Ho Ho Ho and Oh No: Mixed Tidings on Holiday Season So Far

by John Mutter and Edward Nawotka, PW Daily for Booksellers -- Publishers Weekly, 12/6/2001

Several independent booksellers with whom PW Daily spoke this week offered mixed reports on business so far during the toughest holiday season in at least five years. Some had sales gains that might make some store owners blush. Others are likely waiting 'til next year...

At Mystery Lovers Bookshop, Oakmont, Pa., near Pittsburgh, sales since Thanksgiving have been up 22% compared to the same period last year, co-owner Richard Goldman reported. Sales of sidelines--particularly mugs and tote bags with Edward Gorey illustrations--have been especially strong and contributed to the overall gain.

The store's new Web site has drawn more sidelines orders, which leads Goldman to believe that the site is attracting new customers in addition to traditional mail-order customers, who tend to order "long lists of mysteries." In addition, Harry Potter books and tie-in products, some general bestsellers, including Falling Angels by Tracy Chevalier, Portrait in Sepia by Isabele Allende and The Nautical Chart by Arturo Perez-Reverte, and many mysteries are selling well.

The mood among customers appears "very normal," Goldman said. "I'm not seeing a striking difference in attitude." In addition, credit card use is as heavy as ever for the holidays.

Similarly at Reader's Oasis, Tucson, Ariz., a store that opened last year and is in a university area, sales since Thanksgiving have risen "a third," according to Jeff Yanc, head buyer. The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen has done "extremely well," Yanc said. Other strong titles: Sailing Alone Around the Room by Billy Collins, The Best American Poetry 2001, the Seamus Heaney translation of Beowulf, Prodigal Summer by "local" Barbara Kingsolver, the Phaidon 55 series and several regional titles.

Reader's Oasis customers showed great interest in September 11 titles for a time, but that has "dropped almost completely," Yanc said. People now are "looking for more escapism," and sales of art and photography titles are rising accordingly.

By contrast with Mystery Lovers Bookshop and Reader's Oasis, sales at the Chinook Bookshop in Colorado Springs, Colo., were down 3.5% in November, and co-owner Dick Noyes said he hopes "things are bottoming out. People are being a little tight fisted with their money right now." The store is "not really downhearted," he continued. "Hopefully we'll rebound in the first quarter but more likely the second."

Noyes blamed the situation in large part on the recession and a dearth of "good titles." Still, among the store's bestsellers are Skipping Christmas by John Grisham, John Adams by David McCullough, How I Play Golf by Tiger Woods, When Character Was King by Peggy Noonan and Final Days by Barbara Olson.

Harry Potter titles, The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen, Isle of Dogs by Patricia Cornwell, the Olivia titles, Heartsongs by Mattie Stepanek and The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz, among other titles, are also selling well.

The store's "September 11 section" is "going gangbusters," Noyes said. Serious works on the Middle East, current affairs, espionage, terrorism, Islam and history are doing well, Noyes noted. The only titles in this area that aren't selling well are "the picture books--the hoorah kind of stuff. Consumers are more sophisticated and want the real stuff."