Title Wave Hits Downtown Alaska

This week, Title Wave Books of Anchorage, Alaska, announced that it would be opening a branch store in the city's downtown, in the 6,000-square-foot space recently vacated by Cook Inlet Book Co. The store, Title Wave Books -- Downtown, is expected to have a soft opening in mid-May and its official opening on May 25, said co-owner Julie Drake. She and co-owner Steve Lloyd signed the lease for the new location this past Friday.

The original 33,000-square-foot Title Wave Books, located about a mile away in mid-town Anchorage, opened in 1991, and, according to Drake, until very recently there were no plans for expansion. "It was a surprise opportunity for us, when we found out at the end of March that the space would be available," she explained, adding with a laugh that due to the second store's much smaller size, "We've started calling it Mini-Me."

The new store will carry more than 25,000 new and used books in nearly every subject category, with a particularly large selection of books on Alaska and the circumpolar arctic. It will also stock magazines, newspapers, maps, greeting cards, unique gifts, and Alaskan souvenirs.

Drake explained that, despite the closing of the bookstore in the same location, and before that a Rexall Drug Store -- she is not worried that Title Wave's downtown branch will suffer the same fate. With two branches, the bookstore will benefit from economies of scale, she said. Part of Title Wave -- Downtown's initial inventory will come from the mid-town branch. "The other store is so big, it won't even make a dent, but it will make a big splash at the new store," Drake said. For the remainder of inventory, the store "is working with Ingram and Baker & Taylor and getting their suggested opening stock."

The original Title Wave Books has survived competition from Borders and Barnes & Noble, so Drake fully expects the new store to flourish downtown, where there is no bookstore competition -- though there is competition from gift shops in terms of sidelines.

Importantly, Drake stressed, "We really do have great support from the community.... We are truly thriving, not just surviving."

At present, plans are to offer staff, which currently numbers more than 40, the ability to rotate from store to store. Just this week, Drake hired three more employees, and she expects that eight people will staff the new store.

"When we opened 16 years ago, we thought the Alaskan reader was underestimated and underserved," Drake said. "Stores would only sell bestsellers and Alaskan titles." If readers wanted something more esoteric, it was hard to find, but she and Lloyd banked on the idea that Alaskan readers were far more sophisticated than anyone gave them credit for. "It's worked well for us," she concluded. --David Grogan