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NOW WHAT? Glenn Goldman died in January at age 58. He didnÂt leave a succession plan in place for Book Soup. (Los Angeles Times) |
"When a wise man dies," Rabbi David Wolpe asked at the memorial service for Book Soup owner Glenn Goldman, "how can he be replaced?"
For customers, employees, sales reps, writers and just about everyone who ever wandered into the Sunset Boulevard bookshop, this question has taken on an added significance in the wake of Goldman's death on Jan. 3 from pancreatic cancer. He was 58.
What will happen to Book Soup? Like most great bookstores, it is the product of one book lover's taste and vision. Most of the store's 60,000 volumes were handpicked by Goldman for a clientele he knew intimately after 33 years in the same neighborhood.
In recent decades, independent bookstores have become endangered, closing as chain stores move into their neighborhoods and market share is gobbled up by online booksellers such as Amazon .com. Some, like Dutton's Brentwood Bookstore, closed when the cost of real estate (usually rented, rarely owned) swamped small (though reliable) profit margins.
Yet believe it or not, independent bookstores, carefully run by those rare individuals who are both "book people" and "businesspeople," are often profitable -- meaning that you can make a living, pay a few employees and work reasonable hours.
Contrast this with the dire reports of Borders teetering on the brink of bankruptcy, or Barnes & Noble's reported $172-million loss at the end of the third quarter last year. To hear the chain executives talk, you'd think people had stopped reading altogether.
People have not stopped reading. The problem, most bookstore owners and publishers will tell you, is a distribution system that caters heavily to chains and wholesalers like Wal-Mart.
When the economy founders, big stores, with their hierarchical policies enacted miles from where the books are sold, have a harder time responding in a flexible way.
According to manager Tyson Cornell, Book Soup did "very well" last year. So did Los Feliz independent Skylight Books, which recently expanded from 2,000 to 3,100 square feet.
This December, says manager and co-owner Kerry Slattery, Skylight's sales were 17% higher than last year. Overall sales for the year were 7.5 % higher. Skylight opened in 1996 and, since 2000, has made a consistent 4% to 6% profit.
Slattery attributes Skylight's success to its small size, flexibility, the dedication of the staff and the relationships with the clientele. She prides herself on "finding the right people and making a creative environment for customers." A bookstore, she says, is "interactive." Like Cornell and others in the independent book business, Slattery believes it's all about the relationships.
Like the "eat local" movement, which is spreading beyond gourmet restaurants and organic co-ops to pose a serious challenge to large grocery chains and fast-food restaurants, bookstores that know their customers fare better when times are hard.
Which brings us back to Goldman. His tragically early death has had a centrifugal effect on the tight-knit Southern California community of people in the business of selling books.
"He loved armchair adventures," says Sandy Pollack, a Random House sales representative. "Being able to fill Book Soup with the stuff of dreams for those thousands of customers gave him more joy than you can imagine."
Catering to clients
While the chains allow their stores very little autonomy, independents can be specific to their clientele. "An independent might buy 24-25 copies of a title they know will sell, while the chains buy 50 of a book they've been told to sell," says Gabriel Barillas, a HarperCollins representative who has been selling books in Southern California for 22 years.
This is why, he suggests, chains are threatened by the faltering economy. As for the market in general, Barillas says it's ridiculous to blame declining profits on the idea that people aren't buying books. "Books are steady performers. Even when stores diversify by selling T-shirts, it's the T-shirt sales that suffer when times are bad, not the books."
Goldman died without a succession plan in place for Book Soup. But it was of paramount importance that his two sons be left with some financial security after his death.
Adrian Newell is the manager of Warwick's Books in La Jolla. She was also Goldman's partner for the last three years.
For customers, employees, sales reps, writers and just about everyone who ever wandered into the Sunset Boulevard bookshop, this question has taken on an added significance in the wake of Goldman's death on Jan. 3 from pancreatic cancer. He was 58.
What will happen to Book Soup? Like most great bookstores, it is the product of one book lover's taste and vision. Most of the store's 60,000 volumes were handpicked by Goldman for a clientele he knew intimately after 33 years in the same neighborhood.
In recent decades, independent bookstores have become endangered, closing as chain stores move into their neighborhoods and market share is gobbled up by online booksellers such as Amazon .com. Some, like Dutton's Brentwood Bookstore, closed when the cost of real estate (usually rented, rarely owned) swamped small (though reliable) profit margins.
Yet believe it or not, independent bookstores, carefully run by those rare individuals who are both "book people" and "businesspeople," are often profitable -- meaning that you can make a living, pay a few employees and work reasonable hours.
Contrast this with the dire reports of Borders teetering on the brink of bankruptcy, or Barnes & Noble's reported $172-million loss at the end of the third quarter last year. To hear the chain executives talk, you'd think people had stopped reading altogether.
People have not stopped reading. The problem, most bookstore owners and publishers will tell you, is a distribution system that caters heavily to chains and wholesalers like Wal-Mart.
When the economy founders, big stores, with their hierarchical policies enacted miles from where the books are sold, have a harder time responding in a flexible way.
According to manager Tyson Cornell, Book Soup did "very well" last year. So did Los Feliz independent Skylight Books, which recently expanded from 2,000 to 3,100 square feet.
This December, says manager and co-owner Kerry Slattery, Skylight's sales were 17% higher than last year. Overall sales for the year were 7.5 % higher. Skylight opened in 1996 and, since 2000, has made a consistent 4% to 6% profit.
Slattery attributes Skylight's success to its small size, flexibility, the dedication of the staff and the relationships with the clientele. She prides herself on "finding the right people and making a creative environment for customers." A bookstore, she says, is "interactive." Like Cornell and others in the independent book business, Slattery believes it's all about the relationships.
Like the "eat local" movement, which is spreading beyond gourmet restaurants and organic co-ops to pose a serious challenge to large grocery chains and fast-food restaurants, bookstores that know their customers fare better when times are hard.
Which brings us back to Goldman. His tragically early death has had a centrifugal effect on the tight-knit Southern California community of people in the business of selling books.
"He loved armchair adventures," says Sandy Pollack, a Random House sales representative. "Being able to fill Book Soup with the stuff of dreams for those thousands of customers gave him more joy than you can imagine."
Catering to clients
While the chains allow their stores very little autonomy, independents can be specific to their clientele. "An independent might buy 24-25 copies of a title they know will sell, while the chains buy 50 of a book they've been told to sell," says Gabriel Barillas, a HarperCollins representative who has been selling books in Southern California for 22 years.
This is why, he suggests, chains are threatened by the faltering economy. As for the market in general, Barillas says it's ridiculous to blame declining profits on the idea that people aren't buying books. "Books are steady performers. Even when stores diversify by selling T-shirts, it's the T-shirt sales that suffer when times are bad, not the books."
Goldman died without a succession plan in place for Book Soup. But it was of paramount importance that his two sons be left with some financial security after his death.
Adrian Newell is the manager of Warwick's Books in La Jolla. She was also Goldman's partner for the last three years.
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