"If I walk out onto Zabar's floor and I can see my shoes, it's not busy enough."--Murray Klein, former partner at Zabar's, the New York City deli/emporium and retailer extraordinaire, who died yesterday, quoted in a New York Times obituary. Klein, who also loved offering popular loss leaders, said of the housewares hung above the sales floor, "I do a million dollars a year off the ceiling."
Andy Ross, longtime owner of Cody's Books, Berkeley, Calif., and a
fervent, sometimes irascible voice for independent bookselling in the
Bay Area and nationally, has retired.
In the past two years, Ross opened and closed a large, expensive store
in San Francisco, closed the flagship Cody's store on Telegraph Ave. in
Berkeley and sold Cody's to Yohan, a Japanese publishing, distribution
and bookselling company. Ross bought Cody's in 1977; Pat and Fred Cody
founded the store in 1956.
According to the San Francisco Chronicle,
Ross will continue to work for Cody's as a consultant on special
projects, and his wife, Leslie Berkler, will continue to oversee school
and library sales.
Ross told the Chronicle that his "vision" for the store was
rooted in the 1980s, when the Telegraph Ave. store was "a great
intellectual bookstore. Anything that was intelligent we could sell. It
really worked in the '80s but it doesn't work now. Young people aren't
coming in. They aren't reading the way they were. People don't have the
patience to sit down with a 300-page novel or a 500-page work of
history when they are used to getting information from Wikipedia.
Cody's needs to reinvent itself, and I can't seem to get out from under
this beautiful vision that isn't working right."
Ross's retirement is part of several major changes taking place at
Cody's. For one, Hiroshi Kagawa has become acting president of Cody's
and will spend a third of his time at Cody's, which still has a store
on Fourth Street in Berkeley. Kagawa was head of Yohan, which has been
sold. He has formed his own company and is in the process of buying
Cody's from Yohan.
In addition, Cody's has a new general manager, Mindy Galoob, who has a
business degree and a background in the nonprofit world, most recently
at the Women's Edge Coalition. She joined Cody's in the fall as controller and was recently promoted.
"The new Cody's will have to adapt to the online market and attract new people because our current market is graying," Galoob told the Chronicle. Among options: adding more seating and wi-fi.
Cody's Melissa Mytinger told Shelf Awareness that in the New Year,
there were be more management changes and a "revamping" of Cody's
store. "We are turning everything on its head," she said, emphasizing
that the changes are positive. "We're looking at this as a great
adventure."
On January 11, Cody's will have a retirement party for Ross that will likely--and appropriately--resemble a roast.
More good news, bad news about general retail sales, which in
November rose 4%, according to the Thomson Financial Same Store Sales
Index, quoted by the Wall Street Journal. The International
Council of Shopping Centers said sales at big chain stores rose 3.5% in
November. According to Retail Metrics, via the New York Times, 52% of retailers surveyed had sales above analysts' expectations while 45% missed forecasts.
Luxury stores like Saks and Nordstrom continued to do well, but
slightly more middle-income consumers--not just low-income
people--curbed spending because of rising energy costs and housing and
credit woes.
"The high end is shopping, the middle is trading down and everyone
continues to buy their paper towels and Fruit Loops," Todd Slater of
Lazard Capital Markets wrote.
At Target, the discounter frequented by people with high incomes, sales
at stores open at least a year rose 10.8% in November. But the company
said that without the extra week of holiday sales because of an early
Thanksgiving, comp-store sales would have been up just 1.1%. Target
also said that December sales may be below forecasts.
Stores with healthy comp-store sales included Saks, up 25.7%, Macy's, up 13.4%, Kohl's, up 10.2% and Nordstrom, up 8.7%.
Wal-Mart's same-store sales rose 1.5%; the company called early holiday
result "solid." Abercrombie & Fitch was up 2%; the Gap was even,
and the Limited fell 7%.
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Congratulations to Books & Books,
which today at 3 p.m. officially opens its store in Camana Bay in the
Cayman Islands. Books & Books is celebrating by inviting the local
writing community to be guests of honor at an in-store reception and
signing this evening. Authors attending include Shane Aquart,
Karie Bergrstrom, Roy Bodden, Fred Burton, Cathy Church, Cleopatra
Conolly, Barbara Currie Dailey, Sheree Ebanks, Henry Muttoo, Eme and
Hector Paschalides, Courtney Platt, Corine Solomon and Suzy Soto.
On Saturday morning, Books & Books is hosting a reading for young
readers and hosting crafts stalls. Saturday afternoon
Steven Raichlen, author of the Barbecue Bible books and Miami Spice: The New Florida Cuisine, will conduct a slideshow and grilling presentation.
Later in the afternoon, the store will host an event called South
Florida Meets the Caribbean, introduced by Books & Books owner
Mitchell Kaplan and Akashic Books editor-in-chief Johnny Temple. Among
the authors who will read: Les Standiford and John Dufresne from
Florida, Marlon James from Jamaica, Lisa Allen-Agostini from Trinidad
and Ana Menendez, the daughter of Cuban exiles.
Saturday evening's events include a Barbecue Cayman Style, featuring food and music.
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Atonement, which opens today, is sweeping away many movie critics. Consider this from Joe Morgenstern in today's Wall Street Journal:
"This screen version [of a great work of contemporary fiction] stands
on its own as a singular achievement--romantic, sensuous, intelligent
and finally shattering in its sweep and thematic complexity."
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A
onetime Barnes & Noble executive, Michael G. Archbold has joined
the board of directors of Borders Group. Currently executive v-p, COO and
CFO of the Vitamin Shoppe, Archbold earlier was executive v-p, CFO and
CAO of Saks Fifth Avenue (Borders CEO George Jones was president and
CEO of Saks's department store group); executive v-p and CFO of
AutoZone; and from 1996 to 2002 v-p and CFO of the booksellers division
of B&N. A CPA, he began his career at Price Waterhouse.
In other Borders news, the board approved a cash dividend of 11 cents a
share payable on February 10, maintaining the regular dividend rate.
Also, the company ranked No. 1 for providing an enjoyable customer
shopping experience among 112 companies surveyed by Forrester Research
for its first Customer Experience Index. Including three customer
experience measures, Borders was ranked No. 2 nationally and was among
the 10% of the 112 companies to receive an overall rating of
"excellent."
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The
design commission of the city of La Cañada Flintridge has approved
plans for the new Flintridge Bookstore and Coffeehouse, the La Cañada Valley Sun reported.
Store owners Peter and Lenora Wannier bought the property 18 months ago
and are planning to move from a rented 4,500-sq.-ft. space nearby into
a new 6,400-sq.-ft. building that will include underground parking. The
extra space will be used to expand the coffee bar and for a cookware
retail store.
The building should be completed in about a year.
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Tor
Books, best known for science fiction, and Seven Seas
Entertainment, one of the few publishers of original manga in the U.S.,
have formed an imprint that will "jointly acquire and co-publish
some of Japan's bestselling and most exciting manga series, light
novels and other fiction." In addition, Tor will distribute new Seven
Seas titles every month under the Seven Seas imprint.
In August 2008, Tor/Seven Seas will publish its first collaborative book: the manga Afro Samurai, written and illustrated by Takashi Okazaki, released in the U.S. for the first time. Afro Samurai
was the basis for the Spike TV anime series this year that featured the
voices of Samuel L. Jackson, Ron Perlman and Kelly Hu. The book's
publication here precedes the release in the fall of an Afro Samurai video game from Namco and the launch of Spike TV's second Afro Samurai season.
The first light novels will be published in March and include Ballad of a Shinigami, Pita-Ten and Strawberry Panic.
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El Codigo Da Vinci, the Spanish-language translation of Dan
Brown's bestseller, is the single-most important reason for why U.S.
publishers and booksellers are paying more attention to the
Spanish-language market, according to the Arizona Star. Some 300,000 copies of El Codigo Da Vinci sold, more than 10 times the sales of typical Spanish-language titles. The trend continues, exemplified by El Secreto, the translation of Rhonda Byrne's The Secret, which has more than 245,000 copies in print and is selling well.
Among changes in the past few years: publishers are releasing English-
and Spanish-language versions of titles simultaneously; publishers have
established Spanish-language divisions; bookstore chains have expanded
Spanish-book buying and marketing departments.
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Reminder to ABA members: after only three weeks, more than 60% of the available rooms at the Hotel ABA at BEA in Los Angeles have been reserved. ABA members who want to book space in the hotel, where nearly 1,000 booksellers are expected to stay, should register online at cwp.marriott.com/laxrh/americanbooksellers/.
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Amy Stewart, author of Flower Confidential: The Good, the Bad,
and the Beautiful in the Business of Flowers; her husband, Scott Brown,
co-founder and editor of Fine Books & Collections magazine; Jack
Irvine, a doctor and book collector; and his wife, Peggy Irvine, have
bought Eureka Books, an antiquarian bookstore in Eureka, Calif.
Previous owners Carlos and Marilyn Benemann have retired and would
have closed the store by the end of the year if they hadn't found a
buyer.
Stewart wrote that Wednesday was the new owners' first day, "and I am
still getting my mind around the fact that all these books belong to
me. It's probably not a good idea for me to work behind the desk just
yet; I'm not sure I will be able to let anything walk out of the store
until I've read it. That could slow sales down considerably."
The store's employees--manager Jere Bob Bowden and booksellers Mark
Shikuma and Ann Hunt--are all staying on. The new owners want to expand
the store's offerings, including the local history and local author
sections, host more events and bring in more rare and hard-to-find books.
Nancy Short and Jennifer McFadden, owners of Booklegger, a general used
bookstore several doors from Eureka, provided some "behind-the-scenes
help," Stewart wrote, including a window display of books that
commented on the quartet's negotiations to buy the store. Titles in the
window included Getting to Yes and Great Expectations as well as several that might resonate with independent booksellers, Endangered Species, The Places That Scare You
and You Are Not Alone.
Sunday on the National Geographic Channel's Dino Autopsy: Philip Manning and Tyler Lyson, authors of Dinomummy: The Life, Death, and Discovery of Dakota, a Dinosaur from Hell Creek (Houghton Mifflin, $18.95, 9780753460474/0753460475).
Katherine (Kate) Matthen is assistant sales manager at Indiana
University Press. A librarian with degrees in comparative literature,
theatre and drama and library science, she enjoys playing violin in
orchestras, reading fiction under the Indiana sun, frolicking with her
fat black cat and celebrating a year-around fascination with Halloween.
Here she answers questions we put to people in the book business:
On your nightstand now:
Tonight I'm starting Thunderstruck by Erik Larson. I never read Devil in the White City,
but my friend gave me this book a few weeks ago and I've been
instructed to read it. This is the same girl who turned me on to Isabel
Allende, Alice Sebold and Jodi Picoult, so I believe her.
Favorite book when you were a child:
Winnie the Pooh by A.A. Milne
Your top five authors:
C.S. Lewis, William Shakespeare, James Herriot, Jane Austen, Helen Fielding
Books you've faked reading:
To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf and James Joyce's Ulysses.
Book you are an evangelist for:
Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America by Barbara Ehrenreich
Book you've bought for the cover:
I shouldn't say this, but it was one of ours. Saving the Big Cats: The Exotic Feline Rescue Center by Stephen D. McCloud
Book that changed your life:
The Mindbody Prescription: Healing the Body, Healing the Pain by John E. Sarno
Favorite line from a book:
"But, good Kate, mock me mercifully, the rather, gentle princess, because I love thee cruelly."--Henry V by William Shakespeare. (Yes, it's a play. I don't care.)
Book you most want to read again for the first time:
Life of Pi by Yann Martel
Most highly underrated book ever read:
The Green Mile by Stephen King
Book that made you permanently disgusted:
Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser. I've been a vegetarian since.
When Asia Was the World by Stewart Gordon (Da Capo Press, $26.00 Hardcover, 9780306815560, December 2007)
His inspired choice for examining so much time and space is to discuss eight surviving memoirs (as well as the telling remains of one shipwreck); the first-person accounts provide vivid and distinctive perspectives on each epoch and set of territories without overwhelming us with encyclopedic detail. A chapter on one particular person, in Gordon's hands, becomes a miracle of compression addressing, in turn, such topics as: the importance of courtly behavior, common ceremonies and protocol; the interrelationship between religion and politics in some locales; and the complexities of trading relationships and the diverse populations of the trade centers. Emerging from Gordon's survey is a portrait of the way information and culture spread through the extensive travels of many scholars, pilgrims and traders. The phenomenal growth in trade and travel had the result, Gordon points out, that by the 12th century Asia and the Middle East constituted the first world without borders for educated men, an amazingly "modern" institutional reality.
Gordon also discusses the contribution of Buddhism and Islam to building loyalty beyond ethnicity and language in diverse societies. The sophisticated state of what we would call international relations in the area comes into particularly stark relief with the memoirs of Tomé Pires, a Portuguese trader who led the first diplomatic mission to China. Pires may have butted up against a system that he as an outsider could not fathom, but he also discovered that the Chinese did not need much of what the Portuguese offered for trade, except for one thing: cannons. And so, by the end of this short and fascinating survey, we see both the arrival of the force that initiated an arms race across the Asian maritime world and the shadow of the age of colonialism looming on the horizon.--John McFarland
