Holiday Sales Up and Down From Coast to Coast

Based upon reports from independent booksellers across the country who recently spoke to Bookselling This Week, there didn't seem to be one particular trend when it came to this year's holiday shopping season. Sales results varied from region to region, and from bookseller to bookseller. While many experienced significant sales increases over last year, some reported that sales remained flat, while other not-so-fortunate booksellers noted that holiday sales dropped drastically in 2004.

For those whose sales suffered this holiday season, the reasons varied: A number of booksellers noted that this season lacked that one "must-have" blockbuster title -- though Jon Stewart's America (The Book) (Warner) ranked among the top sellers at many stores. Other booksellers bemoaned that Christmas fell on a Saturday.

However, a large number of booksellers noted that, rather than focusing on bestsellers and trying to compete with large discounters, they instead spotlighted, and did extremely well with, regional titles. And quite a few booksellers said that media predictions regarding the popularity of gift cards this season turned out to be accurate.

Here's a region-by-region look at how some independent booksellers fared this holiday season:

The East

Allan Schmid, owner of Books Etc. with locations in Portland and Falmouth, Maine, saw some increases in overall sales in December. After a flat summer season, "November was busy, and we picked up some outside sales with book fairs," he said.

People were surprised at the last minute by this year's calendar, Schmid surmised, with no Saturday before Christmas, usually a very busy day at his stores. "The 'out-of-stockness' was a significant factor," he told BTW. "The Dylan book [Bob Dylan Chronicles, Vol. I, S&S] was impossible to get; we couldn't get more of The Polar Express [Chris Van Allsburg, Houghton Mifflin] books after we sold out. [The Complete Cartoons of The New Yorker, Black Dog & Leventhal] was also very difficult to get, perhaps because the publisher was not prepared for such a great demand. [Gourmet magazine's] The Gourmet Cookbook [Houghton Mifflin] did very well."

Schmid added that Book Sense Gift Cards sold well this season. "We promoted them with a hanging rack and had a lot of preloaded ones. We used the holder and nice-looking insert that Random House sent. They looked really sharp and people liked them."

For other booksellers in the East, the holiday season seemed to bring in shoppers, though inclement weather hurt sales at Ninth Street Books in Wilmington, Delaware -- and expectations were not that high in the deteriorating downtown shopping area to begin with, said co-owner Jack Buckley.

"We would have been satisfied with a flat season [compared to last year]," Buckley told BTW, "but it rained six out of seven days just before Christmas, and it poured on the Thursday before -- that's usually the biggest shopping day at our store all year. We are now the only retail establishment in the downtown community. People don't come here to shop -- they go to the malls. Renewal efforts are planned -- bringing in more middle income and some luxury housing, but it's a slow process.

"We do a lot of handselling, and good sellers this year were Jon Stewart's book and The Ha-Ha: A Novel (Dave King, Little, Brown). I really liked Nightfall [by Nelson DeMille, Warner] and sold a lot of copies. The bestselling paperbacks were from the Book Sense lists -- The Clearing [by Tim Gautreaux, Knopf] and The Kite Runner [by Khaled Hosseini, Riverhead Books]."

Of course, as the saying goes, location is everything in retail: Just 93 miles south of Wilmington, Booksandcoffee's holiday season was quite successful. Dewey Beach, Delaware, may lack the bright lights of Times Square, but a sizeable crowd gathers there to ring in the New Year.

"We did very well," said Terry Lake, manager of Booksandcoffee, part of a restaurant and retail complex one block from the beach. "We were up about 20 percent for the year, 30 percent for the last week of December. This is the store's fourth year at this location, and I started here a year ago in October. I attended 'The Two Percent Solution' workshop at the [New Atlantic Independent Booksellers Association] trade show, and I have kept the ideas that [ABA CEO] Avin Domnitz presented there in mind ever since."

In Amherst, Massachusetts, the bookstore component of the National Yiddish Book Center, had good sales, according to store manager, Mark Brumberg. Many sales are handled through mail order and its Web site, and most took place early in December, corresponding to this year's celebration of Hanukkah. Selling very well this year was Outwitting History: The Amazing Adventures of a Man Who Rescued A Million Yiddish Books by the Center's director, Aaron Lansky (Algonquin). The primer parody, Yiddish with Dick and Jane by Ellis Werner and Barbara Davilman (Little, Brown) was also very popular.

Brockport, New York, home of one of the large universities in the State University of New York system, has the kind of downtown area that fosters loyal shoppers, according to Pat Kutz, co-owner of Lift Bridge Book Shop. "We have a village environment -- there's a movie house, a post office, a bank. We're 20 minutes from a mall, far enough away so people make a conscious decision to shop here." Sales this year, boosted by the popular Jon Stewart title, were about even with last year, according to Kutz.

Kutz is optimistic about the kind of bookstore her husband founded 33 years ago. "This is a neighborhood store -- not a bestseller mill," she commented. "People come here looking for something special, for someone special. We have found that ABA has been hugely successful in branding the Book Sense concept -- everything about it. Now independents are a big thing along with the aggregate of the gift cards, the bestseller list, the book picks, marketing materials -- the whole shebang."

The Midwest

For the most part, booksellers in the Midwest reported that sales were better this year than last -- some by a significant amount. In Park Rapids, Minnesota, Jill Johnson reported that the three-year-old Beagle Books had a very good season with a 15 percent boost in sales from last year. "One reason for the increase was the [Upper Midwest Booksellers Association] holiday catalogs," she said. "We had a bigger customer base this year because we mailed more catalogs. People were coming in with them in their hands." Advertising in a local newspaper and creating a display with catalog titles also helped, she said. In addition, hosting a Polar Express party on December 18 augmented sales.

Beagle Book's top-selling titles were Forever Ours: Real Stories of Immortality and Living From A Forensic Pathologist by Janis Amatuzio, M.D. (New World Library) and The Snowflake: Winter's Secret Beauty by Kenneth Libbrecht and Patricia Rasmussen (Voyageur), among others. The increase in business over last year continued after the holidays, said Johnson.

Another three-year-old store, All About Books, in Smithville, Missouri, also enjoyed a 15 percent rise from the previous year. Co-owner Petra Williams speculated that the increase might have occurred because customers are more conscious of the value that shopping locally brings to their community.

Like Johnson, Williams reported that the UMBA winter catalog helped attract new customers. "We mailed out 10,000. We've been sending them out each year since the store opened three years ago." Williams noted that the cost of buying mailing lists, postage, and other associated costs are usually covered within a week or two.

Other customer draws, said Williams, were the Book Sense gift cards. "They're so popular. People know what they are and are already redeeming them." The 1,600-square-foot store ordered 100 for the holidays and has sold close to 60, she said.

Overall, the relatively new bookseller was heartened by holiday customer turnout. "We're a new small business trying to make the financials work. I've been encouraged by the amount of new business," she told BTW.

On the other hand, bookselling veteran Terry Whittaker, co-owner of the 32-year-old Viewpoint Books in Columbus, Ohio, described the bookstore's numbers as "pretty bad." Columbus was hit by a winter storm that shut down the city on December 23 and 24. If not for the storm, Whittaker said, sales would have been down from the previous year, but not dramatically. Following Christmas, sales were "not bad at all," he said.

Whittaker reported that many regional titles were among his bestsellers, including Unexpected Indiana: A Portfolio of Natural Landscapes by Ron Leonetti and Christopher Jordan (Indiana University Press), How to Talk Hoosier by N. Bell (Quixote Press), and Barney: The Stray Beagle Who Became a TV Star and Stole Our Hearts by Dick Wolfsie (Emmis).

In Chicago, co-owner John Presta reported flat numbers at Reading on Walden Bookstore. The store experienced a higher sales volume, but had also discounted more heavily than in the past, resulting in a bottom line even with last year. "People do want a discount even if it's minimal," he said.

A neighborhood event organized with other small stores drew customers to the area and helped keep overall sales from dipping.

Presta said the store's BookSense.com Web site was especially successful. "We did better than ever [on the site]. I'm always surprised when people order books from Chicago when they live in New Mexico or California. It stuns me, but they do." Presta said that he sees repeat business from the Internet and that the bookstore always sends a handwritten thank-you note following a sale, with a request for the customer to return to the site. Presta said he and his customers appreciate having the option of picking up the book from the store.

The South

In the South, most booksellers reported decent holiday seasons, though some were affected by poor weather.

The hurricanes of summer 2004 are still affecting booksellers, including Janet Bollum, owner of the 25-year-old Muse Book Shop in De Land, Florida. Bollum told BTW that this was a particularly bad year because the area, 20 miles from Daytona Beach, was "hit by all three hurricanes, and people are still recovering."

Bollum attributed the drop in sales to a poor economy, a "very disheartening re-election," and the loss of business during the storms. "All together, we lost almost a month of sales -- we had no electricity for a total of one-and-a-half weeks," Bollum said. What sold well in this "pretty liberal community," were titles that stayed away from politics. Other than the irreverent Jon Stewart book and George Carlin's When Will Jesus Bring the Pork Chops? (Hyperion) both of which sold very well, "people were looking for uplifting, happy books such as Too Soon Old, Too Late Smart [Gordon Livingston, M.D., Marlow], The Five People You Meet in Heaven [Mitch Albom, Hyperion], and Jimmy Buffett's book [A Salty Piece of Land, Little, Brown]. We had problems getting The Polar Express Gift Set -- the publisher missed the first week of December. We could have sold a lot more but I couldn't get it."

At the Village Green, a bookstore, gift shop, and Christmas shop in Tupelo, Mississippi, Jim Troxler reported, "We were up slightly [from last year] -- the first time in four years." In November, sales increased by 8 percent compared to November 2003, and, in December, sales were up by 6 percent over the same period last year. "But the first part of the year was down so much, it took those increases to have a slight increase [for the entire year]," he said. However, he noted that the "day after Christmas was just huge -- it was absolutely huge. It was the biggest day in a long time, possibly the biggest day we have ever had."

The top holiday seller for Village Green was Escape in Iraq: The Thomas Hamill Story (Stoeger Publishing) mainly because Thomas Hamill, who lives about 45 minutes from Village Green, did an autographing at the bookstore. In addition, local books sold well, Troxler said. "It's gotten to the point that that's the thing we do the best with," he said. "We're not a bestseller type of store -- that [market] has been taken away by discount stores like Sam's Club."

"We had a really strong holiday season," reported Mary Price Dunbar of Beaucoup Books in New Orleans, who said the bookstore was up from last December. "Strong local titles helped," such as Uglesich's Restaurant Cookbook by John Uglesich (Pelican). Another popular title was John James Audubon: The Making of an American by Richard Rhodes (Knopf), as well as the Jon Stewart title.

Dunbar noted that the Book Sense Gift Card also did well this season. "We are no longer issuing the paper gift certificates," she said. "It's nice to have the card -- we have different holders for them."

As for post-Christmas sales, Dunbar reported that "the week after Christmas is always very busy. It's been 70 degrees for the past week, so we weren't exactly snowed in. And there's the Sugar Bowl. It's quite busy."

In Louisville, Kentucky, Michael Boggs of Carmichael's Bookstores told BTW, "For us, the weekend after Thanksgiving was really spectacular … but we had terrible weather the week before Christmas -- 10 inches of snow and ice, so that hurt." However, the bookstore was up about 3 percent over last year, he reported. "To be up at all [with] what we were facing -- between the weather and Christmas falling on a bad day -- I was happy with it."

Boggs said the bookstore was out of stock on Jon Stewart's America (The Book) for the week before Christmas, "which was ugly.... But we had sold a ton already, though we did turn some people down." The store also sold "a lot of" The Complete New Yorker Cartoons, as well as Gilead by Marilynne Robinson (FSG).

It wasn't exactly a happy holiday in terms of sales at Crosshaven Books in Birmingham, Alabama, where Marie Peerson told BTW that this holiday season was "much worse" than last year's. She attributed this, in part, to the lack of a blockbuster title that everyone wanted. Overall, regional books did the best, she said, such as Alabama Classics, a cookbook published by a local newspaper; Fannie Flagg's A Redbird Christmas (Random House); Frank Stitt's Southern Table (Artisan); and Rammer Jammer Yellow Hammer: A Journey into the Heart of Fan Mania by Warren St. John (Crown).

The West

West Coast booksellers who spoke to BTW said that sales were up this year. "It was our best year ever," said Cindy Russell of Seattle's City Books, who reported that the store was up 10 percent. "But not because of books," she added. City Books has been ramping up its sidelines business, which now account for about 40 percent of sales. Magnets sold well, she said, especially the Anne Taintor and Borealis lines.

Russell tried other marketing strategies aside from changing inventory, but concluded that the store exists at the mercy of the "feet on the street," or how many people happen to pass by. "Once I get them in here, I can get them back," she said, but advertising doesn't affect her sales. City Books' bestsellers were Bad Cat by Jim Edgar (Workman), America (The Book), and Be Afraid, Be Very Afraid by Jan Harold Brunvand (Norton).

Adrian Newell of Warwick's in La Jolla, California, told BTW that the store ultimately enjoyed a "really great holiday season," though it didn't start off that promising. In contrast, the 2004 holiday season started very early. However, this year, she said, "It just seemed flat," adding that "there was no energy until a week before Christmas, and then we ended up having the best December ever -- and the best 10 days before Christmas that we've ever had!" All told, there was a 3 percent increase over December 2003, she said.

Warwick's top seller was Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini (Riverhead Books). In addition, The Da Vinci Code remained popular, and sales were good for the Jon Stewart book and The Complete Cartoons of The New Yorker, though the latter two were out of stock for a good part of December.

Furthermore, "[Book Sense] Gift Cards did really, really well," Newell continued. "They were even bigger than gift certificates. It is a great gift."

Oregon Book Company in Oregon City, along with other stores in the state, including Annie Boom's Books in Portland and Grass Roots Books & Music in Corvallis, reported modest gains this season -- from 1 to 5 percent.

Richard Litts, owner of the 20-year-old Oregon Book Company told BTW that "overall, we were up a bit for December, but down a little for the year." The store's prominent display of books from the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association catalog was very effective, he said, as were the 17,000 copies of the catalog inserted into the local newspaper with a discount coupon.

Litts has offered Book Sense Gift Cards for the past two years and has seen their popularity grow, particularly as the store carries a wide range of gift items. "I jumped on the gift card program early on," Litt told BTW, "and we've been pleased with it. We track a hidden benefit of the cards -- most times when people come back to redeem the cards, they spend more than the card value. A $20 card will become $25 or $30. People often round up to use up the whole card. We have found that on at least 50 percent of the cards, we get extra."

Birds of the Willamette Valley Region by Harry Nehls (Morse) was mentioned as a surprise bestseller by both Litts and Scott Foley, book buyer at Grass Roots Books & Music. --Reported by David Grogan, Karen Schechner, and Nomi Schwartz