Odds Are Stacked Against the Independent Booksellers

The holidays may be the time to count your blessings, but for the San Fernando Valley’s independent bookstores, it’s time to give thanks for just being in business.

Faced with fierce competition from the big discount chains, such as Barnes & Noble, and fast-growing Internet players, like Amazon.com, independent booksellers have been closing their stores in droves.

“A lot of people have just said, ‘To heck with this,’ ” said Diane Sharrar, who runs Bargain Books in Van Nuys with her brother, Bill Wirt. “They’re tired of the competition, the increases in rents and utilities, the permits, the taxes. They’ve had it.”

There is no question the industry has undergone a significant shakeout in recent years, said Scott McKinstry, a spokesman for the American Booksellers Assn., a trade group in Tarrytown, N.Y., for independent booksellers.

When deciding where to build new stores, big chains often target neighborhoods with independent booksellers to take advantage of the ready customer base.

Although no one tracks how many independents have gone under, McKinstry said his group has seen its own ranks dwindle from 4,000 to 3,000 in the last decade. “For a time, the decline was very sharp,” he said. “Stores were just going away, and it was happening quickly.”

Still, there are signs the shakeout may have run its course. Store closures appear to be tapering off as the independents learn to play to their strengths and hone their survival skills.

“Independent bookstores are stressing what makes them great, a passion and knowledge of books that distinguishes them from the chains,” he said.

In the case of Dutton’s Books, a fixture in the North Hollywood area for 40 years, survival means stocking a large variety of new and used books, especially collector editions and some of the more esoteric or out-of-print titles.

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Dave Dutton, who took over the general-interest bookstore from his parents in 1976, said the days are long gone when he could put out a stack of bestsellers at Christmas and expect them to sell out.

Faced with deep discounting by competitors, Dutton now has to hedge his bets by carrying many titles, but in much smaller quantities.

“Instead of stocking 50 copies of Alex Hailey or James Michener, I might order just two or three of each,” he said.

The store, located on Laurel Canyon Boulevard in Valley Village, also is able to stock more off-beat offerings, books that people might read about in an obscure review but can’t find at the chain stores.

Some bookstores depend on Christmas for as much as 40% of their annual sales, but for Dutton, the month of December usually brings about double a normal month’s revenue.

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Sales have been flat in low seven figures for the last three years, Dutton said, but he believes his has been a good strategy for survival.

“The general-interest, mom-and-pop bookstores that were just scraping by are probably gone by now,” he said. “I think the survivors will continue to survive.”

Where Dutton depends on new books for 60% of sales, Bargain Books has carved out its niche by selling all used books, mostly nonfiction and hardcover books that are often out of print.

“Where the chains might have two or three books on swords and knives, we have a whole section,” Sharrar said. “And because we sell used books, we can even beat Costco on price.”

The store has been in business for 42 years, and its longevity can be attributed in part to its location.

Although it is on Friar Street, a side street just east of Van Nuys Boulevard, the store is sandwiched between a public parking garage and the Van Nuys Civic Center. During lunch breaks, people serving jury duty wander in to browse.

It helps that the brother-sister team bought the building after taking over the family business in 1976. “Our overhead is not like a lot of stores on the boulevard,” Wirt said.

Bargain Books, meanwhile, has a cadre of dedicated customers who come from all over Southern California.

Many will come to indulge their passion for offbeat topics, like railroads or the military. Often, they’ll have to sneak their purchases into their already jam-packed homes, past exasperated spouses.

“The worst are couples who both collect,” said Sharrar, who admits to having the same obsession for books. “They end up fighting over every inch of space.”

Chris Leithiser, a computer techniciani lives in Bakersfield but makes a point to stop at Bargain Books whenever he’s in Los Angeles.

“Square-inch-wise, it’s a very rich store,” said Leithiser, who was in the store recently shopping for Christmas presents.

An avid dictionary collector, Leithiser has more than 4,000 books crammed into his home, many of them stored in boxes. “I guess there are worse things you can be addicted to than used books,” he said.

Sales from walk-in traffic have declined about 40% in recent years due to increased competition, but Wirt said he and his sister were able to make up for all but 20% of the decline by starting their own Web site.

“For gifts, this is one of our biggest months,” said Wirt, busily attending to his customers. “A well-thought-out book can be the best present you can give.”

While other stores cater more to the collector, A & M Book Cellars in Canoga Park has built its niche by selling used paperbacks to voracious readers.

Customers can buy books for as little as 13 cents and trade their old books for in-store credit. The store does a thriving trade in bestsellers available for about half the price at a new bookstore, said Alice Massoglia, who runs A & M with her husband, Marty.

“If anything, business has improved somewhat,” she said. “You keep hearing how people are no longer reading, but we see people walking in with boxes and boxes of books to trade them in for more.”

Because of its bargain prices, A & M survives through volume. The Vanowen Street store moves more than 250,000 books a year.

Leading up to Christmas, the store sells lots of gift certificates. Some customers will buy large stacks of books to give as presents, but A & M isn’t dependent on the holidays for its livelihood.

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The store has been in business nearly 17 years, and in that time the Massoglias have learned to keep the overhead low. They only have a couple of part-time employees and depend on volunteers among their book-loving customers to help out at the store.

Even then, the couple gross about $125,000 a year, not counting books sold for trade credit.

Like other independent booksellers, the Massoglias said they’re motivated not by money but by a love of books.

“We would never abandon the book business,” she said. “It’s something we find emotionally and personally rewarding.”