From this morning’s Shelf Awareness, another bookstore-in-peril story:
Wordsmiths Books, Decatur, Ga., has launched a “save our bookstore” fundraising campaign…. “We are not fighting declining sales, nor are we fighting customer apathy, or even a lagging book market. We are fighting only the debt created by starting in the wrong location.”
On his bookstore blog, [owner Zach] Steele also noted that, in addition to the debt load accumulated at that more expensive original location, “we handled the sales for a large scale event recently that did not return the investment that we were required to pay up front. Such is the way, I could say, but the timing was incredibly poor.”
So, what they’re actually fighting is poor business decisions. Is this “save our store” business model sustainable? Maybe the thinking is, since every other industry seems to get a bail-out when bad decisions catch up with it, why not bookstores?
I’ve got mixed feelings. On the one hand, I know a bookstore can be so much more than cold hard, business, and you hate to see a favorite fail, but on the other hand, I think it takes some nerve to ask your loyal customers — who presumably have already spent some coin with you — to come to your rescue when you mess up. Here’s hoping Wordsmiths gets the chance to give back to their community soon.
Filed under: books Tagged: | bailouts, bookstores, Wordsmiths
