Overcoming the Devil in the Details to Open in Salem, Massachusetts

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Cornerstone Books, a 3,000-square-foot bookstore/cafe in historic Salem, Massachusetts, celebrated its grand opening Wednesday with a visit from the town's mayor to cut the ribbon, an evening of live entertainment from the Squatcho Bondo Band of Gloucester, and food and drink for all.

The store, owned by Gilbert Pili, managed by his brother Erik, with old friend Dan Johnson doing the buying, has long been a gleam in Pili's eye. But for many months, Cornerstone's opening was bedeviled by impediments of all sorts.



The staff of Cornerstone Books (from left to right):
Dan Johnston, Gilbert Pili, Annie Boyle, Matt DiGangi, and Erik Pili.

Cornerstone launched with a soft opening about a week shy of Christmas. Pili and company originally planned on opening in May 2005, and before that, the plan was to open in May 2003. The store can trace its roots all the way back to 2001, when Pili first envisioned a new bookstore in New England.

Part of the great charm of Cornerstone's location has been its albatross. It is on the ground floor of Derby Lofts, the city's largest downtown condominium project, in the old Salem Laundry building, which has become a showplace of mixed-use, downtown development. However, various structural problems and project delays barred Pili from opening his store as anticipated.

Pili described to BTW, on the eve of the store's grand opening, his experiences creating a bricks-and-mortar reality from what he called a "pipe-dream." After spending almost two decades exclusively in the corporate world (he mentioned "getting into the dot.com thing"), he now manages a small group of web developers for Fidelity Investments by day and runs the bookstore at night and on weekends.

His corporate experience, Pili said, has been helpful, but there were gaps in his knowledge of retail businesses. "I think I've learned a lot of common sense, business professionalism, and a way of dealing with people that works in the retail world as well as the corporate life," he explained. "The part I needed to learn was the retail operation -- the daily procedures, the budgeting and projection process, writing the business plan, developing a marketing strategy, and so forth. I also rely heavily on my brother Erik and the other employees, who all have a world of retail experience."

When BTW asked, Why a bookstore? Pili described his disaffection with the movement toward chain stores and malls: "About four years ago my friend Dan Johnston -- our current buyer -- and I were discussing how it was hard to find a place, other than a bar, where you could go to share ideas with your neighbors away from work and home. Europeans haven't forgotten this; they still rely on their local merchants and go from store to local store to get their groceries, clothes, and so on. Both of us have a love of old world Europe, and we started talking about creating the kind of place we would have loved growing up. A kind of place where something was always going on -- music, lectures, book clubs, discussion, poetry, board games, whatever."

Pili continued, "A bookstore seemed to be the one that touched on all these things best. We wanted the best of all the worlds that we liked -- books, games, video, music, and, of course, coffee.... The other thing that got us excited was the idea of 'genre' being the primary driver of the store rather than media. So that instead of a DVD section, a music section and a book section, we'd combine all those things into the genre that made sense. So in Mystery, you could find books, games, and movies that all tied into that genre. We felt pretty strongly that people care more about the subject as opposed to how the subject is being delivered."

Of the difficulties that impeded the store's, Pili said, "The waiting and the timing were the hardest. Since [the Derby Lofts] was a renovation, there were many delays. Opening only a week before Christmas, we are holding our grand opening in the slowest retail time of the year. We've got to survive a slow winter before traffic picks up in Salem. We hope to buck that trend with our fireplace and events, but it will be some work. We had to refigure our inventory multiple times during the delays, and we had several people ready to start work, but couldn't.

"Earlier on [problems included] getting our business plan together and refined, figuring out the budget, opening costs, and dealing with the bank -- these were all big challenges. I think the biggest problem that we did not anticipate was the length of time and coordination needed to get all the construction completed."

Pili has handled the startup costs largely himself, and through funding from two private investors and a Small Business Administration loan secured through a bank. "The opening expense was more than anticipated. We decided to remain true to our vision, but it cost bucks," he told BTW.

In addition to the SBA, Pili said that ABA, the New England Booksellers Association, and the Paz & Associates Bookselling School were "all critical, as well as helpful and supportive, to the store opening." He continued, "Getting a subscription to Publishers Weekly and going to the trade shows was absolutely essential. But the thing we found is that, as long as you ask, and take the approach that you are learning, there's a huge support network.

"Salem itself had some great resources as well for new retailers, and finding a city that is open to your idea and will guide you in the right direction, I think is key. The Salem Main Streets and SHDC [Salem Harbor Development Corporation], as well as the Enterprise Center at Salem State College provided some excellent guidance on establishing a business in Salem."

Despite construction delays and increased costs, Pili wanted to "stick it out, because we believed Salem was the right place for what we were trying to do. We felt strongly that there was a great demographic mix -- locals, students, tourists, wiccans, day-trippers, historians, writers, fishermen -- that couldn't be easily matched elsewhere."

Pili offered some advice and words of encouragement for prospective bookstore owners: "First, be sure to find out as much information as you can before spending any money. Use the resources available. Be prepared to spend money to remain true to your vision, and I would recommend spending at least a year discovering what is required before starting down the path.

"Once you've made the decision, stick to it and don't waver. Be prepared to make mistakes, but then get up and keep going. If I stopped and thought about the implications of what I was doing a year ago, I'd probably be in a hospital somewhere. You have to really believe in what you're doing, and then just do it; it's the only way to see it through. We are still learning as we go, and I don't expect that to stop. We're through the opening -- now comes the hard part -- building a thriving and profitable business."

Pili noted that chain bookstores are simply a reality of the retail environment. "We can't be intimidated by Amazon, Borders, and Barnes & Noble," he said. "Those guys will continue to be around, but there is also a great hunger for small independents. People want that friendly customer service -- the bookstore owner who will stop and chat with them, do special orders. They want a place that caters more to their community. There are also much better computerized resources available to independents now, and there's no reason an independent can't have a website that will help sell not only the books on hand, but also provide access to every book in print." --Nomi Schwartz