News Roundup

A New Chapter

New Orleans CityBusiness
Emilie Bahr
December 1, 2008

For months, the city’s independent booksellers have been bracing — and strategizing — for the behemoth’s arrival.

Their planning began more than a year ago, when it became known that national book chain Borders would move into the former Bultman Funeral Home at St. Charles and Louisiana avenues. Many city residents cheered the development for its promise of rehabilitating a once-vibrant corner that had fallen into decline.

But for more than a dozen local booksellers fearful of the effects of the enterprise on their longstanding businesses, Borders’ entry has proven a rallying point, one that has spawned a collaborative spirit they hope to use to their advantage.

Store representatives have joined together in advertising and honing talking points that promote the community benefits of small business patronage. One of the more commonly repeated points comes from a study showing sales at local stores funnel three times the money back into the local economy compared with sales at chain stores.

And this weekend, to coincide with the grand opening of the gleaming new 25,000-square-foot Borders store, they are hosting a celebration of independent bookstores, with food and wine tastings and other special events and a portion of proceeds dedicated to local literacy programs.

“When we first heard the rumors (of Borders moving in), we said it’s about showing how strong we are, not criticizing them,” said Winter Randall, manager at deVille Books in the Central Business District and executive director of the New Orleans-Gulf South Booksellers Association. “We’re sure there’s going to be some kind of impact felt, we’re just hoping it’s not too severe.”

Staying viable

The origins of independent booksellers’ concerns are obvious. Stores nationally have been hit hard in recent years by diminishing support because of competition from national chains and consumers’ embrace of online shopping.

New Orleans, local sellers point out, has proven more successful than some urban centers in retaining its independent bookstores.

“Part of that’s probably due to the fact that the chains have not come in here in a really strong way,” said Britton Trice, owner of the 33-year-old Garden District Book Shop.

But Trice and others say the phenomenon also reflects a certain independent attitude among New Orleanians. They are counting on an appreciation of the more personalized approach offered by locally owned book vendors to help keep their small stores viable.

“I look at chain bookstores as retail chains that sell books,” Randall said. “I know my customers. I know what they read. You might not always get that at a chain store.”

Amid all the fretting and strategizing, some are looking for the potentially positive effects of Borders’ arrival. Among the possibilities hoped for is an expansion of the literary community, which could ultimately mean more interest in local bookstores.

And there is the chance for what Dana Eness, executive director of The Urban Conservancy, describes as “cross-pollination” between Borders and the independent stores.

Eness, who has been working with local sellers on ways to help soften the effects of the chain store’s entrance, said independent bookstore operators “feel confident that this can be as much an opportunity as a threat.”

Room for all

Tulane University marketing professor Manish Kacker predicts independent bookstores could be poised for a boost in business, depending on the shape and strength of their response to Borders’ arrival.

“How well any of these independent stores do depends on how well they adapt,” said Kacker, who outlined strategies similar to those store owners have been pursuing: playing up the qualities that chain stores lack while collaborating to create efficiencies.

“Also,” Kacker said, “they can succeed by piggybacking on what Borders does rather than going head-on against them.”

Eness said Borders representatives should also keep in mind their capacity to create “synergies” with the local booksellers.

“It’s an opportunity for them to be good corporate citizens,” she said. “To say, how can we be here and provide new reading opportunities and literary opportunities without capsizing the vibrancy, the local economy that brought us here in the first place?”

During a media tour held before the store’s opening, Borders CEO George Jones spoke of his longtime love for the Crescent City, a place he recalled first visiting in his youth and where he has kept a residence for the past six years.

“There hasn’t been any one (store) that I’ve been more involved in,” Jones said.

The CEO said there is room for Borders and independent sellers to coexist, pointing to the company’s hometown of Ann Arbor, Mich., where he said a bevy of local stores continues to prosper.

“We really think that, frankly, we’ll do our thing and they’ll do theirs,” Jones said.

Trice, meantime, says he is increasingly optimistic about his store’s chances.

“Business wise,” he said, “I’m a little bit more worried about the national economy and what’s happening there.”