Three Independents Open in the Past Week

The encouraging number of new independent bookstores increased by three this past week with the openings of stores by two veteran booksellers and one newcomer to the industry.

In California, on December 8, Michael Tucker celebrated the grand opening of his 11th store, Books Inc. in Alameda, an island city in the San Francisco Bay. In addition to Books Inc. locations in San Francisco, Mountain View, Burlingame, and Palo Alto, Tucker owns Compass Books and Bzinc at the San Francisco International Airport and Compass Books & Cafe at the Downtown Disney District® in Anaheim.

Tucker told BTW that the residents of Alameda had been clamoring for a bookstore, and many of them lined up for the soft opening of the 3,000-square-foot store on December 4. The store is located in a building with a "beautiful, ornate brick facade," which, Tucker believes, dates back to the 1890s. "The neighborhood is awash in young families, [and the community] was chomping at the bit" to have an independent bookstore, selling new books. Weekend sales, he said, "were absolutely terrific."

Display areas in the new Creekside Books & Coffee, Skaneateles, New York.

In Skaneateles, New York, Creekside Books & Coffee opened on Friday, December 3. Paz Booksellers School graduate, Erika Davis, reported a "wonderful" opening weekend that exceeded expectations. The 3,000-square-foot bookstore, in a remodeled, century-old brick house, has an adjoining small cafe, which roasts its own coffee beans. The cafe serves soups, salads, and desserts, and will be available to host the area's book groups.

Davis said that the village, which is about 30 minutes from Syracuse, had been without an independent bookstore for approximately six years. "People are ecstatic that we're here," said Davis. "Customers have said [that Creekside] is exactly what the community needed, and they'd be back time and time again. I'm very pleased by their reaction." On its first day in business, Creekside held a Polar Express party organized by staff member Karen Wheeler. The party went so well, said Davis, the store will host another on December 10.

Davis had no previous bookselling experience, but she did have years of retail experience and wanted to own her own business. She "felt a real need in the community" for a place to buy books, and, she added, "Who doesn't want to open a bookstore?"

Empire Books & News in Huntington, West Virginia.

Meanwhile, John Gaylord, who had owned several Little Professor bookstores, which he sold in 1997, ended his bookselling hiatus and opened the 12,500-square-foot Empire Books & News in Huntington, West Virginia. BTW spoke with Gaylord hours after Empire held its soft opening on December 3, and he said response has been "pandemonium, but spectacular." Empire had so much press, that despite the soft opening, customers waited at the door to get in and packed the store all day long. In addition to its 70,000 titles, the store also stocks 6,000 magazines.

Empire's design matches the theme of the Pullman Center, which used to be an old warehouse industrial district. Gaylord described it as a "metropolitan loft environment with an open structured ceiling and a beautiful acid-etched concrete floor. It has a clean, crisp metro look." The bookstore currently serves complimentary coffee drinks from an antique mahogany and walnut bar, part of a lounge area with leather sofas, which will serve as an events area in the future. In the midst of the chaos of the first day of business, Gaylord said he was having a "wonderful time." --Karen Schechner