Cody's Closes San Fran Store
by Bridget Kinsella -- Publishers Weekly, 4/6/2007 6:41:00 AM
After two years in its location near Union Square in San Francisco, Cody's Books is closing on April 20. The San Francisco store never made enough sales to sustain the 21,000 sq. ft. of selling space, said Andy Ross, Cody's president.
"We had to cut our losses," he said. "The store just didn't work."
This has been a tumultuous time for one of the Bay Area's renowned independent bookstore groups. Cody's closed its flagship store on Telegraph Avenue in July as it celebrated its 50th Anniversary . Then, in september, owner Ross sold the comany to Yohan Inc., a Japanese book distributor, retail and publishing company. Cody's will cotinue to operate its remaining retail store in its 9,000 sq. ft. location on Forth Street in Berkley.
Ross said the Forth Street store was doing great with an increase in sales of 15% over last year. With the closing of the San Francisco store, some inventory will be returned and some will be moved to Berkley. There will be no closing sale.
Melissa Mytinger, Cody's marketing manager, noted that Sean Wisley's event for
Oh, The Glory of It All was the final event on Telegraph and his mother, Pat Montandon, will be the last event held in the San Francisco store for her memoir
Oh, The Hell of It All.
"As much as I love Sean's work, I don't know if I can have him in the Forth Street store," joked Mytinger. The staff is trying to stay positive, she added.
"Everyone is taking it really hard," said Ross. "But it is going to make Cody's stronger."
