Women & Children First Buoyed by Big Show of Support

After Windy City Times, the Chicago Tribune, and other publications reported Chicago's Women & Children First might have to shutter its doors, the bookstore's sales both online and in-store jumped. Co-owner Linda Bubon said there was a dramatic show of support in response to the wave of media coverage, which only increased when that coverage was widely circulated on the Internet. "The publicity has just been wonderful," she added.

The attention started in April with an article in Windy City Times, Chicago's LGBT newspaper. Its publisher, Tracy Baim, had attended an awards ceremony where Women & Children First was being honored. There, Bubon and co-owner and former ABA President Ann Christophersen announced the "financial fragility" of the nearly 28-year-old bookstore. Baim asked if she could write about the store's troubles, and told the women, "You really have to let me do a story about this. We have to put it out in paper."

"Ann and I were kind of afraid to do that," said Bubon. "We took a month or so and decided [Baim] was right. Ann was concerned that publishers would drop our credit limit. It actually happened in two cases, so her fears were not unfounded."

The benefits, however, far outweighed any fallout. In addition to the Chicago papers, book industry publications also picked up the story. As a result of all the coverage, "People started pouring into the store," said Bubon. "They would walk in holding up their hand like they were taking a pledge and said, 'I won't shop at Amazon anymore.'"

Before the announcement, the bookstore's sales had been slipping for three years, and Bubon and Christophersen were considering not renewing their lease. (Christophersen has since reduced her hours and salary by 80 percent, and she now works as the coordinator of communication and customer services and on-site bookseller advisor at BookLog.)

In the first four weeks since the news broke, however, Bubon was happy to report a marked turnabout. "Compared with the same time period last year, sales are up 70 percent. We're up 30 percent over the previous month, and 100 percent over the month before that. I haven't done the figures yet on the last four weeks, but I'll tell you the trend is continuing. We've had some very nice big orders."

The bookstore also helped create some of its own buzz on its MySpace page. Bubon told BTW, "We have a MySpace page for store events and all kinds of things. We posted a list of 'How You Can Help Insure the Future of Feminist Bookselling in Chicago.'" It suggests "Talk us up to your friends, or, better yet, bring them in," and "For birthdays and holidays, get your friends and family Women & Children First gift cards!" As a result, gift card business "really shot up."

Meanwhile, "staff is so buoyed," Bubon said. "Now we're working like crazy on customer service and filling online orders. Everybody's happy. We're making money, selling books, and having a good time."

Bubon told a quick story about a woman visiting Chicago from San Diego who'd first read about Women & Children online at home. She stopped in to see the store, bought something, and also asked if she could also just give a donation. "It's far reaching this Internet stuff," Bubon said. "What can I say? The Internet is certainly partly accountable for the decreasing sales trend, yet if not for the Internet, the publicity would not have reached so many people." --Karen Schechner