Wednesday, April 18, 2007

Hanging On

Oh, you mean the lesbian bookstore...that was the response you might have gotten if you'd asked after the Women and Children First bookstore when it opened in 1979. It was the place to obtain feminist literature, back when feminist literature was fresh and new and not so readily available at Kroch's & Brentano's. The shop was opened up in Chicago's Lincoln Park neighborhood when the area was beginning to come into its own as the trendy, highly gentrified part of town that offered Victorian beauties that still smelled of fresh plaster and paint. Rents were not over the top, but not as cheap as they had been five years earlier. But the people who wanted unique books lived there, and Women and Children First fit into its niche.

Ten years on, owners Linda Bubon and Ann Christophersen relocated to another neighborhood that was becoming gentrified and trendy. Up in Andersonville, they continued a successful run, providing feminist literature and children's books for the yupsters who congregated. Twenty-five years on, the shop is on the verge of closing up.

Part of the problem is rent. Andersonville was a cheaper place to be in 1990, but demand for space is up and so follows the cost of a lease. Add to that the price of corruption in Chicago, and property owners have to cover the ever escalating property taxes that pay for all those sweetheart deals for the Friends of Daley. Ms. Bubon has worked out a deal with the landlord to hold the rent steady for the next year, but after that, it's got to go up and she may very well be out.

Fans of Women and Children First are keeping a close eye on Borders, where the bottom line has slipped a bit. There's talk of closing up a few Borders locations in the city, and the one down the street from Women and Children First may be shuttered (to the huzzahs and hosannas of independent book dealers everywhere).

Ms. Bubon suspects that patrons browse through her stacks, tote their wee babes to her Story Hour, and then hit the Internet when they get home, to buy cheaper on line what they examined for free in a brick and mortar store that she pays to rent. She assumes that these people are buying elsewhere, but are they buying? After looking through the books, is it not possible that the patrons went home, saddened by the offerings from the publishers? Maybe there's just not enough good books available to reach sales goals. Is it the publishers who are driving out the book sellers, providing a poor product that few actually want?

4 comments:

Kitty said...

We had a lovely little book shop in Corning, NY, called Bookmarks. The store was small, but it had a well stocked children's section, complete with a large aquarium. After years of success, he moved his little shop into larger quarters across the street. Although he still did good business, his overhead was higher. So he decided to retire and sold the business to a woman named Whitehouse.

Due to the overhead, it wasn't long before Ms. Whitehouse moved into a smaller storefront and specialized in books on glass, since Corning is known for glass making. She also had an online business which was much cheaper to operate. Since the store did little business, she closed her little shop. And now I learn that she's closing the online business as well.

The thing is, people love muddling about in book shops. The local B&N always has people dawdling in the aisles and settling into the big compfy chairs with their lattés from the onsite Starbucks.

I wish I had an answer as to why the small shops don't prosper. I don't think there's a simple answer. Overhead is definitely a problem. I don't think online sales are always the problem, because there are still people who want that book NOW, not in 7-10 days.

I'm always saddened when I hear another little book shop closing.

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O hAnnrachainn said...

Overhead, definitely a problem for any business.

When I buy a book, I only buy from the small indie in town, but I rarely buy. It's not just cost, it's quality. My friends and I won't pay for a book that we wouldn't care to read again. And there's few books that have been published in the past few years that I'd care to read once through, let alone twice.

Anonymous said...

Oh gosh, how can you be down on books? There are fantastic books out there for both children and adults, especially if you shop in an indie store.

As far as only paying for a book you'd read twice...if you can afford to do it, buy the book, then donate it or pass it along. Prevents clutter from building up around bibliophiles, and supports the authors...Now that I've said that, I'll admit I borrow from the library more often than I buy.

O hAnnrachainn said...

I love books. I have more books than places to put them.

What I'm down on is the quality of books being published. I've gone to the library many times and come home empty handed because what's available is dreadful. I've come out of the book shop with Henry James or Willa Cather because the latest issues are unreadable.

Buying trash will only encourage publishers to spew the same trash. Eventually the bean counters will figure out that the product is what is at fault, and not the book buying public.