About Bookstores

In The Great Good Place (Marlowe & Co.), sociologist Ray Oldenburg writes that a community's social vitality hinges upon having a gathering place where people can meet and exchange ideas -- a place that satisfies America's quest for community. He refers to this as the "third place." It seems only fitting then, that, in Lake Forest Park store, Washington, just north of Seattle, Third Place refers to an independent bookstore -- a popular gathering place that recently opened a second, much smaller (and much different) bookstore.

On Tuesday, January 21, almost all of the approximately 200 Austin, Texas, city residents at a community forum gave a proposed development that would bring Borders Books & Music to downtown Austin a resounding thumbs down, as reported by the Austin American-Statesman.

When Kayt and Donald L. Huttlin, Jr. purchased a house on Second Avenue in Lexington, North Carolina, one of the selling points was its close proximity to Frazier's Bookstore. Kayt Huttlin, a former librarian, had always been a book lover, so she enjoyed the idea that she could just pop into the community bookstore on a whim. Just over six months later, Huttlin enters the store not on a whim, but with a purpose: She's one of Frazier's new owners.

For many independents, December sales were less than hoped for -- but for most not as dire as feared. In a season that didn't produce a must-have title for consumers, a wealth of handselling opportunities meant that when the holiday rush kicked in -- for some only days before Christmas -- many booksellers saw strong sales.

This past New Year's Day, two bookstores marked the holiday with successful celebratory sales events as a way to thank their customers. In Tempe, Arizona, Changing Hands Bookstore continued its tradition of holding a Customer Appreciation Day sale on January 1, while The King's English bookstore in Salt Lake City launched its first appreciation day, complete with hors d'oeuvres, champagne, and lots of handselling. Changing Hands Bookstore, Tempe, Arizona

By Neal Coonerty Whew, this Christmas stunk! Or, to be more precise, this Christmas retail season really stunk. As we closed the doors of our bookshop at 7:00 p.m. after an exhausting Christmas Eve, our sales were down 5.6 percent. Not only was the season bad, it was scary. On December 14, our sales were running nearly 10 percent down, and we were wondering if it might get even worse.

Farley Kern, an owner and founder of Elm Street Books in New Canaan, Connecticut, must not waste much time sleeping or eating. Otherwise, she and her staff could not possibly have started up a brand new bookstore, directly across from the town's train station, in a mere seven weeks.

On December 10, Austin-based Liveable City, a local nonprofit group, released an economic study claiming that local merchants contribute significantly more money to the local economy than do retail chains. Steve Bercu, owner of Austin's BookPeople, told BTW that the study proves what local retailers have known all along through anecdotal evidence. "We knew that chain stores impacted the local economy in a negative way," he said.

Fern Jaffe, owner of Paperbacks Plus, with author Robert Caro When Paperbacks Plus in the Bronx, New Yo