![]() ![]() Last year, sales tapered off after Small Business Saturday, until the final weeks before Christmas. Customers flocked to the store for the annual “Small Business Saturday,” a nationally recognized day for shopping at local businesses, which is sandwiched between Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Still, she said sales are running consistently higher by 40-50 percent from a year ago. ![]() “We’re still in our second year, and we don’t expect to make money for the first two years, just like any other business,” said Barrett. When Barrett and her husband first opened Bookends and Beginnings, they bought 10,000 used books and started with a small inventory, which helped them avoid an initial loss that would have been difficult to overcome. “Our customers are passionate about reading, and they want to take recommendations from other avid readers,” said Barrett.īarrett says independent book stores aim for a 2 percent profit margin, but that many lose 2 percent or more annually. Attached to several books are reviews, written by one of the store’s six employees – a common practice at many independent bookstores. That type of unique connection between small bookstores and their customers is the catalyst behind independent bookstores’ resurgence.īookends and Beginnings has a rewards system that gives customers 5 percent off for every $100 spent at the store. This is where I come to forget about all of the problems in the outside world.” Even if I’m not interested in a subject, I’ll pull out a book, and it’ll pique my interest. “I feel good about the money I spend here. “We’ve all been to the big box stores, and it’s the same thing every time,” said Linda Kruhmin of Evanston, a frequent Bookends and Beginnings customer. independent booksellers has steadily increased in the last six years. In 2014, year-over-year book sales were up nationally in 47 out of 52 weeks. has rebounded over the past six years by 35 percent, up to 2,227 as of November 2015. ![]() However, ABA data shows the number of independent bookstores in the U.S. “For a long time, from 1992 to 2002, you literally could count on two hands the number of openings,” Oren Teicher, CEO of the American Booksellers Association, told USA Today in 2006. In the 1990s alone, Borders went from 21 bookstores to 256 superstores. plummeted from around 4,000 in the early 1990s to about 1,800 in 2006, largely because of the growth of Borders and Barnes & Noble. The number of independent bookstores in the U.S. The bookstore’s best sellers are typically older, quirky books, and are rarely New York Times bestsellers.įor several years, the future of independent bookstores didn’t look so promising. “We attract a certain kind of reader who still wants to touch a physical book, and misses the ‘bookstore experience,’” said Barrett. The New York City-based bookstore reported a third consecutive loss for the latest quarter on Thursday, and its stock price of $10.04 is down 26 percent from a year ago.Īs of March 2014, Amazon had a 41 percent market share of all new book purchases, including a 65 percent share of online book purchases.īut Bookends and Beginnings is in a market segment that has been able to fight off online competition, and is thriving now that corporate bookstore competition has waned. stores in 2011, and Barnes & Noble is struggling mightily to keep its head above water. But online competition from Amazon crippled the two chains’ brick-and-mortar business model.īorders went out of business and shuttered all 511 of its U.S. cities, had two major retail bookstores for years – Borders and Barnes & Noble. But the time was right.”Įvanston, like many other U.S. “Ten years ago, I wouldn’t have considered opening one. ![]() “It’s an interesting time for bookstores,” said Barrett. The following summer, Nina Barrett and her husband, Jeff Garrett jumped at the opportunity to take over the tenancy of the bookstore. Bookman’s Alley was such a community staple that author Audrey Niffenegger mentioned it in her 2003 bestseller, The Time Traveler’s Wife. With a narrow brick exterior and a deceptively large interior, it would fit nicely in Harry Potter’s Diagon Alley.Įvanston bookworms mourned when the building’s former resident, Bookman’s Alley, closed in October 2013, after 33 years in business. Tucked neatly into an alleyway between Sherman and Benson Avenue sits Bookends and Beginnings, Evanston’s only independent bookstore. ![]()
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