North Dakota

With 634,000 residents spread out over 70,000 square miles, 90% of it farmland, North Dakota averages only nine inhabitants per square mile—well below the national average of 80 persons per square mile. Because of its weak economy, harsh climate and a lack of job opportunities for college graduates, the population has been steadily dropping for decades. In the past seven years alone, there's been a 1% decrease, while the rest of the U.S. has averaged a 6.4% increase.

While placing a healthy ninth on PW's bookselling index, North Dakota isn't regarded as a prime market by national retailers. Even Wal-Mart, which seems to have blanketed the rest of the Midwest, has only 12 stores in the state.

Like the state's four Target stores, its seven chain bookstores are concentrated in North Dakota's four major cities. The largest city, Fargo, has a B&N and a B. Dalton serving its 90,000 residents. While Bismarck, the capital, has a B&N, its 57,000 residents have seen two other bookstores close in recent years—Maxwell's, a 15-year-old independent, and a Waldenbooks. Grand Forks and Minot each boast a B. Dalton and a Waldenbooks. North Dakota's third B&N is scheduled to open this fall in Minot, to accommodate its 35,000 residents, as well as 8,000 military personnel and their families stationed at the U.S. Air Force base nearby.

Besides seven chain bookstores, North Dakota has 12 independent bookstores: four that belong to the ABA, three MBA (Midwest Booksellers Association) members and five CBA member stores. Like Target and the chain bookstores, the CBA stores are in the state's major population centers, with two CBA stores in Fargo, and one each in Bismarck, Grand Forks and Minot.

In contrast, the seven other independent stores are spread out across the state, two in Fargo and one 300 miles west, along I-94, in Dickinson. Three towns adjacent to Highway 2—Devils Lake, Minot and Williston—have bookstores. Only one, Sweets 'N Stories, in Oakes, is located far from either of the two highways crisscrossing the state.

“There's all sorts of empty space in North Dakota. The stores there really are spread out,” said Susan Walker, MBA's executive director. “But each is an essential part of its community.”

Walker said the secret to these independent stores' survival may be that they don't just provide books to their patrons; they provide other products and services to isolated communities.

Zandbroz Variety in Fargo sells “a little bit of everything,” said its owner, Greg Zandbroz, who opened his 6,000-square-foot store, complete with soda fountain, in 1991. Zandbroz carries CDs, body products, gifts and toys besides books, which he estimates to be 30% of his total store inventory.

“It's hard to make it only as a bookstore,” Zandbroz said. “There's just not the population here to make it work.”

Heather Roney opened Sweets 'N Stories in 1993, serving the 2,000 residents of Oakes with books, ice cream and gifts, after she moved to this southeastern North Dakota town and discovered that the nearest store selling books was more than 100 miles away. Ten years ago, she added a deli to the mix in her 2,000-square-foot shop.

Chuck Wilder, the owner of Books on Broadway, in Williston, a town of 15,000 near the Montana state line, offers books and gifts in the 1,600-square-foot store his late wife, Robin, founded in 1993. He's just opened an Art Nouveau–style coffee bar in the store, with pressed tin ceiling, cork floor tiles and an antique soda fountain made of marble and stained glass.

“I want people to feel as if they've walked into a store on Grand Avenue in St. Paul [Minn.]. I want them to linger,” Wilder insisted. “I'm providing my patrons with an experience.”