The struggle of local independent bookstores — barometers of our times
I met Alex Beckstead earlier this year in Los Angeles. We spent an evening together talking about his documentary about two great independent bookstores–Kepler’s in Palo Alto and the now defunct, Cody’s, the legendary bookstore started on Telegraph Avenue in Berkeley, California. His film is a moving tribute to the power of the written word encapsulated in books sold to the public in independent bookstores, large and small. Through careful editing, brilliant interviews, and emotional testimonials from readers, Alex tells the story of just how vulnerable are our local bookstores. This article appeared in Shelf Awareness, a daily online newsletter for the book trade. I thought you’d enjoy reading it. We sell Paperback Dreams at the store if you’re interested in seeing it and plan to have it featured at one of our Community Movie Nights in the near future.
Robert Gray: In Paperback Dreams Begin Responsibilities
We made Paperback Dreams because we believe in what booksellers do. . . . I think it’s important for booksellers to keep telling their stories. –Alex Beckstead, producer and director.
On the Paperback Dreams website, the PBS documentary is described as “the story of two landmark independent bookstores and their struggle to survive. The film follows Andy Ross, owner of Cody’s Books, and Clark Kepler, owner of Kepler’s Books, over the course of two tumultuous years in the book business.”
Of course, there is much more to the tale. If you haven’t seen this work yet, please take a moment right now to watch the trailer, which gives you just a taste of how deftly the film blends the contemporary with the historical, and people with place.
I saw Paperback Dreams last month, on the final day of the Mountains and Plains Independent Booksellers Association trade show and annual meeting in Colorado Springs, Colo. My first reaction was that it was extraordinary–informative, compelling and cautionary. It’s also bittersweet, gut-wrenching and wry. As complex and emotion-driven as running a great bookstore.
In the weeks since then, I’ve come to realize that it is also a deeply haunting film in the best sense. I think about it often, unexpectedly. It has inspired me to see the book world in a slightly altered light and made me more aware than ever of both the value and vulnerability of my chosen profession.
Such thoughts lead quite naturally to curiosity and questions, so I posed a few to the most logical person–Paperback Dreams‘ producer and director, Alex Beckstead.
Whom did you envision as the target audience for this film?
I wanted this to be a film for people who love bookstores. That includes booksellers, publishers and readers. One of the things I learned from talking to people involved in the Kepler’s story in early 2005 was the importance of awareness. People love independent stores so much, but they start to be seen as part of the permanent landscape. But that’s simply not the case. I think there’s a general sense among the book-loving public that times are hard for the independents, but I think they fail to realize just how big a struggle it is, and the level of passion and dedication that go into selling books. I have been thrilled with the response from booksellers and publishers, who have been very positive, and whom I hope will be able to use the film as a tool to call attention to both the fragility but also the importance of what they do.
What are you hoping for in terms of audience reaction?
I want people to think more about where they buy their books and realize that those transactions are connected to the shape of their community and quality of life. You actually do get something for the few dollars more that you spend on a book in an independent–you get a bookstore where people who live in your community work and are passionate about what they do. You help them survive to sell another day. When a bookstore is thriving, it can be an integral part of the intellectual life of a community. The chains and the big Internet resellers, which have good qualities, can’t be part of your community like an independent can.
What has the reaction been like thus far?
So far the reactions have been universally positive. Although when we screened at Kepler’s, one woman protested, because the film made her feel that she had to be part of “the counterculture” to be connected to her local bookstore. I told her that if you still read books, like it or not, you are part of a counterculture, one that you should be proud of. She didn’t buy that. But I do . . .
Paperback Dreams is currently airing on PBS stations and at bookstore screenings across the country. “We can send promotional materials to stores that would like to help get the word out about the broadcast,” Beckstead adds, “and are happy to set up screenings with any store that would like to do one.”
A DVD is also now available, with more than an hour of bonus features, including extended author readings and interviews with publishers and writers that had to be cut from the film due to time. Although it can be purchased on the website, wholesale pricing is also offered to bookstores interested in selling it (contact info@paperbackdreams.com).
I don’t do movie reviews in this column, of course, but for what it’s worth, I give Paperback Dreams two thumbs up, five stars, and four Videohound Golden Movie Retriever bones. Just watch it. –Robert Gray (column archives available at Fresh Eyes Now)
- – - – - – - -
Posted July 5, 2008 by Gayle
Allison Reed and John Evans own two wonderful independent bookstores in California, one in Oakland, one in Malibu and I just heard that they are negotiating to open a third store in Los Angeles in the early fall. I thought you might enjoy reading John’s newsletter article regarding celebrating our independence by being independent.
DIESEL: An Independence Day Message
From the DIESEL: A Bookstore newsletter, signed by “John [Evans] & all Dieselfolk”:
“With Independence Day celebrations beginning it seems as good a time as any to celebrate our independents. With the closing of several prominent, internationally-recognized bookstores in the last couple of months — Dutton’s in Brentwood, Cody’s Books and the Graduate Theological Bookstore in Berkeley — it seems important to take stock of where independent bookselling stands, what it stands for, and what stands against it. Simply put, many stores like ours are doing well, supported by dedicated, intelligent communities of readers who understand the pleasures, virtues, and vital services neighborhood bookstores offer. The closures of these stores should not be misread as some fateful indication of the inevitable decline of independent businesses. However, they do reveal the risks threatening independent businesses these days: escalating overhead costs including rent; reader choices gravitating toward media-encouraged internet purchasing; publisher accommodation to the pressures from increasingly consolidated clients (Amazon, Costco, Walmart, chains) leveraging their power to secure preferential terms. All of these forces work against the greater health of the culture and combine to threaten neighborhood bookstores. Most of them can be alleviated through very simple acts: do not heed the media’s predictions and recommendations for ‘consumer’ behavior; do not increase, through your purchases, the centralized power of large internet and chain companies which distort the markets of cultural goods; and support your local stores. (For more on independent bookstores, check out IndieBound.) Please excuse the rant, but it just has to be said. We hope you enjoy our recommendations and have a summer full of wonderful books.”
——–
A Walk Through Vroman’s
Posted June 7, 2008 by Gayle
Changing Hands handed off the Bookseller of the Year tiara to Vroman’s Bookstore in Pasadena, California during Book Expo America held in Los Angeles the first week of June. This is one of my favorite bookstores in the country and if you read the article about them that appeared in Publishers Weekly you will understand part of why I love it. Alison Hill who is their GM is one of the smartest booksellers in the country and she has the passion and compassion for our business that makes us all proud to be her friend and colleague. A walk through Vroman’s is a walk through book heaven.
Vroman’s Bookstore: PW’s Bookseller of the Year
by Edward Nawotka — Publishers Weekly, 4/28/2008
It’s 9:30 a.m. on a Monday morning in April, and Olive Kemp is shopping at Vroman’s Bookstore—PW’s Bookseller of the Year—just as she has done nearly every day since she was a little girl. “She’s such a regular that on her 90th birthday, we bought her a cake,” says Vroman’s COO and president, Allison Hill, during a tour of the store.
At 90, Kemp is just 24 years younger than Vroman’s, which was founded on November 14, 1894, by Adam Clark Vroman, five blocks from its current location on Colorado Boulevard in Pasadena, Calif. Today, Vroman’s consists of three operations, all in Pasadena: the main store, a second satellite store, as well as Vroman’s Fine Writing, Gifts and Stationery, which is separated from the main store by an independent movie theater.
It turns out that having multiple generations shop at Vroman’s is a regular occurrence: “Just last Saturday we had a woman come to have us print her wedding invitations and told us her mother and grandmother had ordered them from us,” says Dolores Bauer, manager of Vroman’s Fine Writing, Gifts, and Stationery.
During the Monday morning staff meeting, promotional director Jennifer Ramos begins running through the number of people that attended events the previous week, including 400 for Isabelle Allende and 160 for L.A. crime writer Joseph Wambaugh.
“Los Angeles is often discounted as ‘movieland,’ ” says Ramos, “but after working both here and at Book Soup [in West Hollywood], I can tell you that we have an amazing book culture here and wonderful local writers.” (Sometimes the twain shall meet: Vroman’s was the bookstore featured in the movie The 40-Year-Old Virgin.)
A reading with the local-born author Jeff Gordinier, author of X Saves the World, brought in 85 people, 35 of whom heard about the reading on MeetUp.com. “We’ll have to find out how to hook into that [MeetUp] more,” says Hill, instructing a member of the staff to look into it. The store already has a significant Web presence, including a traditional online store, a blog, and sites on Facebook.com and MySpace.com—where Vroman’s is identified as a 101-year-old male (the maximum allowed).
Hill came to Vroman’s four years ago after stints at Simon & Schuster, the Boston location of Waterstone’s, and Book Soup. Her role is to oversee the general operation of the store and provide big picture, blue sky administration, according to majority shareholder Joel Sheldon.
“I think the management team we have in place now is positioned to make us more profitable than ever,” says Sheldon—a third-generation owner who served as Vroman’s president from 1978 until last July, when Hill took over.
“I’ve seen a lot of changes since I started working in the store as a child,” he said. “There have been three cycles of how people shop—including mail order and the Internet—and three different cycles of media—from newspapers to television to the Internet. I tell people you have to embrace change, or else it will run you over.”
Profit and change are words you hear repeated over and over again at Vroman’s. Hill reports that the company had $13.5 million in sales and achieved a 3.74% profit in 2007.
Changes have been made throughout the store to try and maximize profit. Just over 18 months ago, management implemented “license plate receiving”—a program in which wholesalers Ingram, Baker & Taylor and Partners/West indicate the contents of shipments via a bar code on the side of box.
“It expedites the process of getting books to the sales floor,” says Hill, “which is a big help, especially during the Christmas rush.”
Some changes directly affect the bottom line, such as the $50,000 in co-op the store received last year for magazine and greeting card displays. (Hill plans to add even more magazine display space to the store’s sidewalk “newsstand” to take further advantage of such opportunities.)
Other changes are apparent to the naked eye, such as removal of much of the fixed shelving in favor of of the more versatile slatwall displays. “I’m obsessed with slatwall,” admits Hill, who mentions it at least a dozen times during the tour. “It’s more flexible and makes for better displays, and is much better than having a bunch of titles on a shelf spine out.” One consequence of the change is that with fewer titles Vroman’s was able to drop its investment in inventory from $2.2 million to $2.1 million in 2007.
“It was risky in terms of the loss of linear feet of shelving,” says Hill, “but was a strategic move away from traditional bookselling assumptions.”
Hill’s emphasis on displays resulted in the appointment of Anne Edkins as the store’s “visual merchandiser,” empowered to use every available surface—from end caps to bathroom walls—to promote the sale of books.
Unlike many stores, Vroman’s has three different entrances and each takes on a different character. One of two front doors is focused on literature and enters into the fiction section; the other door—closest to the next-door independent movie theater—is the “hip” entrance and opens onto a display called “The Edge,” which features a mix of graphic novels and self-identified hip books. The rear, main entrance, closest to parking, offers a display of family-friendly titles and is focused on female customers.
As indicated by surveys, about 75% of Vroman’s customers are women, evidenced by the vast number of handbags and totes on display throughout the store—from reproduction PanAm flight bags to computer sleeves and purses.
Some 30% of the store’s annual sales comes from nonbook items. Vroman’s has produced its own line of Pasadena Pride souvenirs, including mugs and T-shirts, and is considering self-publishing a visual history of the area. In 1994, on its centenary, the store published Vroman’s of Pasadena: A Century of Books, 1894–1994 by Jane Apostol, which shows that nonbook items—in particular cameras and photographic supplies—have been an important part of the store’s product mix since its earliest days. (A.C. Vroman, the founder, was an avid photographer of Native American culture.)
Until the 1970s, the store was considered the largest bookstore west of the Mississippi. In 1915 it boasted a selection of 30,000 books, and today it has 85,000 titles across all three locations. Head book buyer Marie du Vaure has been with the store for six years and hails from Aix en Provence, France. “I strive to make it so that anyone walking in can find his or herself, and go beyond,” says du Vaure. “When I bring in more elaborate texts in gastronomy or I buy overlooked and more obscure titles in foreign literature, it is my hope that they fit with the overall effect and purpose of the store. Here, the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.”
The same philosophy holds true in the store’s commitment to its employees: in 1916, just three months before A.C. Vroman died, the store was incorporated and divided between Allan David Sheldon (Joel Sheldon’s grandfather) and two others. Today, some members of management are also shareholders. Hill, as well as Clark Mason, Vroman’s controller and CFO, are both invested and part of the succession plans. In addition, full- and part-time staff—129 in all—are offered a share of the profits. In 2006–2007 this amounted to $80,000, and a similar amount is expected to be divvied up this year as well.
The local community also benefits from the store’s success: the “Vroman’s Gives Back” program returns 1% of a customer’s sales to a charity of their choosing. To date, the store has donated $441,000 to 22 different local nonprofits.
“It all adds up to a simple business philosophy: do good business and do good in the world,” says Hill. “It’s kind of a mantra for us and something we make sure to be conscious of each and every day.”
——–
Pages: 1 2
