The War for the Words

Can Red & Black and other independent bookstores survive in a marketplace where corporate super-chains are thriving? The choice is yours...

By Mark Worth
The Free Press

For nearly 23 years now, Capitol Hill's Red & Black Books has been scratching and clawing for position - and respect - in Seattle's crowded retail bookselling market. Though battered and bruised, the predominantly women-run collective has become a local institution - shelving gay, minority, and politically progressive titles that large, profit-driven stores wouldn't touch with a 10-foot bookmark.
But in many respects, Red & Black's fight for survival has only just begun. National mega-chains Borders and Barnes & Noble have recently opened mega-stores downtown and at University Village, respectively. The battlelines that are being drawn throughout the country have begun to take shape here in Puget Sound: It's the chain bookstores vs. the independents - toe to toe.
With the hot breath of corporate monoliths breathing down their necks, the 30-some members of Red & Black's collective are engaged in an all-out campaign to raise not only money for their store, but also the awareness of their patrons and the general public.
Brie Gyncild has been a member of the collective since 1990, and is one of the "core" members who work at least 10 hours a week at the store. A tech-support worker at Aldus by day, Gyncild says she's not going to stand idly by and watch corporate bookstores snatch away the store's customers.
"It became clear to us that we need members of the community to know that where they spend their money is a political decision," she said. "Stores like ours are threatened. We're telling people that if they don't support them, they will go away. It has to be a community struggle."
Since the fall, Red & Black has sponsored a variety of fundraisers. Several more have been planned, including a gig by a band led by Native American writers Sherman Alexie and Joy Harjo in late February, and an art show at the store on Friday, March 8 - International Women's Day.

Power In Numbers
Just as Red & Black's existence would not have been possible without a powerful collective effort, the survival of all Seattle-area independents may require a similar strategy. Thus was born the Independent Booksellers of Washington. The ink on the group's bylaws is barely dry, but its 25-30 member stores have already brought several authors through town -including Studs Terkel - and more events are in the offing.
The stakes are high, not only for the independent stores, but also for readers whose tastes aren't limited to whatever Tom Clancy, Stephen King, Michael Crichton, and other assembly-line authors crank out. For example, as chains grab more of the retail market, the squeeze may be put on smaller-named authors - and perhaps even some better-known ones - if the corporate stores choose not to shelve their books.
"The independent store can make individual choices whether to carry a certain book," explains Deanna Meyerhoff of Pioneer Square's Elliott Bay Book Company. Meyerhoff, secretary of the new independent bookseller group, also said chain stores don't do nearly as much special ordering as the independents, another factor that effectively limits consumer choice.
The president of the new group is Dorothy Day, who, with her husband, has owned Kirkland's Totem Book Shop for a dozen years. Day said a nightmare scenario is already unfolding in which major publishers sometimes base their print runs on the number of advance orders. And who makes most of the advance orders? The big, corporate chains. Eventually, she fears, publishers may not take a chance on releasing certain titles in the absence of strong advance interest. "That's what we are seriously afraid of."
Independent booksellers are also afraid of the market realities that allow chains to buy in tremendous volumes and offer huge discounts that the indies couldn't possible touch. Moreover, the corporates benefit from providing enormous choice, advertising like crazy, diversifying into music and video, and drawing in customers with fancy, in-house coffeeshops. So influential are the chains, in fact, that they now demand payments from publishers before they'll offer prominent shelf space for titles. Many indies, with their skeleton staffs, homemade bookshelves and makeshift inventory systems, can barely afford to keep their lights turned on and leaky roofs plugged.

The Future Is Here
Casualties in this war have already been reported throughout the Seattle area. Standard Books of Ravenna and the U-District's A.K.A. Books (sister store of Left Bank Books) are history, and Rainy Day Books of Issaquah is on its way out. And, since Borders opened downtown, sales at the venerable Elliott Bay have taken a hit.
Meanwhile, many chains are flying high. Nationwide, Barnes & Noble opened 35 superstores in the third quarter of 1995 and boosted sales by 20 percent, to $432.3 million during the three-month period. Seventy-five new Barnes & Nobles are in the offing for 1996. Meanwhile, sales at Borders, which is owned by the Kmart Corp., were up 57 percent to $148.9 million. And Books-a-Million enjoyed a 31 percent increase in revenues, to $48.8 million. All told, the chains' share of the retail market rose from 23 percent in 1994 to 25 percent in 1995, while indies' slice of the pie shrank from 24 percent to 21 percent.
The chains have learned a few things from the indies - namely, to carry a few off-beat titles to get discriminating customers in the door. "The chains have learned from the independents what people want and what they expect. As long as we are around, Barnes & Noble and Borders have to carry these books," Gyncild said. "You go into Borders and it pretends to be a bookstore. It's impressive."
As much as such chains try to appeal to local consumers, however, independent bookstore owners are hopeful that Seattleites - long considered among the most discriminating readers in the country - can see through the veneer. Red & Black is also banking on Seattle's high level of sophistication to pull them through. "We believe once people understand what's at stake, there won't be an issue. The members of the community depend on us. We carry the books that need to be seen." Gyncild said. "If we believed the chains would carry what they should carry, this wouldn't be considered as big of an issue."

Call Red & Black for information on upcoming events, 322-7323; 432 15th St. E., Seattle, 98112. For more info. on the Independent Booksellers of Washington contact Dorothy Day at the Totem Book Shop, 821-4343; 12530-B 120th Ave NE, Kirkland, 98034.

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Contents on this page were published in the February/March, 1996 edition of the Washington Free Press.
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