Bookstores Hit Best-Seller List : Outlets Grow in Size, Number in O.C.

Nanette Heiser loves bookstores so much that she went out and bought one a few years ago. But the 43-year-old shopkeeper admits that it isn’t getting any easier to keep Upchurch-Brown Booksellers in Laguna Beach afloat now that super store operators like Barnes & Noble are coming to the area.

“Stores like ours aren’t necessarily going to be put out of business by Barnes & Noble,” Heiser said. “But they are going to force us to re-evaluate our positions and, possibly, change strategies.”

Deep-pocketed chains like Barnes & Noble, Borders Books And Music and Crown Books use high-powered marketing to promise wide selection and low prices. They’re inviting customers to spend more time in their stores--using coffee bars, comfortable seating and discussion groups to create an atmosphere that encourages shoppers to browse, perhaps with a cappuccino or Danish in hand.

They’re also expanding the domain beyond books--adding videos, compact discs, computer software and an ever-growing collection of newspapers and magazines.

The big chains are moving quickly to grab market share in the area.

On Oct. 20, Barnes & Noble opened a 43,000-square-foot store at Huntington Center Mall, its largest in the state, company officials said. Previously, the New York-based chain had established a beachhead with smaller stores in Irvine and Santa Ana. In coming months it will open stores in Irvine, Costa Mesa, Tustin, Rancho Cucamonga, Thousand Oaks, Burbank and San Diego County.

Ann Arbor, Mich.-based Borders Books made its local debut in 1994 with a splashy store in Mission Viejo and will soon open a second store at an as-yet undetermined location.

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Crown Books operates 28 super stores in Los Angeles, Orange and San Diego counties and plans to add five more Southern California stores during the next few months. Independents also face stiff competition from Price Costco, Toys R Usand Target, which also are stocking more books.

Conventional wisdom suggests that the number of bookstores would shrink as larger chains force smaller competitors out of business. But State Board of Equalization figures show that both Orange and Los Angeles counties had more book and stationery stores in 1994 than in 1990.

Fahrenheit 451, perhaps the best known of Orange County independent bookstores, closed earlier this year, but operators at the time laid much of the blame on an internal embezzlement scheme.

In contrast, Vroman’s in Pasadena, Southern California’s oldest bookstore with 101 years in business, is doubling in size, adding an outdoor news rack and more magazines, and expanding its selection of books. Vroman’s expansion was planned before the recent arrival in Pasadena of two nearby Super Crowns and a Barnes & Noble store, said Vroman’s Vice President Karen Watkins, who added that the specialty bookstore has succeeded by sticking to what it does best and not trying to beat the chains at their own game.

“A lot of the failings of bookstores--or, for that matter--in business in general are caused by people who fail to concentrate on their own business,” Watkins said. “Either that or they’re worried too much about what the other guy is doing.”

While the big booksellers pride themselves on massive stores--Barnes & Noble’s Huntington Beach store has 150,000 titles while the Borders in Mission Viejo offers 100,000 book titles and 50,000 albums--they’re also incorporating creature comforts that are designed to keep customers in stores longer.

Barnes & Noble’s new store features a Starbucks Coffee bistro that funnels customers into the store and a computer department operated by Software Etc. The two-story bookstore also features a separate children’s book section and a huge record department with listening posts.

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The cafe at the 30,000-square-foot Borders store in Mission Viejo offers a well-stocked coffee bar, sandwiches, soup and comfortable tables where customers can leaf through publications. In addition to software and music sections, the store stocks 8,500 video titles.

Both chains place chairs, sofas and tables at strategic points so customers can curl up with a book or magazine. It’s not uncommon, store managers say, for customers to spend hours browsing through the stacks.

The super stores also have hired what amount to social directors--employees who arrange book discussion groups, story hours for children and appearances by authors and poets. At Barnes & Noble, the community relations coordinator is Christine Card, a former grade school teacher.

“What drew me to this job was the experience I had in a group arranged by the Barnes & Noble in Irvine,” Card said. “There is a sense of ‘connectedness,’ of having similar things in common with people.”

Borders offers story hours for children, discussion groups for adults, classes for customers who have purchased new computer software and live music on Saturday nights. “We’re a nice place to spend some time,” said community relations director Ruth Frankel. “In some ways, it might be an alternative to the bar scene.”

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While independents and chains debate their strengths and weaknesses, consumers are voting with their pocketbooks and heading toward chain stores to take advantage of discounted prices. Independent store owners say they’re not able to compete with the big chains when it comes to the bestsellers.

Westminster resident Nancy Pruitt, who spent a leisurely afternoon paging through culinary magazines at the new Barnes & Noble super store in Huntington Beach, seems to represent the views of many customers.

“It all comes down to price, pure and simple,” Pruitt said. “I buy my paperbacks at Crown because they discount them and Barnes & Noble doesn’t. But I’ll buy books wherever they’re cheapest.”

But Pruitt, who’s constantly on the prowl for cooking tomes at bookstores in Orange County and Long Beach, admits that she’s also a sucker for Barnes & Noble’s laid-back retail approach, which encourages shoppers to take their time and browse.

“They give you enough time so you get attached to a book,” said Pruitt. “It works . . . with enough time, you can get attached to a book and then you’ll buy it.”

Small shops do what they can to differentiate themselves from the chains.

Heiser regularly invites lesser-known authors and poets into her Laguna Beach bookstore. Vroman’s makes news by inviting hot authors like shock jock Howard Stern and male model Fabio to book-signing parties. The Book Baron, a used-book store in Anaheim, offers free books to children and is adding more foreign language titles.

But the small shops believe that their strongest competitive edge comes from better service.

“Our customers like the atmosphere here,” Heiser said. “They know that our salespeople are more knowledgeable than the people at Barnes & Noble. If you ask us for John Kennedy Toole’s ‘A Confederacy of Dunces,’ they’ll know what you’re talking about.”

Independents believe that they can beat the big chains when it comes to service, but they’re fighting mad over what they view as discriminatory pricing by some of the nation’s biggest publishing firms.

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In a 1994 federal court action, the Tarrytown, N.Y.-based American Booksellers Assn.’s 4,400 members sued five major publishers for allegedly granting discounts and special promotions to big chains. On Oct. 26, publishing giant Houghton Mifflin Co. became the second of five defendants to settle with the ABA.

The settlement includes a pledge to help streamline a book-ordering process that independents describe as costly. “Profit margins in this business are very narrow, and it’s hard to pull a profit together when there’s so much paperwork,” Heiser said.

And while Heiser acknowledges that super stores are a potential threat to her store’s existence, she also believes the growing competition has a positive side.

“If stores like Barnes & Noble can get more people interested in reading, then we’re all going to benefit,” she says.

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By the Books

* Orange County bookstores, 1994: 683

* Growth in Orange County bookstores, 1990-94: 10%

* Orange County bookstore taxable sales, 1994: $273.5 million

* Per-capita spending in Orange County bookstores, 1994: $105

* Per-capita spending statewide: $103

* Orange County residents per bookstore: 3,800

* Los Angeles County residents per store: 4,000

* Bookstores as a percentage of all Orange County retail sales, 1994: 1.6

* County bookstores as a percentage of all retail outlets: 2.6

* Orange County ranking, number of bookstores, 1994: fourth

* County ranking by taxable sales: fourth

* Bookstores nationwide in 1992 (latest available data): 12,887

* Growth in U.S. bookstores, 1987-1992: 16.4%

Note: All California numbers are for book/stationery stores

Sources: American Booksellers Assn., State Board of Equalization