Late Surge in Holiday Shopping Reported by Many Independent Booksellers

For many independents, December sales were less than hoped for -- but for most not as dire as feared. In a season that didn't produce a must-have title for consumers, a wealth of handselling opportunities meant that when the holiday rush kicked in -- for some only days before Christmas -- many booksellers saw strong sales.

Marie Peerson, co-owner of Crosshaven Books in Birmingham, Alabama, summarized the past holiday season for BTW as, "not as good as I'd hoped, but better than I had feared." That sentiment was echoed around the country, although others, including Steve Bercu of Book People in Austin, Texas, had "the best Christmas season ever."

Crosshaven's season began with a heavy thud when the store lost its annual corporate sale of about 1,000 copies of a single book. Peerson noted that the company had switched CEOs in the past year and no longer wanted to give each employee a book, as it had in the past. The store did hit a joyous note early on with a Hanukkah celebration organized around a signing of a new Algonquin book of photographs by Bill Aron and text by Vicky Reikes Fox, titled Shalom Y'all: Images of Jewish Life in the American South. Sales, including another signing at a local synagogue, totaled about 100 copies. Peerson, like many other booksellers, mentioned the absence of "a really hot book that no one can get their hands on."

In Conway, Arkansas, at That Bookstore at Mountebanq Place, owner Mary Alice Hurst described the store's second Christmas season as "not nearly what we'd hoped for or planned for." After good sales in November, she noted that total transactions were up but tickets per customer were down about 11 percent. The store opened on September 1, 2001, and, Hurst said, it benefited from the resurgence of patriotism and consumer fervor that followed the attacks of September 11, 2001. "None of the patriotic titles that we sold last year sold this year," Hurst told BTW. "The religious Christmas and holiday books that people were buying like crazy last year didn't sell at all this year."

Much of the downtown business was lost to big box stores, Hurst observed. Downtown shopping was further hampered by a major fire across the street on September 23, 2002. (Ironically the fire coincided with That Bookstore's prize-winning display of Fire on the Mountain, and the store received statewide news coverage. To read the complete story, click here.) Three major stores, considered primary downtown shopping attractions, were closed. Only one, a women's clothing store, reopened for holiday shopping. Hurst observed that in 2001 the Conway Chamber of Commerce vigorously promoted downtown holiday shopping. This year, she said, no such activities took place, nor did many shoppers know if downtown businesses were open after the fire.

Hurst also described much local business as disappearing into "the ozone … on the Internet, where people perceive the prices are lower, and they don't have to pay any tax. What do they think is going to finance their schools, the infrastructure of the cities, the police and fire departments. I find it bizarre that no one is worrying about it." (Click here for story on Internet sales tax ).

Earlene Scott, owner of Scotts' Book Store in Newnan, Georgia, concurred with many of Hurst's observations. "I've had this store for 27 years. This year was slow.… There wasn't that big book. Last year, after 9/11, people wanted to celebrate with a nice Christmas. This year, many people don't have a job. We were off by a lot. The store was busy, but we didn't have the sales of the year before. Customers were not buying any 9/11 books. All the books that came in for the anniversary didn't sell."

The titles that did sell well, according to Scott, were Skipping Christmas by John Grisham, any of the Miss Julia books, and titles in the American Girl series. Book Sense gift certificates sold well also, Scott told BTW, and she recently redeemed two in one day -- one from Pasadena, California, and one from Wilmington, South Carolina.

BJ Meyer, owner of On a Whim Gallery & Bookstore in Hobe Sound, Florida, was one of the booksellers with a very sunny report. "I don't know why," she told BTW, "but we did very well…above last year." Both books and gifts sold well at the store, and there was a surprisingly strong showing of titles purchased as gifts for men. "We sold many more books for men than usual -- autobiographies like Louis V. Gerstner's Who Says Elephants Can't Dance. There happened to be more books available as gifts for men: Bush at War, Tuxedo Park, Paris 1919. In this area, we have older clientele. Many of the residents are snowbirds." The snowbirds also include many doting grandparents, and Meyer said, "We did very well with classic children's books."

The news in the Lone Star State for one indie was bullish. Steve Bercu, co-owner of the 27,000-square-foot Book People store in Austin, Texas, told BTW that "2002 was the best Christmas in BookPeople history. Sales were up about six percent over 2001, and they are up about eight percent since Christmas." Sales were "all over the map," according to Bercu, but the season's bestseller was You Shall Know Our Velocity by Dave Eggers. "We sold hundreds of those," Bercu added. He attributes strong sales to the store's participation with the Austin Independent Business Alliance, modeled after a similar program in Boulder, Colorado. Bercu said that sales increased dramatically due to the publicity by the Alliance promoting support of downtown independent businesses. "The message is to keep supporting these stores or Austin will end up like every place else. The focal point of support for local businesses has become related to us."

BookPeople and the Austin Alliance are maintaining a high-profile fight to keep the city from courting national chains by offering lucrative incentives to open in the downtown area. A 25,000-square-foot Borders Books & Music is slated to open "300 feet from BookPeople," according to Bercu. (For the complete story, click here.).

"We are in a joint marketing venture with the independent CD store across the street -- we put out a bumper sticker together and have other efforts. Waterloo [the CD store] also had a positive Christmas. We distribute our catalogue at the 25 other independent businesses in the alliance, and they advertise in our catalogue. I get a lot more mileage out of supporting other stores than by supporting my store alone."

In the Midwest and Southwest, it was also case of good news, bad news. Booksellers who spoke to BTW reported varying holiday sales trends, with some up, some down, and a few remaining flat compared to last year.

In Missoula, Montana, Fact & Fiction bookstore had a banner holiday season. "We are ecstatic about our sales and the year," owner Barbara Theroux said via e-mail. "December sales were up nine percent, which made the year end down one percent." She explained that the bookstore was down in part due to decreased sales during the Montana Festival of the Book. However, "our expenses are down, so the bottom line is great. Maybe Montana is really the Last Best Place!"

Theroux believes that December sales were up for a number of reasons: the University of Montana football team was bounced out of the playoffs early, a rare occurrence that left people free to shop on Saturdays in December; good weather; and there were "great local books," she noted.

Some 1,600 miles east of Missoula, in St. Louis, the Book House reported shop sales down by 20 percent from last year, according to Michelle Barron. "The three things that saved us were Internet sales of out-of-print books, [Book Sense] gift certificates, and special orders," she said via e-mail. "The Monday before Christmas was the big surprise. The sales on the day after Thanksgiving and our annual holiday sale the next weekend were mediocre at best." However, on December 23, the store was "swamped," she said. "Lots of last minute panic shoppers."

Book Sense gift certificate sales was one category that really jumped in sales this year, Barron reported. "We sold about three times the amount of last year. Last year, we only sold about 30. This year it was almost 100, and the average value was $20; so it was a couple thousand dollars. Gift certificates are also great because they bring new people in the store -- we also redeemed a couple from other stores." (For more on the strong sales of gift certificates this holiday season, click here.)

In Tempe, Arizona, Gayle Shanks, the co-owner of Changing Hands Bookstore commented that, though holiday sales were good, they were also scary. "We were never certain, we'd run from plus-one [percent] to plus-three, to negative-one to plus-four -- it was a day-to-day thing. The week before Christmas, things took off. We were five percent up over last December…. This was the best December we've ever had."

Betsy Burton, co-owner of The King's English in Salt Lake City, Utah, also saw sales jump in mid-December. "The second week in December it really did roll. It was pretty close to last year, and we were up for the whole year. Considering the economy, I'm happy."

Both Burton and Shanks also held huge New Year's Day sales that did incredibly well. (For an article on their sales events, click here).

In Denver, the Tattered Cover reported "disappointing holiday results." On December 31, the store announced that it was rearranging operations "to control overhead expenses in response to a lackluster sales year" and the soft holiday season. The move resulted in a reduction of staff of approximately 10 percent, which, owner Joyce Meskis said would be achieved by a combination of attrition and layoffs. Approximately 27 people were affected by the decision. Meskis noted that "as hard as this is, we feel that it is the responsible business decision to make for our future. The Tattered Cover has been on the roller coaster of Denver's boom and bust economy for three decades. We have many extraordinary booksellers who have stayed the course over all of these years who continue to bring their knowledge, experience, and commitment to the large community of readers that we serve. And we look forward to doing it for many decades to come."

Jim McKee, co-owner of Lee Booksellers in Lincoln, Nebraska, described his two bookstores' holiday sales as steady -- up one percent overall. However, McKee noted that one bookstore's sales were down by five percent, while the other bookstore was up by six percent. "We haven't figured out [the reason for the difference]," McKee told BTW. "We're still in the middle of interpreting the numbers, but that has us stumped."

McKee said that he expected sales to be flat to slightly up due to a late Thanksgiving and a shorter holiday shopping season. "Plus-one percent is close to what we expected," he said.

In Naperville, Illinois, Tres Anderson, the owner of Anderson's Bookshop, said his store's holiday sales dropped by five percent from last year. "Based on the lead weeks and the short holiday season, we were expecting less sales," Anderson said. "Thanksgiving being late didn't help, and Chicago has a depressed economy."

Harold Moeller, owner of Buchmeister Books in Chatham, New Jersey, said that holiday sales were "about the same as last year. There was no big change." Since the holiday, he speculates that sales might be down slightly. Moeller said that the season brought no surprise "big" sellers: "We knew about Prey, and David Baldacci's Christmas book, and Evanovich's Christmas title. There were no big surprises."

At Main Street Books in Frostburg, Maryland, the holiday crowds came late, explained bookseller John Brode. "We were just experiencing medium sales, until the Friday, Saturday, Sunday before Christmas. The last four days really did it." The store ended the holiday season with sales above last year's, he said.

Wilmington, Delaware's Ninth Street Bookshop experienced the "worst decline month-wise or year-wise ever," said owner Jack Buckley. "We have a hard time drawing people into the city to what was once a thriving retail area," which is seven to eight years into a decline and has too many empty storefronts, he explained. The store has been hurt by the move of businesses, such as Dupont, out to the suburbs, and more recently the move of a courthouse to seven blocks away. "Since July 1, the year crumbled…. We had an extremely hot summer, and at the end of summer we lost a courthouse" and the resulting lunchtime business, Buckley said.

All was not dire for Ninth Street Bookshop, however. "We still had some wonderful sales and nice people," he said. Sales of local titles helped business and "will continue to be strong," and Bringing Down the House: The Inside Story of Six MIT Students Who Took Vegas for Millions by Ben Mezrich sold surprisingly well, as a result of the store's handselling it as an ideal "brother-in-law" gift.

Ninth Street Bookshop has been in existence for 26 years, and Buckley said, "We know how to weather things." Of the holiday season, he concluded, "We tried as hard as we could."

Rondi Brower of Blackwood & Brouwer Booksellers in Kinderhook, New York, said that the store "did better than last year. We're pleased with the year as a whole." Unfortunately, the store's sales increase came, in part, because one of the three independents in Columbia County closed in May, Brower noted.

"We're holding our own against Barnes & Noble and Amazon … and making some headway in the school area has helped us," she said. Customer loyalty is also key: "I can't say enough about our customers…. Customer service remains a high point." Brower explained customers are usually helped by one of the owners, the store accepts e-mail orders, and has even provided a personal shopping service.

"The economy is not too bad here yet," Brower said, and she's hoping that if it does get worse, "people will shop close to home as they do when the weather turns bad."

She also pointed out that there was more awareness of the Book Sense program, and that someone actually called to ask specifically for a Book Sense gift certificate this holiday season.

When asked by BTW about surprise titles, Brower responded, "The surprise was the extent to which there were none of those titles." Titles of local interest were two of the store's better sellers this holiday season: Dutch Colonial Homes in America by Roderic H. Blackburn and Walking With Henry: Based on the Life and Works of Henry David Thoreau by Thomas Locker.

In Portland, Oregon, Roberta Dyer, owner of Broadway Books, reported that the holiday season was "slow." However, she and her colleagues were not panicked. "We expected it -- we didn't want it, but we saw it headed that way," she told BTW, noting that the local economy has been hard hit. Oregon ranked first in the November U.S. jobless rates.

One bright spot for Broadway Books was Book Sense gift certificates. The store had brisk gift certificate sales, and, following Christmas, "quite a few of the Book Sense gift certificates that were sold here have been redeemed here," Dyer said. Happily, the news in 2003 so far has been much better. "This past weekend was stupendous," she reported.

John Evans of Diesel, a Bookstore in Oakland, California, said that holiday sales came late, but with a rush. "This year we were so ready for the holidays…. And it was so sluggish that we were getting really, really nervous, and then it was sort of like a freight train at the end," he said. Business began to accelerate on December 14, and, after that, Diesel saw all sales increasing, especially sales of gift certificates. Evans said he thought that concerns over the economy and the current political situation initially had dampened shoppers holiday zeal. "There's sort of a dark cloud over California -- politically, not only economically." For the year, he said the store would be down about two percent, with the bulk of the decline in September through November. When the last holiday sale had been rung up, the holiday season was "better than ever, and it was all in that last week," said Evans.

At Rakestraw Books in Danville, California, owner Mike Barnard reported that there was also a mid-December lull in sales. However, he was sure of the reason. "We had a season's worth of rain in a week," he said. When the sun came out, sales picked up, and Barnard said that the final days before Christmas were among the busiest the store has ever had. (And, yes, the store name: Barnard noted that Rakestraw was the former owner's father's middle name, one that is fitting for an independent store known for its discerning handselling. "When you rake straw, you separate the wheat from the chaff," Barnard explained.) -- Reported by Nomi Schwartz, Rosemary Hawkins, David Grogan, and Dan Cullen