Our Shelves Aren't for Sale: Independent Book Selling in the Mega Store Jungle

A book-club member attending one of our recent presentations remarked, "Surely the chain stores like Barnes & Noble and Borders aren't affecting your business--you are such an institution..." Momentarily I was stopped dead in my tracks; I wanted to share my true thoughts, but I did not want to sound bitter or defensive. It is a difficult subject to tackle, especially for someone who has made bookselling her career. I pride myself on purveying a hand-picked selection that provides enough variety to fit everyone's reading tastes. I also cherish my personal relationships with our customers.

Are we being affected by the chains? You bet, but more importantly, everyone is being affected in ways that most people neither know nor understand.

I recall about five years ago, before the large chain stores had located in the Seattle area (twelve have opened in three years), that during the holidays I was unable to restock a popular fiction title through our normal channels. When I called to investigate what had happening in the distribution pipeline, I was informed that it was a title that "the chains had high hopes for, so they had bought out much of the printing." Therefore the publisher was not going to print more copies, fearing the horrendous returns they risked from the chains' big buy. (Unlike most retail goods, books are purchased on a time-sensitive, returnable basis.) This meant that particular title was only available at a chain store during the critical holiday shopping period. Fear of returns is why the smaller presses were reluctant to sell to the chains initially. Independents buy for one store only and know and interact with their clientele. Chains buy from a central office for national distribution, buyers in their central office who have no direct relationship to their customers. Independents buy only what they realistically think they can sell during a given period of time; generally only a small percentage of their purchases are returned unsold to the publisher. Not so with the huge mega-chains, who are rumored to have as high as a 40 percent return rate. So a small press, struggling to publish good books and keep financially afloat, by selling to the chains risks being drowned with the vast volume of printing coming back to their warehouses six months later.

At ABA, the national book convention in Chicago this year, I learned of an independent bookseller who was employing a technique used by the chains: selling the prime display spaces in their store windows, on their tables, and on their shelves to the highest bidder. Ever wonder why, when you go into a chain store, the displays look just like all the other chain store displays? This positioning is bought and paid for by publishers who influence book-placing decisions with hefty monetary incentives. That independent store felt this revenue source was their only way to survive in light of the increased competition and higher discounts that chain stores were being granted. These discounts, said to be as much as 15 percent higher than those granted to independents, can therefore be passed onto their customers in the form of lower book prices than the independent can afford to offer. These practices caused the Federal Trade Commission to initiate legal action against six of the largest publishers in the U.S., charging them with illegal price discrimination.

Please, kind reader, also bear in mind the corporate stance adopted by these mega-chains when it comes to controversy, such as the marketing of Salman Rushdie's Satanic Verses or Ervin "Magic" Johnson's book on AIDS a few years ago. Books that some readers may find objectionable, the chains often do not order, or they pull them from their shelves when attention is drawn to them in what they consider a negative light. Eventually this is bound to influence what will and won't get published in the first place.

Are lower prices worth the extinction of the independents? I don't think so. When you go into independent bookstores you see a unique collection of books that represents the sum of hours and hours of individuals book-buying with you in mind, creating locally a mosaic of books geared toward your reading interests and incorporating the knowledge that diversity is a wonderful thing, the basis of a strong democracy, not something to fear and squelch. I love telling new staff members that one great thing about working at Elliott Bay Book Company is the opportunity to make an unknown book of quality stand out, the ability to put a lesser-known title into the hands of readers, and to develop relationships with patrons who may share a common interest. This is independent bookselling at its best, not based on a memo originated from far away dictating sales goals for a particular title and which titles must be carried and where in the store they must be displayed. We buy independently, we read, display, and write here in Booknotes about books we enjoy and believe in--we do not sell this selection process to publishers by accepting money for book exposure.

I love it when our patrons bring in their out-of-town guests and tell them that this is 'their' bookstore; I watch them beam with pride as they reveal room after room of possibilities, a collection of books that represents almost twenty-five years of slow growth and the dedication of an evolving staff who have all contributed to this collection.

I urge you to remember that Elliott Bay Book Company can only survive with the support of readers, like you, who are willing to support our unique selection on a regular basis. If you value a strong and diverse institution, with a wide choice of offerings and ideas, we cherish your support.

by Kristin Kennell, 1997