"It remains to be seen exactly how this compares to the old space," said Bob Contant, the longtime co-owner of St. Mark's Bookshop in New York City. On July 19, the store re-opened in a new location on 3rd Street and Avenue A after spending nearly three weeks with much of its inventory and fixtures in a storage unit. At 1,300 square feet, the new location is much smaller than St. Mark's Bookshop's longtime former home at 31 Third Avenue, which it had to vacate July 1.
"It's a trade-off," Contant continued. "It's actually less than half the size, but it's a very attractive space. In our previous space the rent was so expensive we really couldn't afford to stay there. Here we have a great rent, especially for the square footage."
St. Mark's Bookshop had remained in the same neighborhood, just north of Cooper Square and off St. Mark's Place in Manhattan's East Village, for 37 years. Due to skyrocketing rents, however, that area became untenable.
"Our previous location had gone conglomerate," explained Contant. The bookstore had been surrounded by an office complex, and landlords wanted to "cash in on the fact that that monstrosity of a building that replaced the engineering building at Cooper Union [college] was charging $300 per square foot of retail space. Only chain stores could afford that."
Although the bookstore is up and running, there is still a good deal of work to do. Contant said that the contractors are completing "punchlist jobs"--the finishing touches at the end of a project. The baseboard, for example, was installed only on July 31. The store's office was still a work in progress, and the threshold of the front door needed to be altered so that customers would not trip on their way in or out of the store. Contant guessed that it would take until at least the end of summer to be fully settled.
"In many ways this is a start over for us," Contant said. "It is for any business that moves. We've moved out of our neighborhood to what's really a whole new neighborhood; we're hoping that this part of the East Village can support a new bookstore."
Today's Avenue A, Contant said, reminded him in some ways of St. Mark's Place in the late '70s, when the store first opened. And despite moving some 15 minutes away, many longtime customers and supporters have made an effort to drop in, check out the store, and make a purchase. And the new neighborhood has been welcoming.
"A number of people have stopped in and said, 'I live around the corner, I'm glad you're here,' " recounted Contant. "It's all been very encouraging."
Due to the significant reduction in store space, Contant has had to downsize all of the store's subject areas. But, he insisted, the core of the inventory is the same and categories that did especially well at the old location--cutting-edge literature and critical theory--are still big sellers.
"We view ourselves as an alternative to the big mass market stores," said Contant. "We've always avoided, or tried to avoid, the basic commercial stuff. We're selling the same kinds of books in the new location."
Despite having to downsize inventory, Contant has managed to avoid laying off any of his 10 employees. For the past few years, since the store began having financial trouble due to rising rents, the staff has been on the New York State Shared Work program: as an alternative to layoffs, Contant has juggled shifts and reduced hours. He hopes to reverse that in the near future.
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| Bob Contant | |
"The fact that we were out of business for three weeks really hurt us financially," Contant said. "We're slowly trying to get back on our feet; it's an uphill battle. It's not only the cost of being out of business but also cost overruns from construction and everything else we have to deal with in setting up a new space."
St. Mark's Bookshop has not yet resumed hosting events, but Contant plans to jump back into that once everything is settled. He's also devising plans for a re-opening celebration, to be held most likely some time after Labor Day, that will also be a benefit for the store. The store would serve drinks, and guests would be asked to purchase a book.
"It's going to be a struggle for us to get through August and September," Contant said. "The summer in New York is the slowest time of the year for businesses like ours, with people going away. Part of the problem, too, is that our inventory is low and has to be built back up, which takes money and time."
Despite the enormous difficulty of shutting down and moving a store, and the high costs of doing business in Manhattan, Contant is not pessimistic about the future viability of either bookstores or printed books. "I think there's been a lot of negative publicity about the end of print," he said. "But my experience has been that there are as many people who support print books as there are people who would prefer to read something online.
He continued: "The purpose that a bookstore serves these days is really a showcase. You can't browse online. That's the great advantage of a bookstore--you can come in and discover things you didn't even know about. It's not going to be like the old days, but I do think there's a market for print books. Not as big a market as it used to be, but it's still a vital market." --Alex Mutter