Got Issues?! Gas, Wholesaling & Competition Top List at NEBA
by Judith Rosen, PW Daily -- Publishers Weekly, 9/19/2005
With the recent closing of Keon Books and news that Ariel Booksellers in New Paltz, N.Y. would shut at the end of the year, this year's NEBA show needed some good news to give a boost to booksellers' spirits. Instead, they heard from ABA CEO Avin Domnitz that based on the two most recent Abacus studies, "The average of all bookstores for 2003 was a loss. It's not that different this year." He blamed Amazon, Wal-Mart, Costco and grocery stores for taking sales away from independents. Some used booksellers spoke privately about a different source of competition, nonprofits. In Connecticut, several libraries have set up ongoing book sales, which offer three paperbacks for a dollar.
Gas prices, which reached $3.40 a gallon in parts of New England, were another topic of concern with fears that consumers will cut back on book buying to pay the higher prices at the pump. With newspaper headlines in the local papers during the weekend reporting about Rhode Island's proposed electricity increase of 24%, it's clear that more than just freight prices could increase significantly in the coming months. NEBA executive director Rusty Drugan raised the issue of the effect of gas prices on timely wholesaler fulfillment at Christmas. Last year, he noted, before gas prices rose, Ingram cut back on last-minute Christmas deliveries to some parts of New England.
However, more competition among distributors for New England's business could have a positive impact. There was much talk about the potential role of regional distributor, BookStream, which will open in Poughkeepsie later this fall. A second wild card could be in the works. Koen cofounder Bob Koen worked the floor on Saturday and talked with publishers and booksellers about whether they would support his return if Charles Levy were to buy Koen's former facilities and set up shop in New Jersey.
But the weekend was not all gloom and doom. In addition to a new distributor there were several new booksellers at the show, including Karlene Rearick's, whose children's bookstore, The Alphabet Garden, will open later this month. Bunch of Grapes has completed a successful succession process with owner Ann Nelson's son, Jon C. Nelson, Jr., playing a bigger role in the day-to-day operations of the store. And VanderWyk & Burnham, a small press in Acton, Mass., could be poised for its first bestseller, Front of the Class: How Tourette Syndrome Made Me the Teacher I Never Had by Brad Cohen with Lisa Wysocky, which was just excerpted in People.|
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