Elm Street Books to Close

by Kevin Howell, PW Daily -- Publishers Weekly, 2/16/2006

Three year-old Elm Street Books, in New Canaan, CT, will close on March 12. Six months ago, R.J. Julia Booksellers owner Roxanne Coady was hired as a managerial consultant with an option to purchase the store. When she decided not to exercise that option, the members of the investor group who co-own the bookstore took a month to look at the store's financials before deciding it wasn't feasible to stay open.

"When the New Canaan Book Shop closed in 2001, the city was left without an independent bookstore," said Susan Rein, one of Elm Street's co-owners/investors. "The old bookstore was doing $2 million in sales when it closed, so we raised money and quickly looked for a space that we thought would be able to get that level of sales."

The 3,600-square-foot Elm Street Books opened in November 2002 in the newly constructed building across from the train station. "At the time we were happy that we were just across the street and a block away from the main shopping area with a big parking lot, which is a blessing," said Rein. Unfortunately, the store's location did not encourage foot-traffic.

Besides the lack of foot-traffic, the bookstore also faced a daunting rent. While most independent booksellers spend between 8% and 10% of annual sales on rent, Elm Street Books's rent is approximately 22% of annual sales.

"I think Elm Street had the same problem that Kepler's faced," said Coady. "It is unfortunate that communities with a population that is most interested in supporting a local, independent bookstore are the very same communities with rent structures that are incompatible with the economics of an independent bookstore."

While Rein said sales had increased 8% since Coady took over " the momentum needed to be more than that to justify keeping it going for three more years in the hopes of breaking even."