Bound to Be Controversy

Bound to Be Read, a 15,000-sq.-ft. general bookstore owned by St. Paul, Minn., satellite and terrestrial television company Hubbard Broadcasting, is set to open on Grand Avenue in St. Paul at the end of October. The street is already home to three independents: the Red Balloon Bookshop, Books for Travel and Ruminator Books (formerly Hungry Mind). The first two are located at the same intersection as the new store.

Bound to Be Read is the third outlet in a chain that includes a five-year-old flagship in Albuquerque, N.Mex., and a small store in Key Largo, Fla. According to Bound to Be Read president and main buyer Julia Coyte, the new store will be especially strong in fiction, home and garden, and children's books, its single largest department.

The shop will be the main tenant in a new retail and parking development called Victoria Plaza. When news of the project was announced last year, it was protested by more than 70 neighborhood businesses who cited traffic and parking concerns.

"We're really surprised that a chain like Bound to Be Read would choose to put such a large store in this neighborhood," said Carol Erdahl, co-owner of Red Balloon, a children's store. "We've been here 17 years and we think we're fully meeting the needs for children's books in this area."

"It's quite ironic that [Bound to Be Read] is trying to pass itself off as an independent," said David Unowsky, founder of Ruminator Books. "It would be like Ted Turner opening a bookstore in Atlanta. Would anyone consider that an independent?" Unowsky also expressed surprise at the location, citing the failure in the mid-1990s of Odegaard's, once a thriving independent at the same intersection.