Thanksgiving Brings Some Hope to Indies
-- Publishers Weekly, 12/2/2008 9:55:00 AM
Interviews with a dozen independent booksellers found business during Thanksgiving week ranging from surprisingly good to dismal. The runaway hit of the week, in the words of more than one bookseller, was “anything by Stephenie Meyer,” and several stores reported having trouble keeping her titles in stock. “Who would think people would still want a hardcover of the second or third book?” said Nicola Rooney of Nicola’s Books of Ann Arbor, Mich. Even with the generally good week, however, most stores said November was a down month and several said they moved up book returns from January to the fall. Most booksellers, however, tried to be optimistic that the holiday season will not be as bad as many had feared.
At Galaxy Bookshop in Hardwick, Vt., owner Linda Ramsdell said she had the best Black Friday in at least five years, with sales double over a year ago. “People, especially in Vermont, really get the local thing and are making an effort,” Ramsdell said. No titles stood out at Galaxy, though a couple of local books were selling well, as was the Twilight series--when the store had the titles in stock. Any Given Day and Spyology are starting to pick up, Ramsdell added.
Another store off to a stellar start was Skylight Books in Los Angeles. Sales were up 24% on Wednesday, and up 34% Friday, Saturday and Sunday. While the store opened a new annex a few months ago, its inventory has remained about the same. The store’s Kerry Slattery said she thinks the additional display space and the ability to face more books out had a lot to do with the increase, as did heavy street traffic in the Los Feliz neighborhood over the weekend. Skylight has also been making its "Staff Picks" more visible.
Liz Murphy, owner of the Learned Owl in Hudson, Ohio, said her store had a great weekend, even though sales were up only modestly. “We were prepared for them to be way, way down. So I was ecstatic they were slightly up," she said. Results at the Other Tiger of Westerly, R.I. reflected the mixed performance many booksellers have experienced. Robert Utter, co-owner, said Friday was fairly good, with sales up 25% over last year, but November was still off by about 20% and the store was down 11% for the year. “It just feels like people have pulled back,” said Utter. "People are buying very particular gifts, but nothing to read for themselves."
Another bookseller who noticed consumers being more careful about their purchasing was Patrick King of The Poisoned Pen in Scottsdale, Ariz. He said the weekend turned out to be pretty average. “Black Friday was very good--we did about $1,500 in sales and a total of $6,000 over the weekend. If this is any indication, the outlook is pretty decent for book sales,” King reported. He noted that more people were paying with cash than with credit this year, with most using debit cards. King said Clive Cussler's Arctic Drift is selling like hot cakes, as is Gregory Maguire's Lion Among Men, and Michael Connelly's The Brass Verdict. And since The Poisoned Pen is author Diane Gabaldon’s local store and handles all of her mail orders, anything by her does well at this time of the year, King said.
Harvey Finkel of Clinton Book Shop in Clinton, N.J., said sales were down 10% in November, though the store was still up about 3% for the year. “I'm optimistic that we will break even for December or do better,” he said, observing that “customers are still there, but they’re watching their money and are less willing to spring for that extra book. Customer count may be down just a bit, but I think it's mostly that people are more cautious in their purchases than last year.”
On the down side, Eso Won Books in Los Angeles said the weekend was "awful." Kathy Simoneaux, co-owner of Chester County Book Company in West Chester, Pa., said Black Friday is usually not a big deal for the store, and this year was no different. Sales overall, however, are down. “The economic crisis hit us very hard. We could see it in September, and we’ve been severely down since then. November is a little better than September and October. It’s coming back a little bit. But I didn’t expect to be up last weekend,” Simoneaux said.
“Usually we don’t make returns this time of year, but we are this year,” Simoneaux noted. “We are getting rid of some spring and summer and even some fall books that aren’t doing anything. We’re being much more aggressive this fall about returns. And reorders are conservative.”
