Small businesses vs. big.

[libertango]

Avenue Victor Hugo, a book shop in Boston, is closing.

I, like many, hate to see an independent book shop close. And I can appreciate fond memories.

But, boy, there's an essay on the linked page about the "Twelve reasons for the death of small and independent book stores" -- eg, everyone in the world except the Noble and Put-upon Shop Owners -- and it's a bitter pill.

Especially since it's right above what I suspect is the real reason they're no longer competitive: "Our hours are Monday through Saturday 10-8 and Sunday 12-8."

Given that the average chain shop is usually open until 11pm, that's a minimum of 21 hours a week of business where AVH just can't be bothered to take my custom. In a university town. And I'll bet the rest of Newbury St. doesn't roll up the sidewalks at 8pm. Which would mean they'd be closed while other businesses around them are open... what a message to send to customers, eh? (I'd be glad to be corrected on this.)

In my own experience, I'd compare this to Cliff's Books, in Pasadena, Calif. Cliff's not only is open 'til midnight seven days a week, it has 250,000 items compared to AVH's 100K... and, oh yes, it opened in the early 1990's, right when the chain stores were blossoming.

And, what a surprise, Powell's is open 'til 11pm.

My point is that those book stores that can be bothered to actually compete do quite well. Those that don't, don't.

Comments

[cityzephyr.livejournal.com]

and those that do, should teach it to those that don't. like nonprofits, it's best if the owners of small bookstores stick together.

[scottscidmore.livejournal.com]

The hours are likely an important part of their problems, though it would be interesting to see a sampling the register tapes to check for sales after 8PM. THeir move may have been another, a lot of used bookstores have a large but infrequent customer base than may visit only a couple of times a year, move the store and a goodly slice of that base only knows that the store isn't where it once was - not where it is now.

Cliff's and Powells are hardly small stores, a lot of the truly small bookstores are mostly run by the owners. Hours of 10-8 mean 10 hours open, plus several hours working outside of those, per day. IF you're not big enough, don't have enough sales, to support the hiring of several employees (and they are expensive), then a small business owner is often caught in the bind that they have more work than they can handle, and not enough to pay for the extra person.


The essay is certainly a bit whiny. Publishers have been cranking out trashy, low quality books for a century and a half, no just the recent decades. Writers have been placing style over substance for as long. It's always the current generation that's going to hell in a hand-basket, ours was much better. (and I think that goes back at least 3,500 years)

[hal-obrien.livejournal.com]

Cliff's definitely started very small indeed -- a single small storefront, with a hand-built mezzanine over the stacks for more off-shelf storage. They were still always open 'til at least midnight -- sometimes later, if Cliff felt like staying up.

And, yeah, I long ago worked out that what we're really looking at here is staffing for a single shift, whether that's self-staffing or hiring.

But after 30 years, AVH should certainly know better, and to have not observed the trend toward two-income families so after-5PM retail becomes more and more precious...

Feh.

And, yes, perhaps it's just because I've heard pnh do this rant too often, but it seems to me the chain stores have significantly raised the bar. Put yourself into the wayback machine to some halcyon day in the 1960s. Imagine you're in Plano, TX, or Walnut Creek, CA, or heck, even Charlotte, NC. Now imagine you want one of those nifty Harvard Loeb Library bilingual (Greek or Latin plus English) hardbound pocket classics. Homer, Cicero, Euripides, Catullus, whatever. Where do you go? Today you'll find 'em in every single B&N or Borders in America, but where whould you go then? Special order only, would be my guess. About the best you'd get is a paperback Penguin Classic, if you were lucky. Similar examples can be drawn from all kinds of fields.

[cluefairy-j.livejournal.com]

Actually, most of the stores on Newbury St. do close early. Restaurants, Virgin Records (at the end of Newbury St.) and Ben & Jerry's stay open later than 8p.m. on Newbury St.. But for the most part, Newbury St. is like shopping in Europe, where the hours aren't 24x7. Where you can sleep in on a Saturday morning, have breakfast, and then commence your shopping activities. All for an expensive price, of course. :-)

The american lifestyle is 24x7 now, people choose not only bookstores that are open 24x7, but restaurants, clothing stores, etc. We're not used to being told "No". And I think that has contributed to the small, independent store owner plight, too.