoned Pen Central, Phoenix

Barbara Peters never expected her Poisoned Pen Central branch, which opened in downtown Phoenix in January 2005, to make a profit. In a recent interview, she referred to the branch, the store's second location, as a project and a "civic opportunity."

More than two years ago, Poisoned Pen had joined with three other businesses -- an art gallery, restaurant, and art framing shop -- and had opened in a renovated old warehouse in downtown Phoenix. "The concept [was] to be a sharing of spaces and a mutual pull from brand-name businesses in the project," Peters, a retired lawyer turned bookseller, told BTW via email. "We were recruits rather than looking to expand, but it seemed a remarkable project." Poisoned Pen shared its space with the art gallery.

Peters explained that her hope was that her new location would eventually break even, and, in its second year of existence, it looked like the store would do just that.

Then, one day, things just unraveled.

Last summer, she received a call from the store's manager. The city had turned off the electricity in the warehouse and had temporarily closed the building due to code violations, such as having the inappropriate number of exits and "electrical problems," Peters told BTW. Furthermore, the landlord had never sought a certificate of occupancy, she said. Two weeks later, when the tenants were allowed to resume business under a temporary certificate, Peters soon realized the store would never recover.

When people hear that any business, especially a restaurant, has closed due to code violations, it does irreparable damage to the business' reputation, Peters said. "When the restaurant tanked, that hurt us," she noted, and explained that foot traffic dropped significantly.

Peters reported that her experience with the Poisoned Pen Central has shown her that there is "a host of problems for downtown Phoenix" and that the city has "no clear vision of how to develop downtown where major power players are making land grabs or continuing to pull business towards enormous outlying projects."

Peters said she decided to stay open to "honor the author event obligations we'd set up, and closed with the final one we had scheduled on April 4."

On the bright side, Peters said that some good has come out of the experience: a new project she calls "Books Without Walls." Taking advantage of the store's partnerships, the plan is to hold numerous book-related events throughout the city. "We can keep 50 percent of the income [the store used to make] but lose 100 percent of the overhead," she said.

Overall, Peters said she takes umbrage at the idea that Poisoned Pen Central's closing is merely another stat in the "bookstore wars ... this is a project that didn't work out." --David Grogan