Booksellers Learn to Read the Market and Survive

Last year, the Ventura Bookstore joined 25 other independents nationwide in a landmark lawsuit accusing mega-chains Barnes & Noble and Borders of cutting sweetheart deals with publishers that made it impossible for small book dealers to compete.

The arrival of the warehouse-sized bookstores, with their coffee bars, bagel counters and deep discounts, was supposed to be the death knell for the little guys.

A year later, however, the predicted apocalypse has not happened. Three big chains--both of those named in the suit, plus Crown Books--are doing business in the county, but only one independent has folded because of big-store competition.

The Ventura Bookstore is still in business, relying on its proven formula of knowledgeable sales clerks and wide selection, including hard-to-find novels that the chains don’t bother with.

Most of all, said Aileen Gathercole, ducking out of the rain for her once-a-week visit, it’s the cloistered feel of the place that attracts her.

“It’s very pleasant to walk around looking for books and listening to Bach,” Gathercole said.

Manager Ed Elrod thinks the store’s success is based on location, good service and tourists. Elrod is confident enough in this formula that he recently bought Table of Contents, a 12-year-old general bookstore in Ojai. He’s counting on community spirit, isolation from the large chains, and tourists to keep him in business.

While the big booksellers were busy opening branches and gobbling up other chains (Barnes & Noble owns B Dalton Booksellers, and Borders owns Waldenbooks), many independents stuck to what they do best and trusted the market to sort itself out. Then came the news that in the battle for the hearts and pocketbooks of readers, the playing field was far from level.

Two years ago Warren Cooley closed his Living Tree Christian bookstore in Thousand Oaks. He couldn’t compete with the big three.

“There’s no question it’s more difficult to make it as a small store these days,” Cooley said. “I was working a lot of hours just to pay the landlord.”

The past two years have been hard, Cooley said, but he thinks he’s finally gotten over the ordeal.

Today he operates a portable bookstore at a church in Westlake.

Big Chains Rewrite Formula

The days when someone with a passion for books--and people--could open a bookstore and make a good living may be changing in Ventura County. Traditionally, bookstores appealed to committed readers who wanted knowledgeable salespeople they counted on to tell them what was available and what was good.

Critics say the big chains have stood this formula on its head, creating what one independent bookseller called “destination book shopping.” A bookstore is now a place where you can take your date, have a cappuccino, look through a book or two and be on your way.

Cooley said he had a wider selection of Christian books than the chains, but the big stores have a little of everything. People who wanted a Christian book, a cookbook and a novel, as well as a cup of coffee, could get it all in one place.

“It’s almost gotten to the point where you can’t sell books without food and other incentives to bring people in,” said Andrew Hochman, owner of 2nd Edition Books and Comics in Thousand Oaks. “If the big chains didn’t have the chairs and the coffee, they’d lose 50% of their customers.”

As the owner of a used-book store, Hochman sometimes gets calls from the chains on behalf of customers looking for a classic they don’t carry or an out-of-print title. “The chains throw us a bone,” Hochman said, “to make it look like they’re helping the community.”

While the destination approach to bookselling may introduce more people to books, as Borders and Barnes & Noble say, it’s hard on independent bookstores, which must make it or lose it in one location. The chains, on the other hand, can afford to operate stores that aren’t profitable to keep their market recognition.

Internet Poses New Challenge

Between them, Barnes & Noble Inc. and Borders Inc. own 2,000 bookstores nationwide. Small-bookstore owners in Ventura County have two Barnes & Noble stores to compete with (Ventura, Thousand Oaks/Westlake) and a Borders in Thousand Oaks, as well as Crown Books shops in Simi Valley and Ventura. Local booksellers said they fear the large chains may have permanently changed the way books are sold.

The American Booksellers Assn. reports that where the big three move in, independent booksellers see their business drop more than 40%.

Independent bookstores have also been hard hit by the Internet. Amazon.com started the trend. Customers can browse a huge selection, click on their choice and have the book on their doorstep in days. Barnes & Noble followed suit, publicizing its Internet shopping with megabuck TV and radio ads.

“The online services have caused incremental harm. Customers who have already bought a book online come into the store to see what it looks like,” said Hochman.

“It is insanity. You pay for tracking, for shipping for handling. If you order a book from a store, the store pays for the shipping.”

In Camarillo, where The Bookworm has been in the same location on Ventura Boulevard for 25 years, owner Mary Lattell said she’s not interested in taking on the chains. Lattell runs the shop by herself. Many of her customers are friends, and she does a good business with the local schools. “I don’t look to stay in business if a large store opens,” said Lattell, who works six days a week and takes Sundays off. “I’m here, and I enjoy it. People I’m friends with come in. We enjoy each other’s company along with acquiring books.”

Longtime bookseller John Hagman, until recently the assistant manager of a B Dalton store in Simi Valley, thinks independent booksellers who specialize are the most likely to survive. The big stores can only carry 20% to 30% of the books available,” said Hagman, which is one reason it’s important for communities to have a network of booksellers with an in-depth stock on particular subjects.

Existing Stores Stand Better Chance

Stores that are established before the chains move in also have a better chance.

Audrey Moore opened Mysteries to Die For six years ago, before the chains appeared in Thousand Oaks, but she still saw her business drop 30% after the big stores opened. “I was beginning to wonder how I was going to pay my bills,” Moore said.

She said she weathered the storm because she is part of a two-income family, and therefore doesn’t depend solely on her store’s revenue. She worries that young people who want to open a bookstore won’t be able to unless they have an additional source of support.

Moore also thinks it’s up to individual communities to see that independent bookstores survive. “The customer has to make a decision whether they want a 10% discount or they want to talk to someone who reads. All my employees read.”

In March 1998, when Ventura Bookstore and six other California independent bookstores joined others nationwide to sue Borders and Barnes & Noble, they charged that the chains regularly negotiate illegal deals.

The independents say the chains get special discounts unavailable to non-chain stores and that the big stores use their buying power to demand a disproportionate share of promotional and advertising money.

“[Our lawyers] have got the goods on them,” said one independent bookseller. “The question now is how the courts will interpret the law.”

‘The Chains Are Ruthless’

Borders claims it’s not interested in knocking independent bookstores out of business. “We look for a niche, and we try to fill it,” said Sue Cussman, community relations coordinator for Borders in Thousand Oaks. The area didn’t have a general bookstore until the chains came in, she said.

“Borders wants to be a part of the community,” Cussman said. “We want to give something back to the community that it doesn’t currently have.”

But Jody Shapiro, owner of Adventures for Kids, a children’s bookstore in Ventura, doesn’t see it that way. “The chains are ruthless,” Shapiro said. “We’ll do anything we can to take business away from the chains.”

Shapiro saw her business slide about five years ago when customers deserted her store for the chains. Hit by a series of disasters, including the Northridge earthquake and last year’s El Nino storms, she’s had trouble bouncing back.

Two years ago, she started to see a turnaround, but says she still isn’t where she was before the chains came. To compete she has had to increase her hours and offer additional services such as discount cards.

“The big stores aren’t better, they’re just bigger,” Shapiro said. “At Adventures for Books, we have a good inventory, and we know our books. Everything here is very personally acquired for this store to sell. I love having my own space and the freedom to buy what I want.”

Stopping to think a minute she added, “Some of us are willing to have less income and more edification.”

In Moorpark, Ralph Nicoletti has taken a page from the big boys’ book. Shunning traditional small bookstore methods, Nicoletti, a former manager for a drugstore chain, has opted to compete by keeping his stock small and concentrating on special orders. He opened Crazy 4 Books three years ago and is still going strong. The sign on his window advertises Christian books, children’s books, New York bestsellers and “All Book Requests Taken.”

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Nicoletti also offers a summer reading program for teenagers and teaches reading. “Parents came to us and asked us to start a summer reading club for high school and junior high students,” Nicoletti said. “That was so successful the parents came back and asked us to teach reading. My wife, who is a teacher, helped put the program together.” Both programs have helped book sales. The kids buy their books when they come in to learn, and parents browse.

Nicoletti isn’t worried the chains might close him down. “We can still special order,” he said. “We can have a book in two days. The chains can take up to two weeks because they have to hold the orders until they have enough to make it financially worthwhile.”

But Nicoletti said he couldn’t do any of this if he lived by the traditional small-store method and had to rely solely on his store’s income. Those days, he said, are gone forever.