By Hook or by Book : Chains Battle Each Other--and Smaller Independent Outlets--for Customers

The skirmish began benignly enough: Back in 1991, a big new bookstore opened in Torrance.

Then another big bookstore opened in Torrance.

And another.

By the time Super Crown launched its glistening new Torrance Crossroads superstore on Crenshaw Boulevard two weeks ago, bringing the tally of Torrance book superstores to four, it became obvious this onslaught of books would be no short-lived phenomenon.

Indeed, an outright war is being waged for South Bay readers, as two of the nation’s bookselling heavyweights go head-to-head. Archrivals Super Crown and Barnes & Noble’s Bookstar now boast six South Bay superstores between them, including the four in Torrance.

Collectively, the six stores contain roughly 55,000 square feet of book retail space--and all this in a community beset by an ailing economy and defense layoffs.

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Caught in the middle of this battle royal are independent bookshops that fear they will be early casualties in the invasion by the chains. Independents also worry that the presence of literary supermarkets will limit the outlets for small presses and concentrate book sales in the hands of a few large corporations.

That, they assert, could dangerously narrow the range of literature available for retail sale.

“They’re going for the lowest common denominator, like prime-time television,” said Peter Pott, a manager at the South Bay’s best-known independent bookshop, Either/Or Bookstore in Hermosa Beach. “If these types of stores prevail and drive out traditional types of bookstores, there’s not going to be anything to read.”

Officials at Crown and Barnes & Noble argue that the real winner in these books wars is the reader. Many independent bookstores, they contend, have flourished, even in neighborhoods boasting large superstores.

“I really do think there’s room for both,” said Stan Rubenstein, spokesman for Crown Books Corp., which now boasts two Super Crowns in Torrance, one in Manhattan Beach and one in Rolling Hills Estates.

“(Independents) have a very strong following,” added Kim Becker, public relations coordinator for Barnes & Noble Inc., which owns the two Bookstars in Torrance.

In the face of dire warnings of “homogenization,” Becker is swift to defend Barnes & Noble’s record of selling works from small presses and local authors. And she denies that superstores are limiting readers’ choices, pointing to the thousands of titles sold in Bookstars and Barnes & Noble stores as proof that they offer a wide selection.

Torrance readers can even take their pick of superstores, with one Bookstar a few blocks from a Super Crown on Hawthorne Boulevard; a second Bookstar, on Pacific Coast Highway, is just down Crenshaw Boulevard from the new Torrance Crossroads Super Crown.

No one disputes that the tack taken by these new superstores differs from that of independent booksellers, most of which cannot afford huge quarters or big discounts. Indeed, the contrast between South Bay’s super stores and Either/Or is noticeable the moment a visitor walks in the door.

The large stores generally choose modern buildings on major streets in or near shopping centers or strip malls, and feature piped-in classical music or jazz, carpeted floors, newsstand areas and signs explaining discount policies.

By contrast, Either/Or fills five older storefronts alongside funky Pier Avenue, just a few blocks from the beach in Hermosa Beach.

The green carpeting is growing worn, and the light is dim. Customers wander through a honeycomb of rooms lined with tall, dark-wood bookshelves. Perennial Christmas lights are strung across the windows, and New Age jazz plays in the background.

Then there is Justine, the shop’s resident cat, named after the novel by Lawrence Durrell. On one recent evening, Justine could be found stretched on a window shelf above a copy of the San Francisco Review of Books, contemplating the ocean and the setting sun.

Since its founding 27 years ago, Either/Or has built a reputation as a local literary haven. Writer Charles Bukowski has been a regular customer, and Pott recalls “this tallish fellow who came in at night,” whom he later discovered was the elusive novelist Thomas Pynchon, author of “Gravity’s Rainbow.”

What Either/Or does not feature are discount signs. If the shop were to try to compete with the superstores by slashing prices on New York Times bestsellers, “We’d be out of business,” Pott bluntly acknowledges.

Instead, Pott says, his shop offers a better selection. Pott says most of his titles, which he estimates at 70,000, will not sell as rapidly as the superstores’ discounted bestsellers, but the wide selection builds customer loyalty.

“We can have one copy of a title, and it will stay here,” Pott said. “Sooner or later, someone will find it and is delighted.”

Since the superstores first entered the South Bay, in the spring of 1991, Pott has experienced a noticeable drop in business, he says. He blames it on the stiffened competition as well as the sagging economy. But he is convinced his store is now winning back former customers who have tired of superstore shopping.

“We lose people for a while, but then they realize what’s happening and they come back,” he said.

Either/Or, like many other independents, is attempting to fight back against the superstores by underscoring customer service, promising speedy special orders and trying to track down hard-to-find titles.

At another local independent bookstore, the Hungry Mind bookshop/coffeehouse/cafe in Manhattan Beach, owner Kim Houston emphasizes that her business differs from the superstores in some key areas. “We’re just a friendlier place. Much smaller. More local.”

Some of her customers refuse to shop at the Manhattan Beach Super Crown. “Just out of loyalty,” Houston said.

But Barnes & Noble’s local Bookstars are also emphasizing community ties, offering such amenities as store hours for children and book-signings by local authors.

“There’s an effort to create a sense of a community bookstore,” said Lorraine Reidy, district manager for Barnes & Noble’s superstore division.

And the customers are coming, the two chains say.

Unlike neighborhoods such as Westwood or Pasadena, the Torrance area lacks a major university, which provides a ready-made market for bookstores.

But industry officials point out that in the Torrance area, family income and education levels are relatively high.

“The demographics are just about perfect for reading,” said Miriam Bass, Crown Books assistant vice president for merchandising for the West Coast.

Crown likes the South Bay so much that it chose Torrance as the site of its first West Coast superstore, which opened on Hawthorne Boulevard in April, 1991. Indeed, the opening of Torrance’s second Super Crown in October was one of the chain’s best-attended openings ever, Bass said.

But with new bookstores opening faster than espresso bars, are Torrance and Los Angeles about to reach a point of book saturation?

“So far, we haven’t seen it,” Bass said. But she concedes: “Everyone in the book business is holding their breath.”

In fact, this may be only the first chapter of the South Bay’s book wars saga. A third superstore titan, Borders Inc., of Ann Arbor, Mich., a wholly owned subsidiary of K mart, is rumored to be considering a South Bay location.

Next spring, Borders plans to open its first Los Angeles area store in the Westwood area, a Gargantuan 45,000-square-foot expanse featuring 150,000 book titles, 70,000 music titles and around 9,000 video titles, as well as a cafe and espresso bar.

Some fear the saturation point is near. All the gleaming new superstores, they worry, will divide the book-selling pie into so many pieces that independent sellers--and even some corporate-backed superstores--will falter and die.

“I see these huge stores, these millions of dollars’ worth of inventory. And I don’t know how they can all survive,” said Gwen Feldman, past president of the Southern California Book Sellers Assn., a regional trade organization.

Faced with this onslaught, some independent bookstores are adding greeting cards, stationery, picture frames, even candles and bath oils, in an effort to compete. One of Los Angeles’ best-known bookstores, Book Soup, is going a step further and will open a bistro later this month alongside the Sunset Boulevard store.

Some major superstores--a Barnes & Noble on New York’s Upper West Side, a Crown store near Washington’s DuPont Circle--have also branched out by installing espresso bars.

Amid the tumult, few will risk predicting what the Los Angeles book market will look like in a decade, or even a year. But in the eyes of some independent booksellers, the importance of this books battle cannot be underestimated.

“This is not about one bookstore. It’s about the future of reading,” said Pott at Either/Or. “Authors have to be stimulated to write, publishers have to publish it, and bookstores have to sell it. It’s all connected. . . . If you’re talking about everyone in it for the buck, forget about reading.”