The week before last John Mutter of Shelf Awareness spent two days with New England Independent Booksellers Association executive director Steve Fischer visiting bookstores in Connecticut, Rhode Island and Massachusetts. It was a great little working vacation! Here's the first part of a multi-part series reporting on what we saw.
Bank Square Books, Mystic, Conn., catty-corner from the famous Mystic Diner, is nearly 20 years old--and continues to change and evolve. Owned by Annie Philbrick (below l.), who focuses on adult books and does adult title buying, and Patience Banister, who manages the business side, Bank Square Books recently revamped some major sections--in part because of advice given during a NEIBA peer review. (Philbrick is president of NEIBA.) The children's section is now in a discrete area in the back of the store, and cards, which are a popular sideline, have been moved farther back. In addition, shelving was shifted so that a large picture window in the back of the store is no longer blocked; the resulting glow of natural light caused many customers to ask if the store had expanded, Philbrick said.
Despite continuing road construction in downtown Mystic that has sometimes made getting to the store's front door difficult, Bank Square sales have been strong this fall and up 20% in November. The Thanksgiving holiday was a standout--with three days of sales higher than any other three-day period, and sales on Saturday and Sunday at Christmas Eve levels. (A holiday hiatus in construction helped.)
The store has seen more new customers, in part because of the closing of a Borders store in Waterford, 15 miles away, that has been replaced by a Books-A-Million. Bank Square Books talked with the Borders staff and asked them to tell customers about the store. Philbrick also contributed articles to local papers about the situation and Bank Square's ability to fill the breach. "It seems to have worked because we have people coming from all over southeastern Connecticut," Philbrick said, noting that only this week one person came in and said he had been to Books-A-Million but preferred Bank Square Books "even if he had to order his books."
Bank Square Books benefited from the Borders closure in a more concrete way: it bought some of the store's fixtures and has installed them around the store. Signage (see an example below) is charming and handmade.
Fiction takes up a lot of space in Bank Square Books, and sales have remained stable. While science fiction continues to sell, hardcover mystery has dropped. Philbrick speculated that e-reader users "don't want to pay $25" for such titles. Although travel book and map sales have been hurt at many stores because of the Internet, at Bank Square Books, both categories continue to sell well. Maps are particularly popular for international tourists.
The store also sells "a ton of local books," Philbrick said. Among them are titles by Flat Hammock Press, which is located in Mystic, and specializes in nautical nonfiction and coastal culture. A current bestseller is Colors of Mystic published by the Mystic River Historical Society featuring illustrations by Ashley Halsey, a native of the area who is a graphic designer at HarperCollins.
Among strong sidelines are Poetic Earth handmade leather journals; Watermark Bindery's handmade blank books; 3-D bookmarks; Buckyballs magnetic toys; Out of Print T-shirts that features a range of classic books; and Mighty Wallets, which are made out of Tyvek and are water resistant, adjustable and durable.
