Elm Street Books Rises Again

by Kevin Howell, PW Daily -- Publishers Weekly, 8/22/2006

"Everybody loves a phoenix that rises from the ashes," said Susan Rein, managing member of the LLC that last weekend re-opened the Elm Street Bookstore in New Caanan, Conn.

As previously reported in PW Daily ("Elm Street Books to Close", PW Daily, Feb. 11, 2006), the three-year-old bookstore closed in March due to dwindling sales and poor location, but was resuscitated two months later when it found new investors and a more accessible location ("Elm Street Books to Bloom Again", PW Daily, June 5, 2006).

"We had a bang-up weekend," said manager Kathleen Millard. "Saturday was like a Christmas day and Sunday was equally strong." Not bad for a soft opening with no advertising. "People are thrilled that we're back. All weekend long, we heard how they loved our size, our décor and our new high-end sidelines."

The new store boasts 1,700 sq.-ft of selling space, roughly half the size of the previous location. "Our old location had too much space, which is deadly for a bookstore," said Millard. "We had great sales and great customers but were paying so much for all the space." The new location is in the middle of the block-long business district with heavy foot traffic and ideally situation next to a café, which is now connected to the bookstore with a newly cut door in the wall between them.

The bookstore's staff of 10 is comprised of some veterans from the old location and some new booksellers. Millard has been with Elm Street Bookstore for almost two years; prior to being promoted to manager, she was the store's frontlist buyer.

"Its just amazing. We have three times the number of people in our store than usual and its 9 a.m. on a Monday," said Susan Rein.

"Its just amazing how everything came together," said Rein. "Truthfully, we were not thinking of reopening when we closed in March. We'd paid for storage for a year on our fixtures, book cases and lights. But then we were told about this location. The landlord had a number of offers that were higher than ours but they wanted a bookstore here. It's a real happy ending. And hopefully, two years from now we'll still be happily ensconced in our store."