Indie Bookstores Open Across the Country in 2008

Despite the bleak economic landscape, the American Booksellers Association welcomed the openings of 69 new indie bookstores, four branch stores, and two online-only booksellers in 2008. The bookstores launched in 28 states, ranging from Florida to Alaska, and the District of Columbia. Texas had eight openings, followed by New York with seven. California, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and Utah each had five openings.

To face an economy that has made many consumers reluctant to spend on anything but the necessities, the new booksellers are widening the scope of their inventory, increasing their merchandising and promotions, and looking for unique ways to draw attention to their businesses, which have been greeted with an encouraging outpouring of support from their local communities.

In June, Trish Brown and business partner Ellen Klein opened a new children's bookstore, Hooray for Books!, in the space formerly occupied by A Likely Story in Alexandria, Virginia. "There are so few children's bookstores left -- a lot of people have never even seen a children's-only bookstore," said Brown. Since the store's grand opening, things have been "a little bit of a roller coaster," she added. "But I'm amazed at how much people are grateful and happy we're here."

To stay competitive, Hooray for Books is offering a selection of "grown-up titles" for parents and will special order all types of books. The store also caters to commuters from two nearby train stations by stocking some mass market titles, and the owners use the IndieBound Next List as a source for other selections.

They're also ramping up the Hooray for Books B-to-B program. "We planned to spend some time doing quiet outreach to schools and businesses for bulk ordering. Now it's not clear if the schools are going to have any money. But we're trying to plan as many events as we can because we like the sense of energy the store has when people are in here," said Brown.

The bookstore is also slated to have free regular mentions in the popular e-mail newsletter DailyCandy, which will feature recommended children's titles and events and a link back to the store. "We're having a book launch party with a local author [Kristin Levine, The Best Bad Luck I Ever Had] who's having a book published by Penguin," Brown explained. "DailyCandy will feature it on their events page."

Brown, who won a scholarship to ABA's Winter Institute, is planning to do additional brainstorming at the seminars and with other booksellers. "I'm interested in creating a local business alliance. We've been trying to do that on our block. I'd also like to take a class on co-op," she said.

Overall, Brown is pleased with the bookstore's progress. "Our CPA said that lots of first-time business owners' projections are off by about 30 percent. We were just off by about 11 or 12 percent. And we had no idea that we were going to open at one of the worst times imaginable."

Jane Stuart-Andrus, Patricia Hutchinson-Day, and Connie Barnes opened RiverRead Books this past October because they wanted to "improve possibilities in Binghamton, [New York]." The 1,700-square-foot bookstore in a historic 1800s-era brick building maintains a small regional section, strong sections in fiction, memoir and biography, and children's literature. The store proclaims its "independents" with IndieBound posters and "Peace. Love. Books." bags. "People love them," said Stuart-Andrus.

Area residents and the city of Binghamton itself have been very supportive. Binghamton helped fund a recent "Buy Local" effort that featured fliers listing local businesses with a map, which were distributed by area retailers.

To navigate a tricky economy, Stuart-Andrus said she hopes to make RiverRead a destination store by discounting hardcover books, holding author events, poetry slams, and story hours, as well as participating in the city's First Friday art walks and offering space for book clubs and classes. "Being new," she said, "there are so many things to get started."

The 24,000-square-foot Legacy Books opened in the northern suburb of Dallas at the end of October. The bookstore offers 100,000 titles, a cafe and wine/beer bar, a meeting space, free Wi-Fi, a full events calendar, and a cooking demonstration kitchen in an upscale shopping center.

"Because we opened during the holiday season (Legacy's grand opening was Friday, November 7), the first quarter will be our first snapshot of 'normal,'" said managing partner Teri Tanner, a Texas native with about 15 years of bookselling experience at Borders, Barnes & Noble, and B. Dalton. "In this economy that may sound frightening to some -- like, 'a recession is no time to measure normal' -- but we had strong holiday sales and have actually been on an upward trend since the week after Christmas.... We attribute it to a favorable mention, with a great photo of the store, in The Dallas Morning News' 'Year in Review' feature on books that appeared the Sunday after Christmas."

To maintain their forward momentum, Tanner said, "We'd like to do more merchandising and promotion in the first quarter of Indie Next titles. We are fans of that program at Legacy Books and have an entire bay dedicated to those titles.... We want to do more community outreach and make those connections, now that we're fairly well established and known to most of our neighbors. Last fall we emphasized print media ads and PR, and a strong rotation of underwriting spots on our public radio station KERA, which we knew would inform the book-buying public about the store, and we are continuing both in the first quarter without much scaling back."

Legacy is also planning on marketing on social networking and other websites. "We do want to work more this year on new media, boosting our use of Facebook and upgrading our website," Tanner explained. "Now that we have the doors open and are lucky enough to have foot traffic, we know we have to add Internet traffic to our list of concerns. It's another presence, not as crucial as the store's own presence, but it can't be ignored. The next generation of readers relies on it, often for first impressions. So it requires constant upkeep and merchandising, too, even though we aren't selling online just yet."

Friends and booksellers Claudia Colodro and Liz Garo pooled their collective experience to open STORIES -- a new and used general bookstore with an outdoor patio and cafe in the Echo Park neighborhood of Los Angeles -- on November 15.

The 1,700-square-foot space in a 1930s building has "shined up" concrete floors, exposed brick, and custom shelving. "It's raw but warm," said Colodro, who added that running STORIES brings daily surprises. "We never know what's around the corner but for opening our store in these, shall we say, unpredictable and turbulent times, we are still surprised by the encouraging outpouring from the community. In the most important way, we've been embraced. So, that makes the hand-wrenching worthwhile, or at least a little more bearable."

A significant increase in sales during the holidays gave Colodro and Garo hope. "Being the only bookstore and one of the few cafes in the neighborhood helps of course!" said Colodro. Noting that the Echo Park neighborhood is changing, she added, "We're hoping someday to be 'the established place.' In a hood with a lot of new stores and restaurants, we're looking to be the one that's been around for a while."

Colodro said STORIES has a busy events calendar, "along with a healthy amount of used-book inventory, affordable, fresh, tasty food, delicious coffee, a wide range of cards and paper goods and gift items, and a knowledgeable and friendly staff," which are all helping to build a steady following. "We feel people will keep coming back. Not only for their books, coffee, and a sandwich if they live in the area, but also for the community STORIES is already becoming." --Karen Schechner

Four branches of existing stores also opened in 2008: