TIME: Almanac 1990/1990 Time Magazine Compact Almanac, The (1991)(Time).iso/time/102389/10238900.072

Text File | 1990-09-22 | 8KB | 142 lines

BOOKS, Page 95

Rattling The Chains

Mom-and-pop shops lure the ambiance chasers


    The customer at Politics & Prose, a busy bookstore in Chevy
Chase, Md., is mightily perplexed. There is this book, she tells
the manager, something about the impending economic disaster,
written by a Chinese. At most chain bookstores, the personnel might
be equally baffled. But the staffer at Politics & Prose thinks for
a moment, and then, from among the shop's 20,000 titles, quickly
produces a copy of The Great Depression of 1990 by Ravi Batra --
not a Chinese, to be sure, but the right book nonetheless. Sold.

    That kind of encyclopedic knowledge, combined with personal
attention, is one reason why the nation's independent book shops,
once a vanishing institution, are flourishing as if they were the
newest wrinkle in the retail business. They are prospering despite
the fact that the 3,000 outlets of major chains like Barnes &
Noble, B. Dalton and Waldenbooks account for about $2.5 billion in
book merchandising, or 40% of U.S. sales.

    Still, the majority of book buyers are ignoring the lure of
cheaper prices offered by some chains and are purchasing the
remaining 60% from the nation's 6,000 privately owned shops. The
independents, says Edward Morrow, president of the American
Booksellers Association, "have never been stronger or healthier."

    It is not simply speedy service and knowledgeable staff that
have brought on such robust health. Variety of stock is another
major factor. For example, a reader can find John Irving's latest
novel, A Prayer for Owen Meany, among the 15,000 or so titles
typically carried by a chain store, but in all likelihood will not
locate Irving's earlier books. Chain stores need fast turnover;
they have little space for backlisted books. By contrast, a shop
like Manhattan's Shakespeare & Co., which carries 64,000 titles,
will stock practically the entire Irving oeuvre.

    Buyers also like the idea of the specialty shop. Bodhi Tree
Bookstore, the shop in Los Angeles that was featured in Out on a
Limb, the TV-movie version of Shirley MacLaine's autobiography, is
a pit stop for New Age readers who find that titles like Where Are
You Going? help them get in touch with their feelings. The National
Intelligence Book Center, which only the most persistent sleuth can
find (in an appropriately nondescript Washington building),
confines itself to publications on spies and spying; the customers,
insists director Elizabeth Bancroft, are mostly professional
spooks, who practically need a password to get in and who are asked
to leave their parcels -- including, presumably, minicameras -- in
lockers that sport the flags of different countries.

    What seems to satisfy mom-and-pop customers most is a quality
that the chains, with their reliance on self-service, rarely
provide: the warm ambiance of the hometown library. Buyers prefer
to talk to booksellers, not to supermarket-style check-out clerks.
They like to attend readings by authors or slip off their shoes in
a homey shop, settle into an armchair and browse for an hour. Many
of these stores provide coffee and other refreshments; Atlanta's
Oxford Books (115,000 titles) has a lunch counter and stays open
until 2 a.m. on weekends. Says owner Rupert LeCraw: "We've built
a following of regular customers who don't even go into chain
stores." Stuart Brent, 70, whose Chicago store has been a bastion
of intellectual taste for about 40 years, says, "You have people
(those who run chain stores) today who think that life is the
bottom line. But the great principle of being an independent is to
become passionate about books."

    Among the more notable book havens where the passion pays off:

    Cody's Books (75,000 titles; Berkeley). The nation's premier
student bookstore caters to an eclectic clientele of intellectuals,
street people and nerds with volumes on subjects ranging from Asian
philosophy to Brazilian literature. "Look at this!" exults owner
Andy Ross, demonstrating the proper passion. "We carry Thomas Mann!
We have all of Dickens!" Ross sued two mass-market publishers who,
he claimed, discriminated against him by giving unfair discounts
to chains. He won an out-of-court settlement but still argues that
chains, with their narrow stock of titles and widespread outlets,
"limit the availability of ideas in our culture."

    The Mysterious Bookshop (20,000; New York City). The biggest
mystery is how this unassuming little Manhattan shop managed to
sell $1 million worth of crime and detective fiction last year
despite the presence, within easy walking distance, of five chain
outlets. The solution: Mysterious carries hard-to-find whodunits
that mystery buffs crave. Says customer Steve Ritterman: "There's
much more depth here than in a regular bookstore -- authors you
can't find elsewhere." Owner Otto Penzler concedes that he does not
do smash business with best sellers by the likes of Robert Parker
or Robert Ludlum. "B. Dalton," he says, "has them in the window at
30% off. I can't do that."

    A Likely Story (20,000; Miami). Strictly for kids, this store
was established by three mothers who were concerned that their
children were watching too much TV. Decorated like an old rural
library, the cozy shop draws customers with classics like Pat the
Bunny, a section for teens and toys for prereaders. Special events
have included an appearance by popular kiddie author Jack
Prelutsky, who read his poem Tyrannosaurus Was a Beast to an SRO
crowd. "I love it here," says shopper Aida Littauer. "I tell them
what I want, and they pick out the books for me."

    Season to Taste Books (3,000; Chicago). To an out-of-towner,
the shadow of Wrigley Field may seem an odd place to find one of
the nation's best cookbook stores, but Season has scored in the
now fashionable neighborhood with butcher-block decor and tomes on
food and drink, including esoteric offerings such as one on
Transylvanian cuisine. Everyone seems hungry for the stock. "Some
people collect cookbooks as art," says co-owner Barry Bluestein.
"Some see them as sociological studies of what people were eating
in different times and places, and some just ask, `Is this a good
read?'"

    Square Books (25,000; Oxford, Miss.). This charming store in
a Reconstruction-era building carries a full range of titles and
offers tomato-basil pie in a second-floor cafe. Owner Richard
Howorth maintains a local flavor with a section devoted to Oxford's
best-known citizen, William Faulkner. A small sign above the stack
of copies of the 8 1/2-lb. Encyclopedia of Southern Culture reads,
$5.98 PER LB. SAME AS CATFISH FILLETS.

    The Tattered Cover (110,000; Denver). Owner Joyce Meskis says,
"We wanted to maintain an ambiance of an old, comfortable slipper."
Some slipper. All the books, along with 190 employees and inviting
armchairs, are packed into this former department store, making the
Tattered perhaps the largest and best independent book outlet in
the U.S. But success has brought an unexpected plot twist. Meskis
has received offers from several people who want to franchise the
operation. So far, she has resisted the temptation.

    Now the independents have reason to worry about a different
kind of temptation. It is called The Reader's Catalog, a
large-format, 1,382-page paperback ($24.95) describing more than
40,000 books in print, covering 208 categories ranging from
Egyptian literature to sports. Readers can order selections by
mail, toll-free telephone or even fax machine. The Catalog is the
brainchild of Jason Epstein, editorial director of Random House,
who is publishing it privately. The idea, says Epstein, arose out
of his own frustration: "There wasn't enough shelf space in the
stores." He is counting on the convenience of mail-order shopping,
and may have hit on a winning enterprise. Still, the thriving
independents hope that buying a book from your armchair catalog
won't be so satisfying as browsing through a volume in an armchair
at your local mom-and-pop shop.