With the demise of the last 71 Lauriat's and Royal Discount Bookstores this summer (News, June 14) and the closing of three Waterstones stores, the New England bookselling landscape has changed. As recently as March 1998, Lauriat's had a total of 161 book outlets in the Northeast, including the Encore chain, which it purchased in 1994, making it the fourth largest bookstore chain in the country, after Barnes & Noble, Borders and Crown.
Aside from Lauriat's 800 employees, the biggest loser in the Lauriat's crash was 30-year-old regional wholesaler Bryant Altman Map & Book Distributors, which continued to supply books to the bitter end. "We got caught with our pants down," confessed v-p Mark Linnane. "We're doing fine, but only with the understanding of our loyal customer base and our vendors." According to Linnane, Lauriat's tried to make it to Christmas but with mall sales plummeting -- it achieved only 15% of its projected sales by Memorial Day -- the company simply couldn't hold on.
Despite the liquidation of Lauriat's, the total number of bookstores in New England, as reflected by New England Booksellers Association membership, has hovered steadily at the 500 mark for the past two years, down from a high of 539 in 1996. In part this can be explained by the number of multi-store booksellers that hold single NEBA memberships.
Rusty Drugan, executive director of NEBA, characterized the book business in New England after the Lauriat's shakeout as "good overall," an impression bolstered by conversations at the association's trade show in October. Still, he acknowledged, "obviously the hole created by the Lauriat's closing has not been filled. In some respects the market has not been served." As an example, he singled out Boston's Back Bay area, which now has only one general independent, with a heavy emphasis on New Age books.
As happens after many bookstore closings, only a small percentage of sites have continued as book outlets. Few booksellers were interested in the older Lauriat's locations, which tended to be small. Attorney John Drew of Lane, Altman & Owens, co-counsel to Lauriat's, said that many of the mall store leases went back to the landlord. "We don't know what they did," he commented, adding that at this point, his role is "mostly clean-up. It no longer takes the concentrated effort of many hours a day that it once did to wind it down."
On the Block
Fewer than a half-dozen companies participated in the Lauriat's auction this summer, according to Donald Alper, owner and president of Speramus Books in Auburn, N.H. He attributed the paucity of bidders to the fact that "the business is so changed. It used to be that you needed $50,000 to open a bookstore. Now you need $300,000 or $400,000. With that kind of money you can do something else."
Alper, who was awarded the Encore store in Dennis, Mass., on Cape Cod, now has five Booksmiths throughout New England, including a second one on the Cape. Brookline Booksmith, which is under separate ownership, took over the Wellesley store. Both the Wellesley and Dennis Booksmiths re-opened in October, and have been doing well. "It's just fantastic," said Wellesley Booksmith co-owner Dana Brigham, echoing Alper's description of sales at his new Cape Cod store. Day-to-day operations are "quite joined at the moment," she continued. "The buying is done here in Brookline and the promotion, advertising and planning are done here." Even the Web sites are interconnected, although Brigham d s not rule out greater independence for the physical or virtual Wellesley Booksmiths once it has its first Christmas under its belt.
The Waldenbooks chain was one of the bigger winners in the auction, acquiring seven Lauriat's locations, which were reopened in late October and early November. While the Copley Place store, which is now a Brentano's, and the one in the Natick Mall will continue to occupy the same spaces, the other five -- in Concord and Salem, N.H., and Taunton, North Attleboro, and Marlboro, Mass. -- will relocate within their malls after Christmas. According to Waldenbooks senior marketing manager Linda Cain, the Lauriat's acquisitions bring the total number of Walden new-store openings to 39 in 1999. "We have over 900 stores again," Cain said, including eight airport stores.
Boost for Buck A Book
Although Buck A Book, the nine-year-old chain of remainder bookstores, took over fewer leases than Waldenbooks, its liquidation purchases gave it a more significant boost. Owner and president Bruce Moyer acquired the leases to three Lauriat's stores in Massachusetts -- Andover, Arlington and Wakefield -- and two in Connecticut -- Avon and Cheshire -- which he re-opened this past summer. He also purchased all the fixtures from the New England stores, which he will use to upgrade his existing stores. In addition, Moyer recently bought the lease to Lauriat's flagship store in downtown Boston, which he re-opened in early November.
With these acquisitions, Buck A Book -- the name is something of a misnomer, because there are almost no books for a dollar in any of the company's 30 stores in Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut -- nearly doubled in size, up from 17 stores in 1998. "This year," said Moyer, who used to work in the lease department of Building 19, a chain of discount stores, "our business will be up more than 100% over last year. Our comparable-store sales are up 26%."
"This is not about having a cute little bookstore chain. We have a unique niche," Moyer noted. "We can't compete with Borders or Barnes & Noble on just books. All our books are remainder titles. Our children's departments are huge. Our greeting cards are all two for a dollar. This is about good fixtures and a real business that understands our customers -- educated, sophisticated women." His wife, Marlene, a former teacher who runs the stores' teacher program and handles much of the advertising, added, "We don't see ourselves as being in competition with the independents or the chains. We see ourselves serving as a place for people uncomfortable about buying books. Books are still our mainstay."
The Moyers want to continue expanding the company. "Next year we plan on adding another 20 stores," Moyer said. "The year after that, we're opening stores in New York, Long Island and New Jersey." As he sees it, with its mix of off-price software, seasonal gift items, cards and books, "Buck A Book will also play in New York, Chicago and San Francisco."
