Angel Saves Transitions Bookstore

by Kevin Howell, PW Daily -- Publishers Weekly, 5/9/2006

Last year Howard Mandel and Gayle Seminara-Mandel filed for bankruptcy to keep their 16-year-old Chicago bookstore in business and last month, when the store was a month-and-a-half behind in its rent and C.O.D. with many publishers, the couple put their home on the market. Last week, a day before they were to sign liquidation papers, an angel came through to keep the doors of the Transitions Bookplace & Café open.

"We had reached out to our community via our e-mail newsletter to let them know we were in trouble and more people turned up at the store, but not enough to generate the sales we'd need to dig us out of our financial hole," said Gayle Seminara-Mandel.

Less than 24 hours before the couple would sign papers to close the store, Seminara-Mandel listened to a phone message from a man who said his family enjoyed their bookstore, adding "I may be able to help you." Seminara-Mandel called the man back and explained how much money they would need to reemerge from bankruptcy and how much they needed as a financial pad to get through the summer season. He told her, "I think I can help you with that." The next day, at the end of their five hour meeting, he handed Gayle a $4,000 check and the following day he gave them a $75,000 check with more to come.

"I kept asking him what he wanted out of this deal," said Seminara-Mandel, "and he kept saying, 'I want to give you this money. I just want this bookstore to be around for others. My reasons are between me and the world.' " When the Mandells and their anonymous benefactor started discussing how the ownership of the store would be split between the three, the man suggested the couple own 99% and he have a 1% share of the store. "He doesn't want to take over the place," said Seminara-Mandel. "I was concerned with having someone coming in as a new partner and trying to get them up to speed while I was trying to get everything done all day long. He is truly an angel that manifested out of thin air."

Te influx of money will help the store make good on changes they began last year, including working to increase discounts at the store's café and trimming their staff from 28 to 19. "We used to be more stratified about who did what around the store, now we all have a hand in everything. All that hard work last year was a little too late to salvage us financially. Now we're reemerging with a clean slate. We think the plan we created last year will work with the help of this new stream of revenue," Seminara-Mandel said. The money also allows the store to continue with almost-daily events and workshops hosted in the store.

Transitions's decision to go public with their dire financial situation also attracted the attention of Mark Stevens, CEO of a marketing and management firm and author Your Management Sucks (Crown Business). After reading the couple's story in PW Daily, Stevens contacted them, offering a free consultation. "Mark Stevens helped put the fire back in our belly," said Seminara-Mandel.Stevens told the couple they had to create the perfect soundbite about what their store was within the community and to keep reaching out to that community.

Now that the bookstore's future looks brighter, Seminara-Mandel said their next goal is to "work ourselves back into the good graces of the accounting departments of publishing houses. We're tighter, leaner and moving forward. We have a new chapter and it's a miracle."