Letters to my bookstore friends, published in the Changing Hands Bookstore Monthly Newsletter
November 2009
Dear Bookstore Friends,
October was a very busy month for us at Changing Hands. Every single day had an event or a workshop or meeting in our Community Room. And some of the events were huge–Madeleine Albright, Sarah Vowell, Sherman Alexie (offsite at the Heard Museum), Jon Krakauer (at Dobson High), Gary Vaynerchuk–and all of them were incredible. We learned so much from these authors, were often moved to tears and in the case of Sherman Alexie, laughed until we cried.
On a very personal note, I have a new grand nephew born the last day of October–a Halloween baby named Brody Jacob Miles. He’s beautiful and has long fingers and toes, a full head of hair and the softest skin you can ever imagine. I got to hold him when he was only two hours old and could barely be persuaded to give him back to his proud parents, Dawn and Jeremy, when I had to leave the hospital. I wanted to bring him home with me.
In addition to a new baby and our exciting author events, I found myself contemplating some serious challenges to the future of bookselling in our community. You’ve probably heard by now that there is a predatory price war going on. It was started by Wal-Mart, matched by Amazon.com and joined by Target and Sears. Ten upcoming blockbuster hardcover releases, if pre-ordered on these websites, will cost only $8.99. Maybe when this letter arrives in your inbox the price will be down to $7.99! I thought it made sense to write you a note and tell you where Changing Hands stands on this issue. Michael Powell, a bookseller from Portland, Oregon, said, “It’s nice to find a high perch when elephants are dancing.” We, too, are watching this play out in the press and on the internet with some concern, not because we think our loyal customers will not understand that this is just a clever media blitz intended to drive more customers to Wal-Mart’s website, but because we worry about issues like diversity and fairness and the concentration of power in the book industry (or any industry) into very few hands. We worry that this latest development might cause more independent bookstores to close, leading to a society in which the current wide range of ideas is no longer made available to the public, where the selection of books as well as their prices is in the hands of a few mega-retailers.
What’s so troubling in the current situation is that none of the companies involved are engaged primarily in the sale of books. In a recent letter from the American Booksellers Association Board of Directors to the Department of Justice in regards to possible predatory pricing, it was suggested that mega-retailers are using bestsellers, which, ironically, are the most expensive books for publishers to bring to market, as a loss leader to attract customers to buy other, more profitable merchandise. The entire book industry is in danger of becoming collateral damage in this war. You might think that these lower prices will encourage more reading and a greater sharing of ideas in the culture, but the reality is quite the opposite. Consider this quote from John Grisham’s agent, David Gernert that appeared in the New York Times:
“If readers come to believe that the value of a new book is $10, publishing as we know it is over. If you can buy Stephen King’s new novel or John Grisham’s Ford County for $10, why would you buy a brilliant first novel for $25? I think we underestimate the effect to which extremely discounted best sellers take the consumer’s attention away from emerging writers.”
You might not know this but bookstores like Changing Hands are unlike retailers in other sectors. Clothing, jewelry, appliances, and most commercial goods are typically sold at a net price, leaving the seller free to determine the retail price and the margin these products will earn. Because publishers print list prices indelibly on jacket covers, and because books are sold at a discount off that retail price, there is a ceiling on the amount of margin a book retailer can earn. The suggested list price set by the publisher reflects manufacturing costs — acquisition, editing, marketing, printing, binding, shipping, etc. — which vary significantly from book to book. Publishers sell these books to retailers at 40% – 50% off the suggested list price. For example, a $35 book, such as Stephen King’s latest, Under the Dome, costs a retailer $17.50 or more. News reports suggest that publishers are not offering special terms to the big box retailers, and that the mega-retailers are, in fact, taking orders for these books at prices far below cost. In the case of King’s book, these retailers are losing as much as $8.50 on each unit sold, supporting the supposition that Amazon.com, Wal-Mart, and Target are using these predatory pricing practices to attempt to win control of the market for hardcover bestsellers.
Fortunately, Changing Hands doesn’t rely on bestsellers to stay in business, instead selling many more copies of titles we and our customers love that may never appear on the bestseller lists. But if predatory pricing practices result in a general sense that brand new hardcover books should cost under $10, our customers may become reluctant to buy any new release at its regular price. When cost becomes the only consideration, we lose and, ultimately, we think our entire community loses.
We will no longer be to bring you authors like those on our event calendar this fall. Your children would not have the Phoenix Zoo partnering with us each month to bring animals and books together; they would not have a weekly storytime; nor a train table to play on while you carefully choose the next addition to their home libraries. Our community would no longer enjoy the tax revenues that a local business generates, with $43 staying in the local economy for each $100 spent in our store as opposed to only $13 for purchases made in a national chain outlet. Our 35 employees would not have jobs, and our local schools, churches, social service agencies, arts projects, and neighborhood associations would no longer have one of their most dedicated business supporters.
Along with our loyal readers, we help to create and nourish the literary landscape in the Valley. We promote authors you may never have heard of before. We bring in speakers to debate the issues affecting our lives. We show movies to inspire and stir you to action. We provide you with a space to meet your friends, bring your family, relax with a cup of coffee. We want to be able to keep doing this for years to come.
We thought you should know what we are currently experiencing in our industry, the publishing world, so that you can help us fight the good fight, to ensure that you and your children will always have a vast diversity of books to choose from, to learn from, to enjoy.
~Gayle~
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October 2009
Dear Bookstore Friends,
It feels, finally, like fall is around the corner. The mornings are cool. My friend told me her young son took the garbage out a few days ago and came back inside screaming, “Mom, it’s freezing outside.” Well, it doesn’t feel ‘freezing’ to me yet, but I have been able to work outside a few mornings and my yard is starting to take on a more “cared for” look. The overgrown lantana has been trimmed, the roses are lightly pruned and ready for a new blooming season and I’m thinking about fall bedding plants to buy for the flowerbeds. On my next visit to my local nursery I will also be selecting several trees for my yard — one for each of the people I knew who died in the past two months. I like to plant a living reminder of friends and family whom I can no longer see and talk to — a memorial of sorts.
Death never seems to come at the right time or at the right age. There are always loved ones left behind who mourn, who grieve for their mother, their father, their grandmother, their friend, their sister, their husband. We lost my husband’s mother, Annette Sommer. She died surrounded by her children and grandchildren on her 89th birthday, the autumnal equinox. It was a peaceful death and although she had been in the ICU during the previous two weeks, she had lived a remarkably illness free life and was reading, beading, and visiting the bookstore up until she went into the hospital.
Two other dear friends died much too young and too quickly. Doug Roether, an avid biker, outdoorsman, carpenter, dog lover, and beloved husband and friend fought valiantly for months to defeat the cancer that claimed his life. He wrote remarkable journal entries to share with his friends almost until the day he died. And, Maria Ruiz, original owner of Tempe’s Shoe Mill, the In Season Deli and Flagstaff’s Morning Glory Cafe, died suddenly last month. Without any warning, just a series of serious medical complications and she is gone from our lives. Maria was the mother of four children and an outspoken advocate for local businesses, health initiatives, and the homeless in her hometown of Flagstaff. Our community grieves the loss of these lives, young and old.
It’s curious that what I had planned to write to you about this month, before the deaths of these loved ones, also revolved around end of life issues. In early 2010 The Ryan House will open on the campus of St. Joseph’s Hospital, providing essential care in a home-like setting for children with life-threatening conditions. It will enable families to get a short break for a few days knowing that their sick child is being cared for and it will provide the space for the family to stay when the end is clearly at hand. There will be no cost to families to use these services. Changing Hands and 500 other retailers are participating in a program called THE CARE CARD to help raise much-needed funds. THE CARE CARD program is simple!
Here’s how it works:
Individuals purchase a CARE CARD for $50.
Local participating CARE CARD retailers (here’s a list) offer a generous 20% discount on regularly priced merchandise to cardholders from Friday, Oct. 16, through Sunday, Oct 25, 2009
100% of the CARE CARD sales price goes directly to the Ryan House programs.
You can come into the store and tell any of our employees that you’d like to participate. They will happily sell you a card and you will be helping this most necessary and worthwhile project to get off the ground.
When people die, I am reminded of how precious my life is and how much I appreciate waking up each day — seeing the sun coming in my windows, feeling the air on my skin, seeing my cat, Oliver, stretching and readying himself for the sprint into the kitchen for the forthcoming kibble I will pour into his dish. The water boils for coffee; I slice into one of the last peaches of the season and taste its juice on my tongue; I think about getting into my gym clothes and driving to the Y; I remember a fragment of a dream from the night just passed; I smile.
~Gayle~
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September 2009
Dear Bookstore Friends,
Fortunately, I managed to spend most of August out of the Valley, this year. The older I get, the more the heat bothers me and being an Arizona native doesn’t alleviate my intense aversion to continuous unremitting 100+ degree days. Not that I wasn’t involved in Changing Hands long distance–just wasn’t physically in the store for most of the month. The first two weeks found me on my annual beach read-a-thon vacation in Carlsbad, California, and the last two weeks I was on the opposite side of the country. In Boston, I was buying remainders and giving a seminar at the Great American Bargain Book Show about how to keep your bookstore afloat in a recession. Also, got in a few days of mountain hiking north of Franconia Notch, NH. Two coasts, two different experiences, both wonderful.
For many years now, this September letter has been a report on the books that my fellow family members and I have consumed–along with great food–at the beach. This year’s vacationers included my sister Judy, brother-in-law Jamie, niece Mira, son Michael, grandson Sam, and husband Bobby. We collectively read 25 books. Here are the ratings:
**** This is Where I Leave You by Jonathan Tropper (Five of us read this book this summer. It’s about a Jewish family gathering to sit shiva at the death of the patriarch of the clan and is hilarious, moving and great writing.)
Judy read the following:
Two Maisie Dobbs mysteries:
**** Incomplete Revenge by Jacqueline Winspear
**** Among the Mad also by Jacqueline Winspear
***** Middlemarch by George Elliot (she & Jamie listened to this on CD as they drove from Oakland)
* Day After Night by Anita Diamant
*** Valeria’s Last Stand by Marc Fitten
*** Sonata for Miriam by Linda Olsson
*** By a Spider’s Thread by Laura Lippman
Jamie read:
*** Nothing Was the Same (due mid-Sept) by Kay Redfield Jamison
*** Sonata for Miriam by Linda Olsson
** Family Man by Elinor Lipman
***** South of Broad by Pat Conroy (Jamie says stop at page 200, it’s great up to that point then loses steam!)
Mira was only with us for three days and she read:
**** Love Medicine by Louise Erdrich
Michael also stayed the weekend and he read the new Tracy Kidder book:
***** The Strength in What Remains: A Journey of Remembrance and Forgiveness
Sam was reading The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain and loving it.
Bobby read:
***** South of Broad by Pat Conroy & gave it five stars
with no reservations except to say there was a part in the middle that could have been edited out.
**** The Anthologist by Nicholson Baker
*** Her Fearful Symmetry (available end of Sept.) by Audrey Niffenegger
***** The Children’s Book (due 10/09) by A.S. Byatt
** Careless in Red by Elizabeth George–our audio book going and coming. Great reader on the discs but the story was not one of her best.
Gayle read:
* Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffenegger
* The Georges & the Jewels by Jane Smiley — a young reader book that unfortunately might not cut the mustard with horse-loving, discriminating young readers.
*** A Happy Marriage Rafael Yglessias
**** Love & Summer by William Trevor
***** Book of Clouds by Chloe Aridjis
There is nothing like having time to read, talk about books, and recall favorites from past summers. And to catch up on the lives of our family members and friends. We mourned the death of our friend Jeanne’s father, a sweet, gentle, man who loved the bookstore and so enjoyed sharing books with his neighbors. One night we got a call from our niece, Talia, who’s in her third year of medical school and had ’scubbed in’ for the first time to assist with a birth. Life is so unpredictable, so magical, so sad at times and full of hope at others.
Come in and visit us this month–it has to get cooler soon–and tell us where you’ve been this summer and what you’ve read.
~Gayle~
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August 2009
Dear Bookstore Friends,
We’re about to leave for our annual ocean retreat in Carlsbad, California and so far all I’ve packed are two boxes of books! I have been saving galleys of this fall’s forthcoming books including novels by A.S. Byatt, Pat Conroy, Jane Smiley, Lorrie Moore, and William Trevor. I can’t wait to open my beach umbrella, sit in my folding chair, grab a fresh purple plum and start reading as the waves sing to me in the background. It’s pure heaven.
I had one of those lovely synchronistic book moments a few days ago. I had just started Audrey Niffenegger’s new novel, Her Fearful Symmetry, which releases in October, and I was thinking about her debut novel, 
The Time Traveler’s Wife and how much I loved it on first reading it a few years ago. It will soon be a major motion picture and I was wondering how they would do the time travel sequences. That thought led me into to thinking about a book I loved as a child, 
A Wrinkle in Time by Madeline L’Engle, and I wondered if it had ever been made into a movie. A quick internet search revealed the answer and yes, in 2004 they did release a movie version which I promptly added to my Netflix requests. I couldn’t remember the whole of L’Engle’s story but I did remember a brother and sister searching for a missing father, and something about returning home before they actually left!
I decided I was going to re-read A Wrinkle in Time and found a used copy the next day at the store. But here’s the curious part: on my desk was a copy of a book called, When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead with a note inside from Cindy, our GM at the store. She said, “Several of 
us have read this book and love it and I wondered it you’d try it and if you like it, mention it in your blog.” It’s a book for middle readers, perhaps the fourth to seventh graders that you know, and not something that I would be likely to pick up. But, having decided to re-read L’Engle’s book, I thought, well why not try this book, too. It takes place in a New York City neighborhood with the requisite cast of big city characters including boys who have nothing better to do than scare, and occasionally punch, younger kids walking home from school; a crazy man on the corner shouting and lunging at passersby; single mothers worrying about their latchkey children and all the other inhabitants you might find on any given street of this diverse metropolis. But here’s the strange part — Miranda, the novel’s protagonist loves A Wrinkle in Time, refers to the characters on several occasions and it turns out, this book has an element of time travel in it!
After I got over the shock of this serendipitous coincidence, I found When You Reach Me to be a wonderful book, filled with believable characters who are trying to grow up with all the trials of middle school years — friends who are best buddies one day and enemies the next, teachers who make life unbearable, kids with money and those without, and the pain of broken and blended families. Add to this the strange notion that one of the characters is young and old at the same time and that mysterious coincidences seem to be occurring with some frequency and you have a story that will entrance and delight. I would love to meet Rebecca Stead sometime and tell her how much I enjoyed her novel.
I hope you come and visit us this month and tell us of your reading adventures, your vacation or stay-cation plans, and if you’re too hot, come stand next to our giant snowman and cool off.
~Gayle~
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July 2009
Dear Bookstore Friends,
I am writing to you from the front porch of an old Colonial home in Havertown, Pennsylvania. June was a month of travel adventures — Minneapolis / St.Paul, Maine and then Pennsylvania starting from Pittsburgh and ending up in Philadelphia. The common denominators have been the color green and an abundance of flowing water — lakes, streams, ponds and rivers. I am trying to store up the cool, moist air in the cells of my body so that returning to Arizona won’t be quite so painful, but I know that just walking off the plane into the jet way will siphon the coolness right out of my body although not from my memory.
On the trip to Minnesota with our gift buyer, Autumn, several days were spent at an independent toy manufacturers’ convention looking at new toys and games for children of all ages. We had fun learning to play some new card games, found a 3-D version of Tic Tac Toe, some great back-to-school backpacks and lunch boxes plus some great new toys that are perfect for children who are bored this summer or whenever a 
unique present for a birthday party is needed.
We also went on a bus tour of indie retailers including Garrison Keillor’s wonderful bookstore, Common Good Books. Then we visited the most delightful children’s bookshop in the world, Wild Rumpus. 
In addition to a fabulous collection of books and a staff that exudes enthusiasm, the store is also home to three cats, two ferrets, two chinchillas, three cockatiels, several rats and a chicken named Pimento who wanders the floor greeting the browsers. I didn’t want to leave but was lured out with the promise of a visit to another great bookstore, Louise Erdrich’s lovely Birch Bark Books on the other side of town. This store is the opposite of Wild Rumpus — calm with beautiful wooden fixtures, lovely Native American artifacts and an amazing selection of books.
After a few weeks at home we hopped a Southwest flight to New Hampshire and drove up to Surry, Maine with a stop in Exeter to visit Water Street Booktore. This store’s claim to fame, in addition to it’s perfectly chosen book selection, is the view out the back windows — egrets and cranes landing on the Swamscott, a tidal river that flows into 
Great Bay and then into the Atlantic Ocean. If I worked in that store, I would never shelve a book — I’d just be looking out the windows.
We drove to Maine through beautiful countryside and arrived at a cottage by a lake that our friends had invited us to share with them. On our first evening we were visited by a young bald eagle resting in a tree overlooking the Patten Bay. We hiked in Acadia National Park, listening to bullfrogs as we walked, hearing birdsong from the high treetops, feeling the light rain on our skin, and breathing the clean fresh air. We treated 
ourselves to popovers and tea in the lodge on Jordan Pond and talked about the philosophy of science with our friends. Later that evening we drove into Ellsworth and watched a satellite broadcast of Phèdre, performed at the National Theatre in London that starred Helen Mirren. This was part of an exciting new initiative to project live performances of plays onto cinema screens worldwide and I think it worked. We loved the production, which almost felt like you were in a theatre by the Thames.
From Maine we flew to Pittsburgh and were met there by our daughter, Lisa and grandson, Sam. This is part of a mission to visit colleges that Sam might want to attend when he graduates from Marcos de Niza in 2011. We are focusing on schools listed in Colleges That Change Lives: 40 Schools That Will Change the Way You Think about College by Loren Pope. There are ten schools on our list and after looking at half of them, I’m ready to register myself at any one of them — oh to be a student again on a beautiful, lush, exciting campus.
Driving from Pittsburgh to Philadelphia on back roads, we listened to a selection of Michael Jackson songs with commentary by Lisa and Sam, read Grapes of Wrath aloud, and stopped at farm stands to purchase watermelon, tomatoes, beets and sweet corn. We also bought a quart of black raspberries from a shy, sweet Amish girl selling them by the side of the road. Her horse waited patiently nearby, attached to a covered buggy.
On this day before Independence Day, the country’s birthday, I can hear fireworks exploding down the block and feel privileged to celebrate July 4th in this historic American city. We have plans to eat watermelon and corn on the cob, watch a parade and take a break from Sam’s college quest. I hope you are having a relaxing and adventurous summer, too, and will come into Changing Hands and tell us what you’ve been up to, what you are reading and how you spent the 4th of July.
~Gayle~
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June 2009
Dear Bookstore Friends,
This newsletter is late in getting to you because I spent the last week of May in New York City at BookExpo America, the annual industry trade show, and have spent every minute this week catching up with things at the bookstore. This year’s event was bittersweet for me as my six-year tenure on the American Booksellers Association board came to an end. For the last twelve months I’ve served as president of this hardworking board at a time when independent booksellers along with the publishing houses and the rest of the nation are trying their best to survive in the economic downturn. We are a scrappy lot and will persevere but it was noticeably quieter than past years on the convention floor, the exhibitor’s booths were smaller and there were fewer publisher-sponsored dinners. A major highlight was the wonderful goodbye party my friends arranged, where they feted me with presents and the sweetest adulation that I could ever imagine in a 25th-floor room with a view of the entire Manhattan skyline.
For me, the joy of the annual trade show is keeping in touch with my bookseller friends and connecting with authors. This year I was privileged to spend time with Sherman Alexie, Jon Meacham, and Ruth Reichl. I heard Tracy Kidder, Richard Russo, Gail Collins, Tomie de Paola, Amy Krause Rosenthal, Julie Andrews, and Pete Dexter speak at lunches and breakfasts. They reminded me how much I love their writing and how lucky I am to be in this business of bringing words, ideas, and books to our community. The dinner I had with Ruth Reichl, whose latest Gourmet Cookbook is coming out this fall, was one of those amazing, remember-for-a-lifetime dinners with unbelievably delicious food and conversation to match. I sat at a table with book reviewers from USA Today, People Magazine, Cosmopolitan, CBS Sunday Morning, and the marketing director for Houghton-Harcourt Publishing Group. Ruth visited our table and we enjoyed talking about her early days as a food critic and her own curious cooking habits at home.
I also got to spend time with bookseller friends from all over the country some of whom shared a tour with me on foot across the Brooklyn Bridge with our guide, novelist, Kevin Baker — a true walking encyclopedia of NYC facts and trivia. We stopped for a glass of wine on the Manhattan side of the bridge before hopping on the subway and returning to Brooklyn, happy and knowing lots more about bridges and cables and rats and ‘the bends’ than we ever expected to learn.
During my week in the big city, I saw a wonderful Broadway play called Next to Normal, had many delicious dinners with friends and came back very excited about the list of books that will be in our store this fall. I can’t wait to read them and tell you all about them as the months go by. I hope you all find plenty of time for reading this summer and if you need suggestions, please come in and talk to any of our excellent staff. We have a wonderful display of their current favorites near the front of the store with pictures of them caught in the act of reading. And don’t miss our “We Love This Book” table as you walk in — all the titles in that program are 25% off to entice you to share our enthusiasm for these great reads. Stay cool, come visit and let us know what you’re reading.
~Gayle~
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May 2009
Dear Bookstore Friends,
Our yard has been filled with birds this spring — yellow finches, sparrows, and small green parrots whose arrival coincided with the sunflowers coming into bloom. The parrots hide among the greenery, blending in perfectly and I only know they’re nearby because of their distinctive song. The hummingbird that nested on our back patio last year has returned to her nest and we’re anxiously awaiting the birth of her babies. I found out that hummingbirds sit on their eggs for at least 16 days and I’m guessing that she’s close to that time. We’ve stopped using our kitchen door so that we don’t disturb her but the nest is perfectly situated so that we can watch her while eating breakfast each morning. She flies off, sips from the honeysuckle, flits among the grapevines, and attacks any bird that comes near her nest. If I don’t see her there, I start worrying.
I know that summer is fast approaching and it will soon be too hot to be outside, but I must confess that the birds, the flowers and the work in my garden have limited my time to read books this past month. But the ones that I did get to were great — Ron Carlson’s new novel, The Signal, Colm Tóibín’s Brooklyn, 
I miss seeing Ron Carlson who used to be at ASU and is now living & teaching in Irvine, CA. On his visits to the bookstore, he and I used to exchange tips on new writers and share books that we both enjoyed. I really love this new novel of his that will be released in early June. It captures Ron’s love of the West, the great beauty of the natural world, the way people’s lives intertwine and disconnect. This book is also a thriller, keeping you turning the pages and staying up late to find out what happens. Carlson, who is a recognized master of the short story, has given us a gem of a novel .
And speaking of masters, Irish writer, Colm Tóibín who wrote, The Master (modeled on a young Henry James) some years ago has now written a book about Brooklyn in the 1950s. A young Irish woman is pushed by her economically depressed family to seek work in America. Along with her new found independence she finds love with all its contradictions and complications. It’s a slow awakening, an acceptance of new ways of perceiving the world, the people in it, the discovery that life does not necessarily have to be bleak and predictable.
On a different scale but just as well-written, comes Chris McDougall’s story of the masters of running, not just 26-mile marathoners, but fanatical runners who cram carbs and water into their bodies so they can run hundreds — yes, hundreds of miles without stopping and many of these miles are up mountains, across deserts in 120 degree temperatures, through rivers, and uncharted terrain. And, they think it’s fun. These runners come from nearly every continent and some of them run barefoot, some tie pieces of rubber to their feet and some wear Nikes and get endorsement money from Patagonia or NorthFace. Chris thinks this is fun, too — 
he runs with them, learning to pace himself, to keep injuries at bay by emulating the style of athletes in Mexico — running erect not leaning forward and taking tiny steps, not the long strides we see in the Olympics. I couldn’t put the book down — I wanted to know who won the race of all races in The Copper Basin in Central Mexico. Will it be the Tarahumara runners who seem to exist on air, the twenty year olds who think they can run without bringing water bottles along, or the man they call The Wolf, who runs and runs and runs? McDougall is coming to Changing Hands to talk about this brilliant book on Saturday, May 9 at 5 p.m. If you’re a lover of fine non-fiction writing, even if you hate running — don’t miss this event. Many of us at the store have read Born to Run and can’t stop talking about it. Invite your friends who run, invite your friends who enjoy being outdoors, invite everyone you know.
Have a nice May — enjoy your gardens, feed the birds, and come tell us what great books you’re reading.
~Gayle~
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April 2009
Dear Bookstore Friends,
I have vases of tulips and daffodils inside my house and roses blooming on the newly planted bushes outside. The bougainvillea are so heavy with flowers that they look like a red carpet hanging across the front of our house. The acacia tree is covered with little yellow balls and the fairy duster is a haven for the bees that have returned after a few years absence. Ah, Spring.
If only the economy could be as bountiful. I was reminded this week, twice, of exactly how scary the loss of a job can be to my fellow humans. We hired a man who walked up our sidewalk asking if we had any work for a good handyman. Seems he had lots of jobs when people had money but it had all dried up and he was in danger of losing his house and about to have his water turned off. He has four children and a grandchild living with him, was a security guard for several years at a local high school but had to stop when a student pulled a gun on him because he wouldn’t let him park in the employee only lot. This was the fourth time his life was threatened and he decided that he had to do something else.
He is replacing some broken saltillo tiles on the front porch and back patio that have long needed repair but never seemed to rise up to the ‘do it now’ level in our lives. He’s doing a great job — a backbreaking job — and I’m trying to think about other projects for him to do. He has installed a new light fixture in our front yard and I think I’ll have him paint the cabinets in the guest bathroom. He says he can plumb, build, paint, install, garden, you name it, he’ll do it.
On another front — healthcare this time — I found myself crying when Faith, a former staff member (our ex-children’s book buyer), told me that she had found a lump in her breast but didn’t tell anyone or seek medical attention because her current job didn’t have health benefits and she is without insurance. By the time she finally was persuaded by friends to see a doctor the undetected cancer was in Stage 3. She is currently undergoing chemo and will have surgery next month followed by radiation. She managed to find financial help through the American Cancer Society via a program called Well Woman Health Check. Here is their website.
I asked Faith if I could mention her ordeal in my letter to you and this was her response: “I want every women to know about this program. No women should have to spend months and months freaking out about a lump because of a lack of insurance.” Faith has a great sense of humor and many friends including several famous authors of young-adult fiction who are throwing a fundraising party for her. On April 4, the same day as our 35th Anniversary Party, there will be a benefit at Marcos de Niza High School. Come visit the store and then travel down the street and give Faith a hug and your wishes for a speedy recovery. Additional details of the fundraiser will be forthcoming via this newsletter.
It’s impossible to believe that CHB is 35 years old on April 1. I feel like the Fool’s joke is on me — 35 years of my life have rolled by in amazing, joyful, difficult, intense, hilarious, most incredible ways. And I barely noticed the passing. I have been so lucky to have colleagues who are my best friends; customers who love the store, the books, the wonderful gifts and the staff; and a community of people who love the written word and allow us to earn a living by bringing books, authors and readers together. From all of us at CHB, we thank you for your support and for being a part of our lives these many wonderful years.
~Gayle~
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March 2009
Dear Bookstore Friends,
My friends from all over the country can’t believe that our temperatures have been running in the 80’s in Arizona in February and March. These are the same friends I’ve had for decades and every year it’s the same incredulity. I always tell them that they should remember that even though it may be nice here and freezing cold where they are, they can remind me of this when I complain that it’s 115 in July. I want them to feel sorry for me in July—sorry I can’t work outside, sorry I can’t touch the handle of the car door, sorry that we can’t sell candles and chocolate at the store because they melt on the delivery trucks. Unfortunately, pleasant weather in one place doesn’t make it easier to deal with nasty weather in another. But the thing about the weather is that it always changes eventually and you know that winter will turn into spring and summer into fall, so we persevere and are rewarded.
At the bookstore we’re trying to persevere through the bad economic times as well. I thought I’d write to you about Inventory Management in bad economic times—doesn’t that sound exciting? You may notice that there aren’t quite as many new books at Changing Hands as you are used to seeing. As many of you know, inventory management is a critical part of managing cash flow. To keep CHB healthy, we are managing the inventory even more closely than usual. In a practical sense, this might mean fewer copies of a title on the shelf. It will be precisely because we don’t have big stacks of $27.95 hardcovers that CHB will weather this season. You can be assured that you will always find wonderful books to read and treasure, but those books might be used books or sale books with reduced cover prices. We are strategically searching for better and better sale books and are expanding our used book trade in program.
We also continue to offer our special order service, at no extra charge, and are able to get most books in within a week. We will order all the new titles that we usually would, but likely fewer copies initially, with more frequent reorders. Our excellent staff members are still reading, and enthusiastically recommending many of the new books being released. We just wanted you to know that we are being proactive in making sure we can pay our bills, have the right selection of books on our shelves and provide you with every book you want to read. Your loyal support not only keeps CHB alive but also keeps your money circulating in our community. In these scary economic times, most of us have less money to spend and where we spend it becomes more important. In a way, you are voting with your dollars for those places you want to see survive. Choosing a locally owned business over a chain is a vote for a better community and we thank you so much for choosing our locally owned bookstore.
I hope Bookstore Economics 101 wasn’t too hard to read about and that it will help you understand how our store is coping with the downturn. Our staff members are working hard–there are fewer of them but it’s the best staff we’ve ever had–to make your experiences fun and find the books for you that you want to read. Our children’s events are exciting and I think we are truly building a community of young readers who find books as exciting as computer games. The Super Hero Day we had last Saturday brought a hundred kids into the store wearing their costumes and proclaiming Books are Fun. POW! It was a delight to see them so enthusiastic and happy. On days like that, I say, “Great! We’ll be fine. Life is good.”
~ Gayle ~
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February 2009
Dear Bookstore Friends,
You may be wondering why almost half the month has gone by and you are just now receiving your February BookStories. If your email box is as full as mine, you might have even been relieved on some level to have one less thing calling to you. That said, the lateness of this letter was partly due to an eight day trip to Salt Lake City at the end of January that carried over to February, partly because I arrived home to a packed schedule of appointments with sales reps and the responsibilities associated with my role as president of the booksellers association. I was exhausted.
After it rained so hard a few days ago it was easy to pull out the weeds that seemed to have grown overnight. This was just the therapy I needed — mindless, and restful. There is nothing so satisfying as pulling up mustard, dandelion and clover leaving the little wildflower sprouts to grow in a less crowded space. I still wonder why I think that daisies and poppies and baby snapdragons are superior to the tiny yellow mustard flowers and the puffballs of the dandelions, but it’s just my acculturation — weeds are bad, flowers are good. I’m also acculturated to believing that support for our public schools and teachers should be one of our highest priorities as responsible citizens. The majority of our state legislators and our new governor do not seem to share that belief.
“The ’solution’ that is being proposed by our leaders would result in fewer school days, bigger classes, lower salaries and thousands of lost jobs,” said Gary Nine, superintendent of the Florence Unified School District. “Imagine what [this will] do to our kids.”
Do they really believe that our students don’t need good teachers who are well paid? That our classrooms don’t need proper equipment and materials?
Changing Hands has always supported teachers but we feel like whatever we’re doing, it’s no longer enough. We’ve decided that instead of giving teachers a discount only on toys and books for their classrooms, that we are going to allow them that discount on anything they buy in our store. We know they are spending their own pocket money for materials for their students because otherwise their students wouldn’t have crayons, glue, art supplies, and most importantly, books. I spoke with a teacher recently who told me that they no longer have a librarian at her school — he was laid off as a cost cutting measure–and that the teachers are expected to act as the librarian to their students. The problem is that even though there is already money allocated, they are not getting new books into the library any longer because there is no one to choose the books. So, the new Caldecott and Newbery titles won’t be in that school this year and maybe not in other schools either.
We’re racking our brains to figure out what other things might help our schools and we’ve decided to expand our book donations to schools, our Books for Schools program, which usually runs only during the holiday months. We are going to allow our customers to earmark ten percent of their receipts to the school of their choice in lieu of getting stamps on their Reader’s Club cards, and we’re going to match that amount. ASU is also losing funding for teachers and programs. We’re working with them on joint projects, the first of which will be in April, when the English department will hold a fundraiser in the store — an evening of music, fine food, a speaker, all to benefit the undergraduate students.
It’s a strange time in our country’s history. We have a new energetic president with great ideas but he inherited a mess of weeds along with the White House. He and his team must sort the good from the bad. Our letters to our congressional leaders and our newspapers, our commitment to our local communities, our refusal to let our children get an inferior education, our standing up for the rights of homeowners and the poor and sick will help turn this country around and grow our economy again. Maybe, as the “weeds” left over from the failed programs of the last few years are pulled out by their roots, creative new policies will enable citizens to flourish, to live in their homes, buy fuel-efficient cars, support their children’s education, green their workplaces, and of course have enough discretionary funds to buy books.
~Gayle~
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January 2009
Dear Bookstore Friends,
It’s a new year and personally, I’m ready for new beginnings and a fresh start. With a smart new president in the lead, I’m hopeful that together we can forge new ways of thinking about our planet and its resources, about improving our schools and helping those in dire need of jobs, healthcare and housing. And, I want us to figure out creative new ways to support our local community so that it survives and thrives. Before 2008 ended I wrote a letter to President-elect Barack Obama and his transition team urging them to ensure that the survival and long-range health of independent, locally owned businesses are a prominent part of their economic stimulus package.
Speaking of new beginnings, we can all be proud that the Valley is starting to turn a deeper shade of ‘green’ with the opening of our wonderful new light rail system. On Saturday, we woke up and decided to climb ‘A’ Mountain. Rather than drive our car, we hopped on the blue Orbit bus that runs down College Avenue and rode to the beautiful new transit center that just opened in downtown Tempe. We climbed the mountain and when we got back to the transit center the light rail was just arriving, so we jumped on it heading into Phoenix to go to the Farmer’s Market on 1st and McKinley. The train was packed — standing room only — with people going to the Fiesta Bowl parade on Central Avenue. An older man standing next to us said he had not been in favor of “them” (I think he meant the government) “building this light-rail system with his tax dollars,” but confessed that he was loving it now. “I couldn’t begin to drive my car to Phoenix for the 60 cents it’s costing me to ride on the train.”
Hungry after our hike up ‘A’ Mountain, we got off at Central and Van Buren and walked to Palatte at the Cavness House on 4th Ave and Filmore for brunch. It was packed, but waiting for a table in the warm sunshine while listening to the acoustic guitarist was pure pleasure. We read the New Times and drank coffee until the arrival of delicious huevos rancheros when we got our table. We walked to the Farmer’s Market and bought organic kale, dill, arugula and heirloom tomatoes and a small celery plant to add to in my garden. Not ready to go home yet, we strolled northeast to Roosevelt and visited our GM, Cindy Dach, at her ‘other job’ — her boutique called MADE. It is filled with handmade pottery, cards, jewelry and scarves and tons of other wonderful gifts — I rarely go there without finding something that goes home with me. We also visited another shop nearby, The Bead Shop, newly opened in a cute historic house, where I found some exquisite green beads that I just couldn’t resist. We said hello to Cindy’s husband Greg who was cleaning up from last night’s First Friday revelers and then stopped for a muffin at the Fair Trade Cafe before getting on the train back to Tempe. Again, the train was full — this time with many of the people who had been to the parade earlier in the day. Two little girls entertained us with their clapping/singing games that reminded me of the games I played as a child. We boarded the Orbit to take us home and at one of the stops, an old friend got on and we visited until we jumped off and walked home. It was a lovely day and we didn’t have to drive our car and we bought veggies from a local farmer and supported three local businesses and enjoyed every minute.
I hope you find hope and peace in 2009. I hope you try out the new light rail. I hope you can find ways of greening up your lives, keeping your jobs, and supporting our local community by buying locally whenever possible. Come visit us and tell us what you have planned for this new year and what you are reading and thinking.
~Gayle~
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