Bad weather in much of the northern U.S. combined with the recession to make for a difficult holiday season for many independent booksellers. “We were doing pretty well until it started snowing,” said Claire Benedict, co-owner of Bear Pond Books in Montpelier, Vt., who described her sales as just so-so. “We got hit harder by the weather than the economy,” she said. Few booksellers contacted by PW reported gains over the holidays, although several said they were relieved that sales had not been as bad as they feared, and the consensus was that the shopping season came later than usual. Sales began slowly at San Francisco's City Lights Bookstore, according to buyer Paul Yamazaki, and had rebounded by December 22. The Harvard Bookstore in Cambridge, Mass., didn't close until 7 p.m. on Christmas Eve, and general manager Carole Horne said late shopping has become the rule. “I've just decided it's going to be the last five days from now on,” Horne said.
Similar to Thanksgiving weekend, the most popular book down the gift-giving stretch appeared to be the Twilight titles by Stephenie Meyer. The series was a hit across the country, even in stores that don't normally feature it. “Stephenie Meyer is not the type of book we normally sell,” said Juan Vallejo, manager of the Biography Bookshop in New York City's Greenwich Village. “But we had lots of requests, and they were difficult to get. We had them in and out of stock.” Many other booksellers—as they did at Thanksgiving—reported having difficulty keeping the books in stock. (Amazon reported that Breaking Dawn, the fourth book in the Twilight series, was its top-selling title for the entire year, while the first title in the series, Twilight, was the book purchased most as a gift in 2008.) Susan Fox, owner of Red Fox Books in Glens Falls, N.Y., said that at least one of the four titles in the series always seemed to be on backorder. Fox said the release of the Twilight movie created a new readership for the series, including more males and younger readers.
While snow, wind and ice storms contributed to distribution disruptions, the lousy weather did have an upside in some places. A few booksellers said the storms kept people closer to home, prompting them to shop locally. Henry Burton, owner of Fremont Place Books in Seattle, said the storms that battered the Northwest led to “pretty good” holiday sales as shoppers frequented local stores. Nancy Simpson-Brice, owner of the Book Vault in Oskaloosa, Iowa, also benefited from the inclement weather. “When we have bad weather, it works to our advantage. It keeps people local. They don't drive the 60 miles to Des Moines, where the big boxes are,” said Simpson-Brice, who was one of the more successful booksellers last year, with sales up about 10% for all of 2008.
A number of booksellers also said that ABA's IndieBound campaign helped with holiday sales. “I think we benefited from the buy local movement more this year than last year,” said Carla Jimenez, co-owner of Inkwood Books in Tampa, Fla. Her store used some of the IndieBound marketing materials and some of the Random House graphics “to jazz things up.” Lisa Baudoin, co-owner of Books & Co., Oconomowoc, Wis., said she used IndieBound materials “to create a warm and cozy community. People want that in an uncertain world, and we were able to provide it.”
Given the economic downturn, shoppers showed a great deal of price sensitivity, booksellers reported. “Higher-price books weren't moving very much,” said Horne, adding that sales of “remainders and used books were both up a lot.” In addition to hurting sales of coffee-table books, price sensitivity seemed to dampen hardcover fiction. “People just aren't buying the hardcover fiction,” said Susan Porter, owner of Maine Coast Book Shop & Café in Damariscotta, Maine. That trend led Michael DeSanto, co-owner of Phoenix Books in Essex, Vt., to assert, “When we place our orders [for spring], we're going to slaughter hardcovers.”
While many other types of retailers reported a decline in gift card sales (since shoppers are concerned stores may go out of business), several independents said gift cards remained popular and sales were up. “We sold a larger number of gift cards than ever before,” Vallejo said. Simpson-Brice reported selling 260 gift cards in a town with a population of 11,000.
Even among stores that reported a decent Christmas, most said that it didn't make up for the weak rest of the year that was capped by a November when sales—as Donna Tucker, co-owner of Chapter 2 Book Exchange in Cashiers, N.C., put it—“fell off a cliff.” Tucker said that while Christmas sales will be close to last year's level, sales for the full year will be down 5%. Fremont Place's Burton said his December sales will finish 6% behind 2007, and the store will be down 19% for 2008. DeSanto noted that while December sales were up 20% over 2007 (the store opened last November), he didn't hit his numbers from July through November. Still, DeSanto said he is committed to staying open at least another 12 months. Like most people in bookselling and publishing, DeSanto observed, “We don't know what's going to happen.”
