Midnight Special Opening Hampered By Unforeseen Delays

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. "We've [received] donations from as far away as Norway, Sweden, the UK, Ohio, New York -- but just as good have been the notes and the words of encouragement."

"[The delays] were unexpected for two reasons," Ghiz said. "We were led to believe the move [to the new location] could be made quickly -- by the city, the landlord, and the architects/contractors. The second reason they were unexpected is my naiveté.… I believed them."

In February 2003, Midnight Special moved out of its Third Street Promenade location due to the high rents on the Promenade. Interviewed just prior the store's closing, Ghiz said, "The Third Street Promenade has been taken over by chains…. They're 'billboard stores.' They write off [the rent cost] as advertising costs. But $45,000 is more than … most people earn in a year." Previously, Ghiz had had an agreement with landlord Walter Marks of Walter Marks Realty, in which Marks took a percentage of sales as rent. However, when Marks retired the family decided that they could no longer afford to maintain this arrangement.

Nearly three months later, in May, Ghiz announced that she had found a new location at 1450 2nd Street. Unfortunately, while the move was made to save on rent, Ghiz said the present delays have been financially crippling.

"In the world of permits, construction and lordlord-ese, 'any day now' really means 'could be up to six months,'" Ghiz explained. "The delays have been crippling because we are paying rent on an empty space that we should have been in six months ago; all my staff has stuck it out and is waiting to come back (I know I could not make this work without them) so I am paying their health insurance premiums every month; big monthly payments on storage of books and bookcases, copy machines, dues and subs -- all kinds of stuff I have to keep up on a monthly basis with nothing coming in."

Ghiz said that the store would be "lucky to open by the end of October." However, she noted that, throughout her woes, "my publisher reps have been great this past year -- they are some good people." --David Grogan