In the bookstore world, you all know about Borders filing for bankruptcy, of course. That NYT article noted that in the 1990s:
"...the chain expanded wildly and helped wipe out many mom-and-pop independent stores."
Many, though not all: at least locally, several indie bookstores have survived, if by the skin of their teeth. In fact, several local bookstores have joined forces to form the St. Louis Independent Bookstores Alliance. As you can imagine, the stresses that bookstores have been under even without the tanking economy helped push things in this direction, as noted in the two main local articles on it....
....from Jane Henderson of the Post-Dispatch and Aimee Levitt of the Riverfront Times. Without the bombshell of the Borders bankruptcy announcement, the impetus for the formation of this alliance was the slowing business at Subterranean Books in the Delmar Loop neighborhood. From Henderson's article:
"In January, [Subterranean owner Kelly von Plonski] announced that the store would close if sales didn't improve within six months. Her 1,200-square-foot store on the dynamic Delmar Loop is near college students, professors and families.
'Who would think University City couldn't sustain a bookstore?' she says. Early last year, Subterranean sold an average of 1,085 books a month. Von Plonski could pay only employees; she did not take a salary. 'I do wonder, why am I killing myself, working so hard?'"
From Levitt's article:
"Von Plonski set up shop in the Delmar Loop in 2000. The street had once been home to a veritable Murderers' Row of bookstores, but the other shops — Delmar Books, Paul's Books, Twentieth Century Books — had gradually closed their doors, until only Subterranean remained....In the family of St. Louis independent bookstores, Subterranean established itself as the cool teenager, the place where you go to buy Beat novels and music criticism and fat volumes on art and design, stuff you won't find on any of the syllabi at nearby Washington University.
But a few years ago, sales began to drop. 2010 was the store's worst year ever. From April on, revenue plummeted to unprecedented lows. Von Plonski could barely afford to pay her bills. She stopped allotting herself a salary. She started returning every book that sat on the shelf for more than six months, even the books she loved. She appealed to her landlady for a reduction in rent — $21 per square foot for the 1,200 square-foot space was standard for the Loop but high for a bookstore — to no avail."
von Plonski clearly was approaching the breaking point, for her business and probably herself. Levitt continued:
"At this point, you'd think, von Plonski's competitors would be circling like hyenas, licking their chops as they plotted ways to take advantage of Subterranean's impending demise. After all, three other general-interest independent bookstores call St. Louis home; many larger cities get by with less."
The true "capitalism without brakes" approach, beloved of wingnuts and tea party whackjobs, yes? If you have a look at the wingnut hate-soaked comments on the P-D's article, you'll see what I mean? However, when it came to the other indie store owners in the area, these aren't teabagger bigots we're dealing with here:
"Instead, though, von Plonski's rival indies did something unexpected: They rallied behind Subterranean. Within a week the owners of Left Bank Books, Pudd'nhead Books in Webster Groves and Main Street Books in St. Charles had joined with von Plonski to form the St. Louis Independent Bookstore Alliance, pledging to work together to ensure they'd all have a future."
I will confess that the only 2 of these stores that I've shopped at, ever, are Subterranean and Left Bank. St. Charles is rather out of my way (gotta keep the carbon footprint down, ya know), and I've just not had reason to step into Pudd'nhead in the Old Webster neighborhood of Webster Groves. On a good day, I can bike to Left Bank or Subterranean.
But even then, when I go to Left Bank, it's not generally to get a book, but rather birthday cards, and holiday cards (until various big-name charities asking for donations by mass mail send me holiday cards, which knocks that out of the equation for shopping at Left Bank). I haven't bought a book at either establishment in a good long while, including foolishly missing the annual used-book sale at Left Bank in September, where in the past I've bought one or two from their used section, because the store gets everything from the sale of a used book, rather than a new book. It's not because I don't want Left Bank or Subterranean to succeed, not at all. It's for the simple reason that I have too many unread books already and I really shouldn't be adding more. But if one accepts the meta-premise that where one spends money is a political statement about what one supports, then by not spending more at places like Left Bank or Subterranean, I'm part of the problem. The nasty wingnut comments particularly on the P-D article, as noxious and mean-spirited as they are, do raise an uncomfortable point about those on the liberal-left-progressive side not spending enough to support a place like Subterranean.
The one intelligent conservative on-line comment on either story was on the Levitt article, which raises the question of business vs. principle:
"I understand you guys may hate people like Sarah Palin, George W. Bush etc--and maybe by not carrying their books, you're making some statement, but I don't think you're aware of how unwelcoming that kind of omission bodes for the local reader who is open minded, yet politically on the right. I may be going out on a limb, but I think you have your noses in the air just a little and give off an impression of looking down on those on the other side of the aisle-- I had cash in hand ready to spend, but since the product wasn't there, I had to take my business to Borders.....
I think if you really want to capture market-share, you have to take a look in the mirror and decide to offer a selection of books that is more welcoming to those outside of your own political milieu."
Just as a digression, American conservatism would be a lot healthier and less morally degenerate if more US conservatives were as articulate as this fellow. To address his point, knowing Left Bank, they will not carry books by B-ck the Bigot, or Cape Girardeau's oxycotin-addled monument to "Excellence in Bigotry", or the most infamously hate-filled graduate from Cornell University in the last 30 years. But it would be easy enough for Left Bank to "sell out" to some degree, if they wanted to make more money and be able to keep going. They pay the price (sorry that I keep using the money metaphors) for ideological purity, in terms of carrying books.
In some fairness to Left Bank, the last event I attended was a reading by Yunte Huang, author of a book last year on Charlie Chan. Huang got in his share of quasi-"birther" digs at President Obama and the birth-certificate faux-scandal, which no one particularly censored there. I wasn't pleased to hear those comments, but I didn't say anything, out of something resembling politeness. It also didn't stop me from asking him to sign my copy of his book. The important point, however, was that this was a book that got attention in the NYT and NPR, among other relatively high-intelligence US media outlets, so I expected a decent crowd to show up. Want to know how many people showed up? 7. There's kind of the dilemma in a nutshell, isn't there?
Of the indie bookstores in the St. Louis alliance, the one that I've gone to most often of late, i.e. the past 2 years, is Dunaway Books, but this is a used bookstore rather than a first-run bookstore. This is mainly for mercenary reasons, namely that they're willing (many times, though not always) to take books that I trade in. But this is a subject for a sequel on this topic, sometime down the line, which touches on the common book-business enemy that both the indie bookstores and Borders have been facing, whose name I don't need to mention.
With that, time for the usual SNLC protocol below, namely your loser stories of the week. However, must note caveat, which may qualify as my loser story now: this is another autobot posting, so I'm not here currently to respond to any comments. However, the one and only cfk of Bookflurries fame has offered to "mind the store" until I get back later in the evening. Have fun, kiddies....