About Bookstores

In many communities across America, the onslaught of corporate retailers and large chains is a pressing issue for local businesses trying to remain competitive. That's certainly the case in the Phoenix metro area (which includes Glendale, Scottsdale, and Tempe), where a coalition of local businesses is seeking to change the market landscape by educating consumers and local politicians about the economic value of supporting independent businesses.

"I always said I'd never open a second store," said Book Passage's Elaine Petrocelli, who will be celebrating the grand opening of her second store on October 18. "Never say never," she added. The new Book Passage is located in the historic San Francisco Ferry Building.

David Koehl's bookstore, Paper and Ink, is an institution in Tiffin, Ohio. Koehl, who grew up in the town of 20,000, graduated from Franklin University in Columbus 25 years ago and returned to Tiffin with a degree in public administration and a job offer from the county auditor. He turned down the position, preferring to open his own business.

In 1859 Darwin published his conclusion that species that were adequately different from each other could co-exist in one environment, since they were not directly competing for the same niche. More recently, after owning and running Maxwell's in Bismark, North Dakota, for 13 years, Karen Sakariassen has determined the same thing.

It was in July and August 2002 when plainclothes inspectors sent by the L.A. County Department of Weights and Measures (DWM) cited managers at each of the three Vroman's Bookstores in Pasadena, California, with violating the California Business and Professions Code for overcharging. Over a year later, the issue was finally resolved when a judge ruled to drop two of the three charges. Good news, right?

People often want a sound bite explanation of why the store is closing, said Mary Ellen Kavanaugh, owner of My Sisters' Words -- The Next Wave in Syracuse, New York. "But there's never one simple answer," she said. "It's a whole mix of culture, economics, the times we're in, all kinds of things.

Booksellers Harriett Christy and Ann and Bruce Dybvik of Bookends, open for just less than six months, have been getting an appreciative welcome from the community in Menomonie, Wisconsin. "Sometimes people passing by just open the door and shout, Thank You!" said Ann, who is the daughter of Christy. Menomonie was without a bookstore until Bookends opened in May, and it's the only independent within a 125-mile radius.

In the aftermath of Hurricane Isabel, which first hit North Carolina on Thursday, September 18, flooding neighborhoods dozens of miles inland, and then moved north through Virginia and Washington, D.C., booksellers are assessing damage and working towards getting business back to normal as quickly as possible. Though it lost strength as it came inland, the hurricane was still the strongest to hit the Atlantic Coast since Hurricane Floyd in 1999. As of Tuesday, September 23, many areas were still without power.

In a week where librarians and Attorney General John Ashcroft battled over the controversial USA Patriot Act, and a Baldwin, Kansas, school district superintendent made news by pulling an award-winning book from a ninth-grade class, it seems only fitting that Banned Books Week kicks off this Saturday, September 20. Running through September 27, Banned Books Week is the national celebration of the First Amendment, and independent bookstores and others are doing their part to help commemorate the event.

Last May, Margie Ghiz, owner of the Santa Monica, California's Midnight Special, told BTW that, after finally securing a new location for her bookstore less than a half-mile from her previous location, she hoped to reopen by the end of June. However, four months later, Midnight Special's new location remains closed, with Ghiz citing financial woes and unexpected delays. On September 12, Ghiz sent out an e-mail to her mailing list, appealing to her customers for help. "The response to our e-mail has been great," she said.

When you celebrate a silver anniversary, whether it's a marriage or a business, people want to know the secret of your success. For Bobby Tichenor, owner of Annie Bloom's Books in Portland, Oregon, success was spawned by the realization that she had chosen the wrong career path.

As booksellers ready to celebrate Banned Books Week, which begins on September 20, some are putting money where their love of reading is, by sponsoring fundraisers for the American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression (ABFFE).

Indigo Books & Music Inc., the Canadian bookseller, switched from paper gift certificates to plastic gift cards in November 2002, and has seen escalating gains since then, according to Keith Liu, vice-president of business development for Indigo. Instituting the gift card program, run by the Givex Corporation, increased Indigo's sales 35 percent over the paper certificates, and, Liu told BTW, "Our stores experienced an immediate uplift, and we're pretty happy about it.