DIESEL, A Bookstore, which has stores in Oakland and Malibu, Calif., plans to open a third store in the Brentwood section of Los Angeles on September 1. The 1,500-sq.-ft. space is in the Brentwood Country Mart, which was founded in 1948 and originally included a small bookstore that is long gone.
A new owner of the shopping center--"a series of barns with central courtyards," as DIESEL co-owner John Evans described it--had approached many California book retailers in the past year or more in an effort to have a bookstore again as part of the mix. After Doug Dutton announced the closing of Dutton's Brentwood, which is a little over a mile away, he approached bookstores again, and this time DIESEL was interested.
Evans said that the space was a comfortable fit for DIESEL--its Malibu store, which opened six years ago, has 1,600 square feet of space, and the Oakland store, founded 19 years ago, has 2,400 square feet. "It's slightly on the small end of what we have, but we're good at having a high range of titles in a small place. Most stores our size are less diverse and have fewer small press and university press titles." The stores carry approximately 13,000-15,000 titles each and vary little although "Malibu carries more surfing books and Oakland has more lefty books."
He said that some reps and others in the business have congratulated him and co-owner Alison Reid on opening a third store but expressed concern about them being too busy. Evans said that, of course, he has worried about being overwhelmed, "but it's also fun and exciting. Opening a store in a neighborhood like Brentwood, which wants a bookstore, provides a lot of satisfaction. It's like selling a book that will change a person's life rather than just provide entertainment."--John Mutter