Ohmigod! City Lights!
Like Mr. Orthofer, I’m both delighted and appalled to see City Lights get the profile treatment. There isn’t time right now to investigate whether Times contributor Megan Walsh has a troublesome history of inserting these corny, oh-so-obvious “comic” observations in her work. But I can assure her that City Lights, while jutting in a diagonal manner along the edge of Columbus, is far from “a cake slice of a bookshop.” This concern for the store’s physical appearance overshadows its more important attribute. City Lights maintains a great poetry selection and also keeps such authors as Eric Kraft, Kathy Acker, Gilbert Sorrentino, and Stanley Elkin circulating in the stacks. And aside from the fact that Mr. Ferlinghetti himself is not what one might call an etiolated individual, countercultures, last I heard, have not faded away. They’re still around if you look a little. Unless, of course, your tastes and perceptive faculties are safer than a reverend who is overly concerned about his stature in a small town.
Andy Ross Resigns from Cody’s
I’m still catching up on the backlog, but it appears that Andy Ross has resigned from Cody’s.
First It Was the Movie Theaters; Now the Bookstores
In one fell swoop, Borders has ensured that I will never shop there again. (Not that I was anyway.)
In Defense of Sitting in Bookstores
This Baltimore Sun item describes how the big box bookstores are no longer placing the nooks, crannies, and chairs that were once de rigueur a few decades ago. In the case of Borders, the chain has cut back their soft seating by 30%. The complaints are the usual ones: the homeless, necking lovers, people leaving trash behind, and other assorted riff-raff. (Of course, it’s not as if these prohibitive factors didn’t exist when the bookstores did provide more seating.)
Customers seem to be lounging in the bookstores anyway, sitting on the floor and sometimes not buying anything at all. But is this really so bad? One might argue that Starbucks’ tolerance for sitters who don’t purchase a cafe au lait, or anything at all really, may very well be one of the reasons why it’s impossible to wander around Manhattan without running into one of those monolithic green circles — sometimes with remarkable square footage. And there’s a considerable difference in profit margin between a $29.95 hardcover and a $2.95 cafe au lait. But you don’t see Starbucks cutting back on its soft seating.
All this reminds me of what Jane Jacobs had to say about people being naturally inclined to sit on steps and how these recurrent populist acts — wholly natural, of course — led to strange underclass labels. What’s to suggest that people naturally sitting in a bookstore won’t bring in long-term revenue over time? Can’t a bookstore learn a few things from coffeehouse culture and be a kind of community? If people are permitted to sit and congregate without being badgered by a humorless manager, they might meet a friend who, in turn, might purchase a few books. Further, book enthusiasts tend to be natural browsers, often pinpointing particular volumes for later purchase. Is not a certain amount of tolerance for the literary inclined a sound business proposition?
Sure, some of the sitters will be inveterate slobs. And you’ll need staff to clean up messes and restock books. But it’s a small price to pay for an amicable atmosphere. Maybe I simply have more faith in humankind than the iron-fisted Borders executives. But I’ve found that most people, barring a few assholes who try to make everyone’s lives miserable, are pretty polite and friendly. So why be discourteous and force them sit on the floor?
(via Galleycat)
[UPDATE: While I didn't have the time to dig up my copy of Jane Jacobs's The Death and Life of Great American Cities and a few other New Urbanist books to quote for this post, Charlottesville Words thankfully drew a few comparisons between this seating imbroglio and Paco Underhill's Why We Buy: The Science of Shopping.]
As Long As We’re Making Generalizations
Controversial though it may sound, the people who work at Waterstone’s — and, in particular, Jon Howells — have smaller penises than those working at any other bookstore in the world.
Cody’s Union Square Gone
Sad news from Publishers Weekly this morning: The first, Cody’s is closing its doors in San Francisco. April 20 is the day the Union Square store will dissolve. Since Cody’s is a major outlet for local author events and readings, this means a huge deal for the San Francisco literary scene.
Waldenbooks Stores Replaced by “Concept Stores”
It’s been a long time since I’ve set foot into a Waldenbooks store, but Bloomberg reports that Waldenbooks is shutting half of its stores, selling the majority of its international division after an unexpected loss. Waldenbooks is owned by Borders Group Inc. and CEO George Jones has said that Borders’ new focus will be giving its larger bookstores an overhaul and revamping its website. The ever-reliable Jim Milliot has more: Borders will be developing a new “concept store” this year, with the first one set to open early next year. There’s no word on whether these “concept stores” will be the capitalist equivalent of a 1970s progressive rock album, but Jones did remark, “We have too much inventory in our stores.” Whether “too much inventory” translates into not enough blockbusters and fewer independent titles is a mystery, but it recalls a particular Anne Sexton poem that doesn’t exactly leave readers performing happy pirouettes on an expansive lawn.
Support Your Local Indie Bookstores
Los Angeles Times: “This is the paradox of modern bookselling. Even in an entertainment-saturated age, people still buy books. But the casual reader has many other places to get bestsellers and topical books, from warehouse stores to the mall. Meanwhile, book nuts — the ones who simply must buy several volumes a week — are lured online. Few businesses can survive that lose customers from both ends of the spectrum.”
Dutton’s Brentwood is In Trouble
Los Angeles Times: “If these changes in the literary landscape are evoking intense emotion in the city’s bookish set — from declarations of devotion to accusations of betrayal — it’s nothing like what could be unleashed if a long-developing plot twist comes to pass: The three-section, nearly 5,000-square-foot Dutton’s Brentwood Books may soon succumb to its landlord’s plans to redevelop the site, part of a compound on San Vicente Boulevard.” (via James Tata)
One Omitted Item: Don’t Forget to Show Up
Kevin Sampsell has a helpful list of tips on how an author should attend a reading. It’s worth the read alone for a list of the crazed gifts that fans have unloaded on poor David Sedaris.
Another Indie Paean
Colisseum Books has filed Chapter 11.
Putting the Black in Black Oak Books
I’ve quibbled about Black Oak Books before, but Barking Kitten offers another reason why the term “indieshock” applies: The staff is willfully ignorant about the latest offerings from Margaret Atwood and Janet Fritch and apparently rebukes customers who ask about these authors. Is this any way to run a business?
Score One for My Neighborhood
Dan Rhodes says his favorite bookstore is the Booksmith. (via 3AM Magazine)
An Open Letter to Andy Ross
Dear Andy:
Thank you for surrendering Cody’s to a corporation. I’m sure that Yohan, Inc., with its concentration on distributing foreign books and magazines, has the experience and the niche interest to keep the two remaining Cody’s stores truly independent. I’m positive they won’t turn the stores into crappy franchises no less distinct than a B. Dalton outlet. Sure.
But I know how you’ll justify all this, Mr. Ross. You didn’t sell out. You bought in. It was the “market,” after all, that killed off Cody’s. Not the fact that you took over Planet Hollywood’s old space on Stockton Street, which probably had a rent that was a shitload more expensive than the original Telegraph Avenue store that you so gracelessly killed. Fred Cody is spinning in his grave right around now. He never would have let this happen.
The fact of the matter is that you didn’t have the courage to tell people that you were ready to hang up your hat. You ran this transaction through fast — without trying to find a responsible buyer who gave a damn about books and bookstores. Someone who would carry the Cody’s legacy into the 21st century.
Well, I hope you’re sitting pretty on that small fortune. You didn’t even have the balls to talk to the Berkeley Daily Planet, the newspaper that broke the story. Instead, you farmed out the duties to poor Fred’s widow, Pat Cody, who had to begrudgingly remark that this was “a good thing.”
Well, it’s not a good thing, Andy. It’s not good that you let one of the greatest indie bookstores that ever graced the Bay Area die and placed what was left well on the path to ruins. It’s not good that you cower away and let others do your talking for you. It’s not good that you betrayed a Berkeley landmark the same way that Justin Herman killed the Fillmore in the 1960s or that Robert Moses tampered with New York.
Very truly yours,
Edward Champion
George Jones is an Idea Man
In an interview with the Detroit Free Press, new Borders CEO George Jones said, “I have a ton of ideas of things I can do with the relationships I built over those years in Hollywood that I think I can tap into that could help differentiate us as a company and make us stand out versus our competitors.”
By a strange coincidence, Return of the Reluctant received an email this morning from an anonymous Borders employee. The email contained an attachment: a scanned image of a crude handwritten note with the header “George’s Ideas.” I have no idea if this note was scribbled at a company meeting (by Jones’ own hand or one of his minions?) or if the thoughts were taken down by Jones’ personal assistant. (I understand he has twelve of them now.) But it took me about 90 minutes to decipher the unruly scrawl, but here is my best stab:
GEORGE’S IDEAS
1. Hire MovieTunes guy to replace classical music over store speakers. Play adult contemporary music (Book tie-in? What about the Rock Bottom Remainders?) and bombard customer base with title suggestions. Frequently use words like “hot” and “exciting” to create sense of excitement. Consult marketing team for latest buzz words.
2. Place screens at various points in the store and display advertisements from local businesses with book trivia. Keep trivia questions simple so as not to challenge customer base. (Ex.: “Who wrote Moby Dick?”)
3. Hire paparazzi reporters to accompany and harass writers at book signings. We need spectacle. Add velvet rope and grunts in black shirts reading SECURITY during autograph sessions. Manhandle the plebs. Let them wait. We want star power, motherfuckers!
4. Replace all cafes with concession stands and raise prices to increase profit margin. What were they thinking with these espressos? If you keep the customer base awake, they will stick around and disrupt our staff from stocking. We don’t want this. Bog their stomachs down with buttered popcorn and Milk Duds so that they’ll have to leave. Deny access to bathroom to discourage them from lingering. We need to adopt a new strategy here: our customers need to buy their books and leave. Change refund policy to make it more difficult for them to return stock. Adopt 15% restocking fee.
5. Pay all employees at minimum wage and hire cash-starved teenagers instead of book enthusiasts. We’ll be able to cut our payroll costs down and, more importantly, discourage banter between staff and customers. This will permit our customers to buy books accidentally. Let them do the footwork if they need a particular title.
6. If the staff absolutely must talk with customers, let them begin all answers to questions with the phrase, “In a world….”
A Clean Well-Lighted Place for Books, Inc.
This morning, Publishers Weekly reported that Books, Inc. would be taking over the space now being abandoned by A Clean, Well-Lighted Place for Books. This is a great move on several levels: For one thing, the space remains devoted to the taste and sensibilities of an independent bookstore. Second, with eleven stores in its chain, Books, Inc. will have fallback stores to draw from should their operations at the Van Ness Avenue location flounder. As owner Michael Tucker puts it in the PW article, “Ten years ago I found myself facing the exact same dilemma and we had to close ten of 12 stores. Now we’re back up to 11.” (Thanks to Dan Wickett for the tip!)
Please Make It Stop
Amanda Cotten writes in and notes that her store Valencia Street Books closed this weekend. It’s the same reasons here as Clean, Well-Lighted. Too much competition, dwindling economy.
I am so concerned about this issue that I am currently trying to get interviews with Cotten, Neal Sofman and Andy Ross lined up.
[RELATED: See also this New York Times story on the Cody's closing.]
Another One Bites the Dust
A Clean Well-Lighted Place for Books: “We deeply regret to announce that we will be closing A Clean Well-Lighted Place for Books as soon as we can liquidate our inventory.”
[UPDATE: Frances Dinkelspiel has more and bemoans the many Bay Area bookstore closings this year. The Bay Area may be an underreported literary mecca, but the hard truth is that these literary interests aren't always compatible with profit and there aren't enough courageous people willing to sustain many of these pivotal conduits. The recent end of the Books by the Bay festival and the slimming down of the Chronicle's book review section are troublingly self-evident on this front.]
Bookstore Sales Drop
Publishers Weekly reports that US bookstore sales dropped 4.3% in April. This is the third consecutive month in which sales have plummeted. Is this the result of a faltering economy? Or is Amazon’s rising slumping stock connected to this?
Meanwhile, this guy tries to uncrack Amazon sales ranking and concludes that they probably don’t mean a thing.
A Dark Time for Bay Area Indies
Mr. Sarvas somehow beat us to the punch again. But, hot on the heels of the Clean, Well-Lighted Place sale, it looks like the Cody’s Telegraph store is closing, not long after Cody’s opened the San Francisco store.
[UPDATE: Scott Esposito offers some words on how Cody's is/was a vital part of the Berkeley landscape.]
[UPDATE 2: Ron Silliman also offers a tribute.]
A Clean, Well-Lighted Place for Books is in Trouble
One of my favorite San Francisco indie bookstores is in trouble. A Clean, Well-Lighted Place for Books is now up for sale. Owner Neal Sofman cites declining sales and lousy foot traffic. This also explains why Sofman withdrew the highly lucrative domian name bookstore.com, which I had mistakenly reported as “hijacked” last week. (Thanks to Dan Wickett for the head’s up on this.)
Shedding Light on City Lights’ “Fascism”
The good folks at the SFist somehow caught it before me, but Catherine Seipp attacks one of my favorite bookstores, City Lights, for not carrying Oriana Fallaci’s The Force of Reason.
I call bullshit. First off, Seipp is resorting to hearsay in reporting that “a friend of hers” overheard a clerk snap, “We don’t carry books by fascists.” Hearsay is not permitted as evidence in a court of law and it sure as hell shouldn’t be permitted as a legitimate argument in an op-ed piece.
Second, how does not selling a particular title make City Lights fascist? Fascism, as I understand it, is “a system of government marked by centralization of authority under a dictator, stringent socioeconomic controls, suppression of the opposition through terror and censorship, and typically a policy of belligerent nationalism and racism.”
So let’s clarify here. City Lights is not a government nor is it a philosophy which espouses a government. It’s a bookstore that caters to a particular niche. As such, it is a capitalistic entity that sells books. A customer can decide whether to patronize the store or not. If City Lights were “fascist,” then I suppose Ferlinghetti would lock the doors upon a customer’s arrival, point a gun against the customer’s head, and force the customer to purchase Che Guevara’s Guerrilla Warfare or die trying not to. But the truth of the matter is that customers are free to come in and leave, often without buying a single thing! In fact, if you walk into the fiction section, you’ll notice a sign that urges visitors to sit down and read a book.
As it so happens, I just spoke with a City Lights clerk on the phone and he told me that the official City Lights policy is this: If someone wants the Fallaci book, the store would send them somewhere else if a customer really wanted it. The store simply doesn’t want City Lights customer money going to support Fallaci. Now how exactly is this fascist if City Lights is facilitating the purchase for a die-hard Fallaci fan (albeit not at its store)?
Indie Sheetcred
Patricia Storms has been offering reports and interviews on independent bookstores. Her latest report is on The Bookmark and is starting to delve into interesting description and history. I’d say that between this, The Bookstore Tourism Blog and Betsy Burton’s memoir, The King’s English: Adventures of an Independent Bookseller, indie bookstores are starting to nab their respective due for posterity. But why has no one thought to write a history of independent bookstores as a whole?
The Bookstore That Cried Wolf?
Frances notes that Book Passage, the independent bookstore in Corte Madera, might be in trouble. It seems that a Barnes & Noble may be moving into the vacated storefront (once occupied by a Marshall’s) at the Town Center shopping mall. (At this point, Town Center management hasn’t revealed who the new tenant is.) A number of Corte Madera residents are quite upset about this.
Even so, the devil’s advocate in me has to ask why there’s so much uproar over what is, at this point, just an unconfirmed rumor. Why, for example, did the Independent Journal’s Jim Staats fail to call Barnes & Noble Corporate or its legal counsel to get definitive answers? (Staats notes that he spoke with “Barnes & Noble spokesmen,” but judging from the article’s reliance managers at other B&N stores.) All we have then is this article are unsubstantiated rumors from the Corte Madera residents. Would not there be papers filed with the Corte Madera Zoning Administrator? City planning papers? Documents outlining any necessary retrofits of the property?
I’m wondering if there is much ado here about nothing. I’d hate to see Corte Madera literary types waste so much time over, say, another Best Buy store.
Yours Is Not to Question Why
An employee who worked at a bookstore and wrote about a Rachael Ray appearance has been fired for venturing his opinion. We don’t have cable ourselves and watch television perhaps once a solstice, but we have to agree that we’re a little skeptical about colossal attention given to someone who has created something called the “mini-cheeseburger salad.” (via Bookslut)
Indie Bookstores: Not Unlike a Bedside Manner
Bookdwarf, who is apparently more quick on the draw with my hometown newspaper than I am, points to this interesting claim by A Clean Well-Lighted Place President Neal Sofman. Sofman discovered a study of Chicago merchants illustrating that local retailers recirculate more of their sales dollars into the local economy than do chains. The study in question can be found here. If this is indeed the case, then why are the big publishers spending a substantial chunk of their promotion money placing authors into large corporate venues like Borders (and, for that matter, withholding their authors from smaller and more independent media outlets)? Would not a more targeted and devoted audience of readers more inclined to buy books and shift cash into the local economy be a more effective marketing strategy?
In Which Jennifer Weiner Is Assaulted by the Marina People
Jennifer Weiner is back home and she notes this strange question about a woman asking her at the San Francisco Barnes & Noble if she was “self-actualized.” This is not much of a surprise, as this Barnes & Noble is very close to the Marina. Such strange terminology is bandied about by residents there on a daily basis. Although for those of us in the Haight and the Mission, we would never think of asking any distinguished lady if she was “self-actualized,” as most living bipedal mammals, are by their very nature already quite actualized by way of living, breathing, thinking and feeling. On behalf of my fellow San Franciscans, I apologize to Ms. Weiner for being frightened by the Marina people and hope that the publicists book her in safer quarters for the next book.
Powell’s — Another Outlet Promoting Online Classism?
What M.A.O. said. Dave Weich can keep living in a glass tower as long he wants. But to take on the attitude that one must have a credit card in order to survive, let alone purchase books, is to subscribe to the same atavistic and paralogic thinking as doze poor peeples kints read and dere checks will bounce bekaz dey poor. Shame on Weich and shame on Powell’s for refusing to accommodate a form of payment that has been around much longer than the credit card.
[UPDATE: Dave Weich responds to Orother over at Maud's.]
Kepler’s Lives. Cody’s Lives.
I haven’t checked it out yet, but the SFist has the scoop on the new Cody’s near Virgin Megastore. Beyond the delicious irony of the failed Planet Hollywood (co-owned by the Governator) space now being occupied by floors of books, it looks like a positively fantastic place to hole up for an afternoon. Between this and the Kepler’s reopening, it looks like a veritable golden age for Bay Area indie bookstores.
Disagree With a Politician and You’re a “Security Threat” — Even When You’re a Minor
Common Dreams reports on a very disturbing incident that occurred at a Delaware Barnes & Noble (as more specifically reported here). Eighteen year-old Hannah Shaffer saw that Senator Rick Santorum had a book called It Takes a Family and that he would be reading at Barnes & Noble. Shaffer decided to go there with with some friends the idea of telling Santorum that he disagreed with his policies. Noting Santorum’s stance on gay rights, someone suggested that Santorum sign a book by Dan Savage.
Apparently, an advance team working for Santorum overheard this, concluded that Shaffer and her friends were “a security threat” and asked them to leave by a Delaware State Policeman named Mark DiJiacomo. The group was then told by DiJiacommo that anyone who didn’t leave would be sent to prison immediately on a trespassing charge. Most of the people left, with the exception of two brave kids named Stacey Galperin and Miriam Rocek, where more threats apparently ensued.
Even worse: DiJiacomo didn’t consult B&N’s store management and he was on Santorum’s employ.
