Booksellers: Demise of big competitor a sad chapter

Small independent bookstores in the region aren't celebrating the demise of Borders including the closure of its stores in Reno and Carson City.

Instead, stores that focus on resale of used books fear that consumers will stock up on volumes at liquidation prices as Borders closes and won't come through their doors in search of reading material for months.

And the growth in sales of E-readers such as the Nook or Kindle and Internet sales continue to chip away at paperback and hardcover sales in small retail shops as well as big-box booksellers.

Christine Kelly, owner of Sundance Books and Music, one of the few independent book stores in the Truckee Meadows that focuses on new books, says the bookselling market is in a state of flux. Technology has changed the way people buy and read books, and Borders fell behind the curve, she says.

"It is a very tough economy, and they got a little behind in regards to digital and the Internet. It was bad timing for them," she says.

Closure of the book giant, which expects to shutter operations for good in September, brings mixed feelings for bookstore owners. On the one hand, Kelly says, some new book lovers who formerly favored Borders may find her shop appealing. But the closure of any bookstore in the Truckee Meadows feels almost like a personal loss.

"I am not concerned for us as a viable entity; that doesn't send a signal to me that we are not go to be OK," Kelly says. "The Borders situation is a complicated one, and for many years they did a very fine job at what they did. But any time you have a loss of bookshelf space in a community it is a sad thing and a concerning thing.

"Obviously we hope to pick up some of their customer base and hope they will come to check us out. But there are 11,000 people losing their jobs, and over 200 large structures with nothing in them, and there is nothing positive about that," Kelly adds.

Ivye Johnson, owner of Zephyr Books, says she also is saddened by the closure of Borders. Johnson hopes to increase her market share with the loss of the much larger neighbor a mile or so south of her store on Virginia Street, but she's also been proactive about bringing in new customers.

Increased signage in the large plate-glass windows fronting Virginia Street has helped bring fresh faces through the doors, Johnson says, as has a television ad created by campy horror icon Zomboo.

"I always thought my market was readers, and TV was the wrong market, but KOLO talked me into trying it," she says. "I get a lot of customers who come in and say they saw my ad on TV."

Others fear that the store's closure means less business, at least through summer months when sales typically lag anyway. Susan Hoffman, owner of Dog-Eared Books in Carson City, says her store stands to benefit from being one of the few places outside of supermarket shelves where book lovers can peruse the isles for a good read, but she says her clientele might stay away after buying up bunches of new books on deeply discounted prices.

"There will be a glut of books out there from their closing, and I don't know that will be good for us," Hoffman says. "We sell used books, and before they were used they were new. There has to be a source for people to buy new books."

For one store, the closure of Borders means a ready pool of skilled labor.

Zoe Miller, president of Grassroots Books, hired two full-time staff members who formerly worked at Borders, and says she's open to hiring more.

Grassroots Books on Grove Street formerly focused on used book sales but changed its business model to include new hardcovers, which it sells at 20 percent off of jacket pricing in order to spur sales. Miller fears that Borders' liquidation will draw off many of the bargain hunters who typically pore over her shelves.

"There will be definite dip for sure," she says. "They are going to sell a lot of inventory, not only from their stores but they will be bringing things in from their warehouses, probably four times what is in their stores."

The growing popularity of electronic readers also puts increasing pressure on all booksellers, book retailers say. In July 2010, Amazon.com reported that Kindle sales outpaced hardcover sales, and in January Kindle sales overtook paperback sales. Amazon resells paperback books for pennies on the dollar, which has further stifled retail sales at brick and mortar establishments.

Hoffman, who purchased Dog-Eared Books three years ago, says she might have reconsidered her investment if she could have foreseen how much the Nook and Kindle would siphon off sales of traditional books.

"We are just day-to-day at this point," Hoffman says. "It has been a really hard time this last year. We have a group of people really loyal to store and like to do the book exchange, but it is really scary in combination with economy; people just don't have money."

Sundance's Kelly says both forms of competition have definitely changed the store's flow and core customer base. To counter electronic and Internet sales, Sundance Books and Music goes to great lengths to stock its shelves with handpicked titles, and a loyal employee base also provides stability and name recognition for customers. Sundance Books and Music also recently relocated into the old 5,000-square-foot Levy Mansion at California Avenue and Sierra Street, a site with much greater ambiance than its longtime location in a strip center off Keystone Avenue.

"I think that you continue to do what you know you are about and try to do it more economically than ever, but we won't chase our tail over this," Kelly says.