By Alex Valentine<\/p>\n
Tucked neatly into an alleyway between Sherman and Benson Avenue sits Bookends and Beginnings, Evanston\u2019s only independent bookstore. With a narrow brick exterior and a deceptively large interior, it would fit nicely in Harry Potter\u2019s Diagon Alley.<\/p>\n
Evanston bookworms mourned when the building\u2019s former resident, Bookman\u2019s Alley, closed in October 2013, after 33 years in business. Bookman\u2019s Alley was such a community staple that author Audrey Niffenegger mentioned it in her 2003 bestseller, The Time Traveler\u2019s Wife.<\/p>\n
The following summer, Nina Barrett and her husband, Jeff Garrett jumped at the opportunity to take over the tenancy of the bookstore.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s an interesting time for bookstores,\u201d said Barrett. \u201cTen years ago, I wouldn\u2019t have considered opening one. But the time was right.\u201d<\/p>\n
Evanston, like many other U.S. cities, had two major retail bookstores for years \u2013 Borders and Barnes & Noble. But online competition from Amazon crippled the two chains\u2019 brick-and-mortar business model.<\/p>\n
Borders went out of business and shuttered all 511 of its U.S. stores in 2011, and Barnes & Noble is struggling mightily to keep its head above water. The New York City-based bookstore reported a third consecutive loss for the latest quarter on Thursday, and its stock price of $10.04 is down 26 percent from a year ago.<\/p>\n
As of March 2014, Amazon had a 41 percent market share of all new book purchases, including a 65 percent share of online book purchases.<\/p>\n
But Bookends and Beginnings is in a market segment that has been able to fight off online competition, and is thriving now that corporate bookstore competition has waned.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe attract a certain kind of reader who still wants to touch a physical book, and misses the \u2018bookstore experience,’\u201d said Barrett. The bookstore\u2019s best sellers are typically older, quirky books, and are rarely New York Times bestsellers.<\/p>\n
For several years, the future of independent bookstores didn\u2019t look so promising.<\/p>\n
The number of independent bookstores in the U.S. plummeted from around 4,000 in the early 1990s to about 1,800 in 2006, largely because of the growth of Borders and Barnes & Noble. In the 1990s alone, Borders went from 21 bookstores to 256 superstores.<\/p>\n
“For a long time, from 1992 to 2002, you literally could count on two hands the number of [independent bookstore] openings,” Oren Teicher, CEO of the American Booksellers Association, told USA Today in 2006.<\/p>\n
However, ABA data shows the number of independent bookstores in the U.S. has rebounded over the past six years by 35 percent, up to 2,227 as of November 2015. In 2014, year-over-year book sales were up nationally in 47 out of 52 weeks.<\/p>\n
[field name=”Independent Book Stores”]<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve all been to the big box stores, and it\u2019s the same thing every time,\u201d said Linda Kruhmin of Evanston, a frequent Bookends and Beginnings customer. \u201cI feel good about the money I spend here. Even if I\u2019m not interested in a subject, I\u2019ll pull out a book, and it\u2019ll pique my interest. This is where I come to forget about all of the problems in the outside world.\u201d<\/p>\n
That type of unique connection between small bookstores and their customers is the catalyst behind independent bookstores\u2019 resurgence.<\/p>\n
Bookends and Beginnings has a rewards system that gives customers 5 percent off for every $100 spent at the store. Attached to several books are reviews, written by one of the store\u2019s six employees \u2013 a common practice at many independent bookstores.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur customers are passionate about reading, and they want to take recommendations from other avid readers,\u201d said Barrett.<\/p>\n
Barrett says independent book stores aim for a 2 percent profit margin, but that many lose 2 percent or more annually.<\/p>\n
When Barrett and her husband first opened Bookends and Beginnings, they bought 10,000 used books and started with a small inventory, which helped them avoid an initial loss that would have been difficult to overcome.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re still in our second year, and we don\u2019t expect to make money for the first two years, just like any other business,\u201d said Barrett.<\/p>\n
Still, she said sales are running consistently higher by 40-50 percent from a year ago. Customers flocked to the store for the annual \u201cSmall Business Saturday,\u201d a nationally recognized day for shopping at local businesses, which is sandwiched between Black Friday and Cyber Monday.<\/p>\n
Last year, sales tapered off after Small Business Saturday, until the final weeks before Christmas. But this year, Barrett says sales have been much more consistent during the lull between the bookstore’s two busiest times.<\/p>\n
While that\u2019s a hopeful sign for Bookends and Beginnings and other independent bookstores\u2019 staying power, Barrett still worries about the impact of Amazon\u2019s low prices on the future of the publishing industry.<\/p>\n
For example, Shea Serrano\u2019s The Rap Yearbook, a New York Times bestseller, is sold at Bookends and Beginnings for a retail price of $18.95 before tax. The same book is $11.37 on Amazon.<\/p>\n
Barrett says prices that low create an unsustainable publishing process.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s much like the difference between farm-to-table restaurants and fast food,\u201d said Barrett. \u201cYou pay more for the product, but you\u2019re also paying for the process that\u2019s behind the scenes. There are too many people who need to be paid in the bookmaking business to charge that much below retail value.\u201d<\/p>\n
By Alex Valentine Tucked neatly into an alleyway between Sherman and Benson Avenue sits Bookends and Beginnings, Evanston\u2019s only independent bookstore. With a narrow brick exterior and a deceptively large interior, it would fit nicely in Harry Potter\u2019s Diagon Alley. Evanston bookworms mourned when the building\u2019s former resident, Bookman\u2019s Alley, closed in October 2013, after […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":149,"featured_media":22248,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27,509],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22059","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","category-fall-2015"],"yoast_head":"\n