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.