After 55 years in business, children's bookstore Book Bay in Whitefish Bay, Wis., closed in mid-January.
"We said we'd close when the merchandise is gone, but we were amazed how fast the inventory sold," owner Patricia Van Alyea told PW. After a week-long sale, the store donated the remaining inventory to an inner-city school.
Van Alyea cited competition both familiar and unusual for the decision, saying, "There're just too many places to buy books. A Barnes & Noble and a Borders opened near us, but they didn't hurt us as much as when Zany Brainy opened a half-mile away." Van Alyea noted that more non-bookstores carrying books also cut into sales. And deep discounts at local warehouse clubs cut further. "I wish that publishers would stop pricing books on the jacket so bookstores could sell books for whatever price they want," she said.
However, she called Scholastic her "biggest competition. They not only abandoned us, they compete with us. Scholastic has all these book clubs for schools. And they encourage direct sales by offering teachers points [toward purchases of their own] for sales in their classrooms. It's heartbreaking that so many of the independent bookstores are gone.
"This is a really great loss to this community," Van Alyea continued. "Teachers and principals would come in and because we had read every book in stock, we could talk to them about every title they sought. During the first eight years I owned the store, 60% of our sales were to schools. But because of budget cuts for teachers and schools, our school sales dwindled to 20%."
Founded in 1947 by Marvel Drought as a general bookstore, Book Bay was originally in Milwaukee. When Van Alyea, the fourth owner, bought the store 16 years ago, Book Bay was still an all-purpose bookstore. "The previous owner, Harriet Clark, had owned the store for 13 years, and her strength was children's books," said Van Alyea. "She used to have all the children's books arranged alphabetically by title, not author. So it was a nightmare when I took over. When I bought it, I converted it into a children's-only bookstore." Eight years later, she moved it four miles away, to Whitefish Bay, into a building she had bought. "We didn't have to pay rent for the last eight years, and we still couldn't make it," said Van Alyea.
In addition to the advantage of not having a landlord, the store had a knowledgeable staff. Recently Book Bay advertised itself as "THE Children's Bookstore Where Professionals Serve You," because its entire staff of booksellers was teachers and librarians, all with at least one master's degree. The staff was also very stable; most had worked there for more than a decade. The booksellers were Barbara Katz (16 years at the store), Joyce Tiber (12 years), Priscilla Stone (11 years) and Carol Huebner (nine years).
Van Alyea, offered the chance for one last handsell, immediately named her favorite books to push: Richard Peck's A Long Way from Chicago (Puffin) and its sequel, A Year Down Yonder (Dial Books for Young Readers).
"Peck is just a wonderful writer and they are both very funny books—fall-out-of-your-chair-laughing books. I can't think of another sequel that has ever won the Newbery Medal, but A Year Down Yonder did. I never re-read a book, but I will try to re-read those two at least once a year. I'll really miss these books."
