Interesting AP story about how indie bookstores are faring in the age of the Internet; I worked for indie bookstores in the late 80s and early 90s and love to patronize them, love the knowledgeable clerks, quirky shelf-reviews, lovingly curated recommendation sections. The business model is plainly, books for people who love books — not "sell the end-caps for this week's extruded blockbuster product."
Gary Kleiman, who owns BookBeat in the northern California community of Fairfax, decided the way to do it was to get rid of the clutter and make his store a gathering place.
"We had 10,000 or 13,000 books in the store," said Kleiman. "Now we have maybe 1,500." Last fall, Kleiman gave all but a handful of his used books to charity. Then he tore down shelves and in their place put tables and chairs and a small stage for live performances. He started offering free wireless internet access. And to help convince people to take advantage of it all he got a beer and wine license.
As for the books, most of the ones left are new and they're confined to the perimeter walls. While he's selling about the same number of books as he used to, new books are selling better. And his store has a lot more customers — eating, drinking and listening to music — than he did before. About 60 percent of the store's profits come from the cafe.
Kleiman's drastic move after six years of business is in large part the result two things he came to understand about the internet.
The first was that there were just too many used books online and they were just too cheap — far cheaper than he could afford to sell them.
The second was that for all the talk about the speed of ordering books online, he could be faster. "I can order today and they will be here tomorrow," he said — one reason customers choose him instead of the internet.
