Elliott Bay -- At 30 Years a Vibrant 'Booksellers'' Store

"The nice thing about milestones is that they give you the occasion to sit back and take stock," said Elliott Bay Book Company's Peter Aaron. However, when Elliott Bay celebrated 30 years of bookselling on June 29, it's likely that Aaron didn't have much chance to sit back, as the store hosted author readings and a party for 300 people, including employees, past employees, and friends. Terry Tempest Williams showed up; so did poet Madeline DeFrees.

Aaron recently spoke to Bookselling This Week about how Elliott Bay has weathered the years.

Elliott Bay has been in the 1890 Globe Building in Seattle since Walter Carr, the original owner, founded the bookstore in 1973. Initially, the store occupied the space that is now the children's literature section; over the years it grew to 25,000 square feet and now includes a cafe. "My first reaction was this is what a bookstore should be," said Aaron. "With the exposed brick, wide-plank wood floors, and floor-to-ceiling bookshelves."

Though his background was in department store retail, and he's very analytical, the move to buy Elliott Bay from Carr was "55 percent emotional and 45 percent brain," said Aaron. "It seemed like the obvious thing, to pair my love of literature with business."

But during the time that Aaron was considering the purchase, Elliott Bay was hitting a low. In 1995 there was one chain in town and by 1998, the year Aaron bought, there were 11, along with the then burgeoning Amazon.com. Still, he decided to buy. "I felt the store had a vibrant and viable future, and I didn't want to see it go down. It didn't seem right," said Aaron. "So I tried to do the best to match my most analytical business judgment with my heart."

Fortunately, Aaron's business sense was right on. Aaron reported, "We've had some tough days and tough months, but we're back into a comfortable level of profitability."

Aaron considered what led to that profitability and came up with four major reasons:

"We have an extremely authoritative selection of titles. Walt [Carr] started that way, and we kept building on it. The breadth and diversity of our titles is an important part of the store.

"Another important thing is the ambiance of the store -- the 20-foot ceilings, cedar shelves, and labyrinth of books -- makes an amazing impression.

"The readings also have a huge impact. We have 560 readings and events a year. And it's great business practice. It turns out to be the most effective marketing outreach and advertising. It gives us free press! All the newspapers carry highlights of our scheduled events. That’s how we can bring new people into the store. It also generates sales, both at the event and residually.

"But the most significant thing is that we've always been a booksellers' store. Our staff members have always had the combined qualities of being book people and having the ability and desire to effectively communicate their interests to the customers."

The contributions of the staff are in evidence when customers first walk into the store and see the wall of 70 to 80 staff picks, including Joyce Carol Oates' Foxfire, The Cave by Jose Saramago, Waylaid by Ed Lin. "It's probably the most heavily shopped single area of entire store," said Aaron. Employees hand draw shelf-talkers to promote favorite books. Aaron said if he forgets how effective a selling tool that is, the rise in sales of that book remind him.

Elliott Bay also uses the bimonthly 76 lists to direct customers to recommended reads. They are kept next to the display of the previous month's Elliott Bay bestsellers. Elliott Bay has been a Book Sense member since the program began in 1999.

Aaron, of course, was elated about the growth of Elliott Bay and its ability to hang on to its original values and standards. "We haven't jumped around trying to emulate the flavor of the month," he said.

But Aaron seemed most excited about the day-to-day happenings at the bookstore, especially the author readings. "It's great free entertainment!" he said. "How many opportunities are there to sit in the room with an artist, a star? It brings a lot to the whole community. Obviously, people here feel that way too."--Karen Schechner