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Independents' day: small book chain thrives |
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Independent bookstores are failing at an alarming rate, folding under intense competition from national bookstore chains. Gene Moutsatson and Debbie Hayes are deeply concerned that independent booksellers like themselves are becoming too rare, but they are very much alive and kicking.
Moutsatson and Hayes bought three of their current stores—all of which have been around for 30 years or more—in 1999 and started the fourth, in Owosso when they saw a market there. Their Lansing store, Community Newscenter, is a local favorite that has survived the arrival of four national chain stores to the Lansing area. Their three other stores—all called The Book Mark—are in the smaller communities of Mount Pleasant, Owosso and Manistee. “I talk with the vendor salespeople and they, too, see the trend of independents going under,” said Moutsaton. “They tell me that the ones that survive are those that watch everything like a hawk—overhead, inventory, trends—and then they just work harder than the others.” Then there’s competition from the Internet giant Amazon, which started as a bookstore. The partners see online bookstores as just another form of competition, which a good retailer has to deal with by figuring out how to give better service or better meet customers’ overall needs. “At our stores, a dissatisfied customer doesn’t have to wait in line at the post office to return a book,” Moutsatson said. “We’ll take back even special orders, and we don’t charge shipping.” Personalized attention and service are high priorities at all their locations. “We don’t have clerks here, we have booksellers,” Moutsatson said. “If you’re a regular or semi-regular customer, one of the staff will probably greet you by name and may have a sense of what you read. “If you ask about a title, we’ll walk you over to it. And the staff learns my favorite saying: ‘never make anyone wait to give you money.’ ” Hayes added: “Everyone we hire cares about books and is encouraged to share his or her favorites and ideas. A shelf features employee picks, which helps foster the personalized, approachable atmosphere.” Their stores are full-line bookstores, not niche stores, which many independents have turned to in the face of increased competition. Niche bookstores specialize in an area, such as mysteries, children’s books or travel titles, but Moutsatson calls the niche store “a two-edged sword.” “A niche store draws in people from a wider radius,” he said. “But some customers won’t check that store for other titles, or just to browse.”
“A friend of mine asked for a certain magazine at one of the national bookstores in Lansing, and they referred her to our store. We loved it.” Size plays a role in maintaining the balance between being a full-line bookstore and a friendly, intimate store. All their stores are small compared to national chains, but the biggest two are at an optimum size, according to Moutsatson. If they were any larger they might lose the personal feel; any smaller and they would have to carry fewer titles or crowd the titles too much. “The superstores carry tens of thousands of titles. Our stores carry 15,000 titles, but we can special-order 200,000 titles. We place special orders at least twice a week.” They learned a lesson in size in 1991, when the Mount Pleasant store almost doubled its space by changing locations at a strip mall. “When we moved we didn’t add a single title, we just spread things out and let more covers show,” recalled Hayes. “Customers came in and marveled at all our new inventory. We just nodded and appreciated the boost in image.” She added: “Publishers spend lots of money on cover art because covers sell books. So to freshen up a section, along with weeding out the stale titles, we just change which book covers we turn out.” Moutsatson has noticed that at other bookstores, too often all the customer sees are book spines rather than covers, due to crowded shelves. Every book has to earn its spot on his shelves, Moutsatson says. At the same time, he encourages “hand-selling” books that would otherwise sit on the shelf, a skill for which independent booksellers are known. Obscure but talented authors rely on staff at independent bookstores to recommend their titles and generate excitement about a title. “With so few independents left, books are less likely to become big hits through hand-selling,” said Moutsatson. “Most of the staff at national chain stores do not hand-sell. Those stores rely on publishers and marketers to tell them what will be big.” This summer, what will be big is hardly a secret. The whole book industry is anxiously awaiting the arrival on July 16 of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. Since book sales have been flat for many months, all booksellers are excited, hoping for the same magic they saw in 2003, when the last Harry Potter book was released and anticipation reached a fever pitch. “We had midnight parties for the release, with 130 in line at one of our stores,” said Moutsatson. They will repeat the midnight parties this summer, and pre-orders are going fairly well. Still, Moutsatson doubts that this year’s release will be quite as big an event as the 2003 Potter release. “It’s hard to get that kind of magic to repeat itself. Fans are more accustomed to the wait, and they realize that there will be enough copies.” In 2003 the publisher sold copies to any store that wanted it. That angered booksellers who found it out of stock when they tried to reorder. That mistake won’t be repeated. “At one point, we ran out of them and had to run over to Wal-Mart to buy some, because you can’t be out of stock on such a hot title,” recalled Moutsatson. Despite their concern for the future of independent bookstores, Moutsatson and Hayes love their jobs. “Wherever I go, I look for those great, independent stores that make you feel welcome. Americans still want that—if they can find it. That’s why we’re here and we’re determined to stay.” This article was written by Amy Buttery, Michigan Retailer staff writer. |
Their
small chain of four bookstores in mid-Michigan manages to survive by watching
overhead carefully, understanding inventory and merchandising, and maintaining
a reputation for a wide selection of magazines.
Their
larger stores specialize in magazines, claiming one of the widest selections
of magazines in Michigan, with 1,500 magazine titles at their Lansing
and Mount Pleasant locations.