Travelers in the Southwest Airlines terminal at Baltimore-Washington
International Airport are using down time for holiday shopping. The
Borders Express store, located past the security screening point, saw a
spike in sales around Thanksgiving and expects the same in the days
leading up to Christmas as more passengers take to the skies.
The 600-sq.-ft. store is selling an array of merchandise this season,
reflecting the "diverse population that comes through here," said
general manager David Watt. Selections range from James Patterson's Double Cross and Marcus Luttrell's Lone Survivor: The Eyewitness Account of Operation Redwing and the Lost Heroes of SEAL Team 10--the store's top-selling fiction and nonfiction title, respectively--to Chicken Soup for the Wine Lover's Soul and Ben Stein's The Real Stars: In Today's America, Who Are the True Heroes? Also popular are the movie tie-in editions of I Am Legend and No Country for Old Men.
Two displays of Christmas-themed books are attracting customers'
attention, one with adult titles and the other with children's tales.
Featured are Janet Evanovich's Visions of Sugar Plums, David Baldacci's The Christmas Train and John Grisham's Skipping Christmas. For kids there is the ever-popular How the Grinch Stole Christmas! and Jan Brett's The Three Snow Bears. "Anything with a Christmas tree or a Santa Claus on it goes pretty well," noted Watt.
The store typically hosts one event per week, and today Ralph Nader is stopping by to promote his memoir, The Seventeen Traditions.
Watt expects the activist's appearance to draw in additional foot
traffic as customers purchase signed copies of the tome for gifts.
Nader's The Good Fight: Declare Your Independence and Close the Democracy Gap is also doing well at the store.
One of Watt's favorite handsells is Color Me Butterfly: A True Story of Courage, Hope, and Transformation
by local author L.Y. Marlow, in which she recounts the story of four
generations of women in her family who overcame a cycle of domestic
abuse. Last year, as covered in our July 12 and July 30, 2006, issues, Watt garnered impressive results handselling Life Is So Good, the autobiography of George Dawson written with Richard Glaubman, which is still selling.
The holiday spirit has already been evident here at Borders Express.
Last week the store wrapped up a fundraiser for First Book, a
company-wide initiative that provided Borders gift cards to
underprivileged children. "I loved that," said Watt. "One of the best
gifts you can give kids is books." His customers agreed--one patron
even donated $100. That generosity helped the store raise the sixth
largest amount out of the more than 1,000 Borders and Waldenbooks
locations across the country.--Shannon McKenna Schmidt