Saturday, March 05, 2005
Twin Cities Bookselling
Here's a rundown of my St. Paul and Minneapolis trip this week.
Stores are listed in the order of when I visited them....
Walker Art Center - this modern art museum is set to reopen on April 15. It's amazing to me how many Midwest art institutions are under renovation or expansion. The Walker's new building is designed by Herzog + de Meuron, which if you're geeked-out into modern architecture, just reading their name gives you the goosebumps and makes your knee quiver. My architecture knowledge has had to go from 0 to 60 mph in the last year to keep up with some of the books Phaidon publishes. So it was exciting to see this new building in process. Coming off the Hennepin/Lyndale exit from I-94, your car rounds a blind corner and that's when the building comes into view like a big solid cube of white rock. It's unfair to call it an oversized sugar cube, but given that it's next to Claes Oldenburg's Spoonbridge and Cherry, maybe a sugar cube is appropriate? The parking garage was filled with construction trucks and I had to talk over the sound of jackhammers and drills to get directions to the staff offices. Their buyer, Paul S, politely took me on a tour of the new museum. I'll admit it was exciting to see the galleries dark and undressed. Crates of artwork were everywhere, some were as big as fifteen x fifteen ft holding a large installation piece. Workers were laying modern print wallpaper on an entryway wall. I can't wait to go back in a few months and see it all put together. But I'll never forget getting to see part of how it all happened.
Magers and Quinn - a growing new, used, and remainders bookstore on Hennepin. The owner, Denny Magers, is a savvy bookseller who has run a tight ship for a number of years. They're very smart about remainder buying and giving good value to customers. The store is tiptoeing further into the world of carrying new books and getting involved with events. I think the owner has an eye to getting bigger, and becoming more of a presence in the Twin Cities book scene, and possibly further out into the Midwest. Recently he hired bookseller legend, David Unowsky, to help with the store's growth. This is a store to watch.
BookSmart - Hennepin Ave. is nice because I can park my car in the Calhoun garage and see four stores over a two block stretch. BookSmart is a block north of M&Q on the same side of the street. They don't carry as many new books, but I do drop off a catalogue to keep them up on new titles. It's also fun to take a quick sweep through their inventory to see if any gems are waiting.
Orr Books - a small book and card shop across the street from Magers and Quinn, and next to a medium-sized Borders. The store has a good religion and spirtuality section and an interesting selection of greeting cards.
Wild Rumpus - There were a number of great store finds on this trip, and Wild Rumpus was one of them. Wow. I had heard this was a great children's bookstore, but I had NO IDEA how great. The store begins, as most stores do, with the front door. But this door is a full size black door with a half-sized bright purple door inside the larger door. Kids get to use the purple door to enter, adults have to use the larger one (oh how I wished to be four feet tall again). Inside the door, the ceiling is painted night-sky dark blue, with white sheetrock placed under it to create the illusion of a large crack in a white ceiling opening up to reveal the sky. It's amazing. And that's when I saw the chickens. Wild Rumpus is literally a rumpus room of pet animals, books, artwork, and book posters. It's as if Old MacDonald ran a truck straight into Mr. Rogers's neighborhood. I had to carefully manuever around Elvis, with gorgeous flowing white plummage, and Priscilla, a hen that only recently developed a few annoying habits like pecking at people's feet. In the back of the store are cages for the other store family members. Quimby the Mouse and Desperaux the Rat share a cage. There's a spider and a number of birds. And in the back corner I found a cage with a bright red sweater in it. At first I thought it odd that they would have a cage for a sweater, but then Sophie, the store ferret, popped her head out of the arm. Apparently she's not the only one who likes to spend the winter in a comfortable sweater. Hats off to Collette Morgan and her staff (Hi Liz!) for creating such an incredible store. (One comment: if any store website called out for more pictures, it's Wild Rumpus. Please can we have more pictures of the store artwork, the front door, and the animals? I think they're ready for their close-up, Ms. Morgan.)
Micawber's - I was looking forward to this visit for awhile. Richard Gregg, former Hungry Mind and Brookline Booksmith bookseller, told me the owners were bright book people I should visit when in town. And I'm always looking to talk with people who are serious about bookselling as a profession. I had coffee with Hans Weyandt, one of the co-owners, and spent the evening learning the history of the store. Micawber's was opened by the same person who ran Bookmen in the Twin Cities. Bookmen was a regional book wholesaler bought by Ingram a few years ago. Many great booksellers and publishers came out of the Bookmen staff. Hans and Tom, the other co-owner, purchased the store in the Summer of 2003. They have ambitious, but realistic, plans for the future and are already experiencing growth beyond their initial projections.
Micawber's has one of the most generous store loyalty programs I've seen.
From the store website:
Free membership with the immediate benefit of 10% off all new book purchases (doesn't count toward used or remainders). At first I thought this was crazy talk. But Hans says it really helps keep customers. There's a high-grossing Barnes and Noble near the store and the 10% discount makes him competitive with the store, while still giving him a good margin. The store would lose money if customers were buying just one book at 10% off, but the members end up buying 20 or more books and that's a very profitable relationship. Giving 10% off of 20 books makes more money for the store than selling one or two books to a customer at full price.
After spending two hours with Hans, I saw another immediate benefit to the loyalty program. Hans greeted every single customer by their first name. Everyone. The loyalty program doesn't have cards. Customers have to give their name to the bookseller when checking out. The bookseller gets to learn every customer's name.
In the last year and a half of owning the store, the program has added 3,300 members. Imagine having 3,300 new customers buying up to 20 books a year! Plus, each of the members gets the events calendar mailed to them.
I think the bookselling community needs more people like Hans and Tom to open stores. Tim Huggins at Newtonville Books is another of my favorite new booksellers. I know there are more out there. Let's get their stories out there for others to learn from!
Univ of Minnesota Bookstore - The campus bookstore underwent a renovation recently and added hundreds of square feet for trade books. I wonder if they can expand to match the excellent model of the University Bookstore in Seattle, Washington.
With the closing of Ruminator/Hungry Mind, the Twin Cities is in a unique time where a few area bookstores have a chance to expand their operations to absorb customers, but also to take on some of the Hungry Mind's reputation as a literary center for the region. My own opinion as an outsider, is that Bound to Be Read (see below) and the University bookstore are the best poised, in terms of resources, to become the new bookstore landmark in the city. But Micawber's and Magers and Quinn are building very impressive infrastructures to make a run at it too. I'm completely speculating that any of these booksellers are thinking this way, but the opportunity is out there. I really don't mean to manufacture competition between the stores, but the Twin Cities for the next few years will be an amazing chance to witness decisions made in terms of bookstore operations and how the decisions affect store growth.
Minneapolis Institute of Art - Another museum in the city that is renovating. The MIA is scheduled one year behind the Walker. The museum should be fully up and running by the spring of 2006. Their new buyer, Maggie Davis, has a good eye for art books and a great enthusiasm. This will be a fun store to watch how it changes with the new space.
Birchbark Books - On a list of most beautiful, unique bookstores in the country (and there are a lot of them), Birchbark Books makes the shortlist for its use of real birch branches for bannisters, furniture, and other decorations throughout the store. Entering the store feels like walking into a quiet forest grove filled with books. What could be better than that? I'm a fan of the manager, Brian Baxter, a long-time twin cities bookseller. The store is owned by author Louise Erdrich. If you like her books, this is the place to order signed copies of all of her titles. I'd love to learn more about Erdrich's reasons for opening a store...oh, why hello there Google:
Birchbark About Us page (one of the best store history descriptions I've seen)
Local press interview with Louise Erdrich
Bound to be Read - Here's the description of the store from their website, "Bound to be Read is an independent community bookstore with all the bells and whistles of the big box chains." At 20,000 sq ft and filled with one-of-a-kind store fixtures, this store is definitely worth making a trip to see. There is a second location in Albuquerque, NM. I like talking with Bound to be Read because it's an example of a bookstore really taking the innovations that came out of the chains (yes, I can admit that there are some) and giving them to an independent bookstore. I think they do an excellent job of merchandising books and sidelines, advertising and promoting the bookstore, and creating a professional environment for the staff.
Red Balloon Bookshop - My three days in Minnesota finished with another wonderful children's bookstore. The Red Balloon has been in business since 1984. It blows my mind to think of kids who found the store in 1984 now bringing their children to discover books here. The staff at the Red Balloon are experts at matching books to kids. In their backroom in the basement, there are shelves with tags naming local schools and teachers. Educators have accounts here and simply call or email with lists of titles they need. The booksellers track each down and have the order ready for pickup or shipment. This is what we talk about when we talk about store service.
On Wednesday night, I drove back to Madison to catch a couple days rest before the next trip. I leave on Monday for a two-week trip. It starts with Michigan, followed by a weekend in Ontario, and the following week in Toronto.
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Stores are listed in the order of when I visited them....
Walker Art Center - this modern art museum is set to reopen on April 15. It's amazing to me how many Midwest art institutions are under renovation or expansion. The Walker's new building is designed by Herzog + de Meuron, which if you're geeked-out into modern architecture, just reading their name gives you the goosebumps and makes your knee quiver. My architecture knowledge has had to go from 0 to 60 mph in the last year to keep up with some of the books Phaidon publishes. So it was exciting to see this new building in process. Coming off the Hennepin/Lyndale exit from I-94, your car rounds a blind corner and that's when the building comes into view like a big solid cube of white rock. It's unfair to call it an oversized sugar cube, but given that it's next to Claes Oldenburg's Spoonbridge and Cherry, maybe a sugar cube is appropriate? The parking garage was filled with construction trucks and I had to talk over the sound of jackhammers and drills to get directions to the staff offices. Their buyer, Paul S, politely took me on a tour of the new museum. I'll admit it was exciting to see the galleries dark and undressed. Crates of artwork were everywhere, some were as big as fifteen x fifteen ft holding a large installation piece. Workers were laying modern print wallpaper on an entryway wall. I can't wait to go back in a few months and see it all put together. But I'll never forget getting to see part of how it all happened.
Magers and Quinn - a growing new, used, and remainders bookstore on Hennepin. The owner, Denny Magers, is a savvy bookseller who has run a tight ship for a number of years. They're very smart about remainder buying and giving good value to customers. The store is tiptoeing further into the world of carrying new books and getting involved with events. I think the owner has an eye to getting bigger, and becoming more of a presence in the Twin Cities book scene, and possibly further out into the Midwest. Recently he hired bookseller legend, David Unowsky, to help with the store's growth. This is a store to watch.
BookSmart - Hennepin Ave. is nice because I can park my car in the Calhoun garage and see four stores over a two block stretch. BookSmart is a block north of M&Q on the same side of the street. They don't carry as many new books, but I do drop off a catalogue to keep them up on new titles. It's also fun to take a quick sweep through their inventory to see if any gems are waiting.
Orr Books - a small book and card shop across the street from Magers and Quinn, and next to a medium-sized Borders. The store has a good religion and spirtuality section and an interesting selection of greeting cards.
Wild Rumpus - There were a number of great store finds on this trip, and Wild Rumpus was one of them. Wow. I had heard this was a great children's bookstore, but I had NO IDEA how great. The store begins, as most stores do, with the front door. But this door is a full size black door with a half-sized bright purple door inside the larger door. Kids get to use the purple door to enter, adults have to use the larger one (oh how I wished to be four feet tall again). Inside the door, the ceiling is painted night-sky dark blue, with white sheetrock placed under it to create the illusion of a large crack in a white ceiling opening up to reveal the sky. It's amazing. And that's when I saw the chickens. Wild Rumpus is literally a rumpus room of pet animals, books, artwork, and book posters. It's as if Old MacDonald ran a truck straight into Mr. Rogers's neighborhood. I had to carefully manuever around Elvis, with gorgeous flowing white plummage, and Priscilla, a hen that only recently developed a few annoying habits like pecking at people's feet. In the back of the store are cages for the other store family members. Quimby the Mouse and Desperaux the Rat share a cage. There's a spider and a number of birds. And in the back corner I found a cage with a bright red sweater in it. At first I thought it odd that they would have a cage for a sweater, but then Sophie, the store ferret, popped her head out of the arm. Apparently she's not the only one who likes to spend the winter in a comfortable sweater. Hats off to Collette Morgan and her staff (Hi Liz!) for creating such an incredible store. (One comment: if any store website called out for more pictures, it's Wild Rumpus. Please can we have more pictures of the store artwork, the front door, and the animals? I think they're ready for their close-up, Ms. Morgan.)
Micawber's - I was looking forward to this visit for awhile. Richard Gregg, former Hungry Mind and Brookline Booksmith bookseller, told me the owners were bright book people I should visit when in town. And I'm always looking to talk with people who are serious about bookselling as a profession. I had coffee with Hans Weyandt, one of the co-owners, and spent the evening learning the history of the store. Micawber's was opened by the same person who ran Bookmen in the Twin Cities. Bookmen was a regional book wholesaler bought by Ingram a few years ago. Many great booksellers and publishers came out of the Bookmen staff. Hans and Tom, the other co-owner, purchased the store in the Summer of 2003. They have ambitious, but realistic, plans for the future and are already experiencing growth beyond their initial projections.
Micawber's has one of the most generous store loyalty programs I've seen.
From the store website:
Our Loyalty Club is free to join. There are no cards you need to carry and you receive 10% off all new titles and qualifying special orders. Also receive a member rebate of 5% of every twenty books purchased. That rebate can be used immediately, saved for later or given as a gift."
Free membership with the immediate benefit of 10% off all new book purchases (doesn't count toward used or remainders). At first I thought this was crazy talk. But Hans says it really helps keep customers. There's a high-grossing Barnes and Noble near the store and the 10% discount makes him competitive with the store, while still giving him a good margin. The store would lose money if customers were buying just one book at 10% off, but the members end up buying 20 or more books and that's a very profitable relationship. Giving 10% off of 20 books makes more money for the store than selling one or two books to a customer at full price.
After spending two hours with Hans, I saw another immediate benefit to the loyalty program. Hans greeted every single customer by their first name. Everyone. The loyalty program doesn't have cards. Customers have to give their name to the bookseller when checking out. The bookseller gets to learn every customer's name.
In the last year and a half of owning the store, the program has added 3,300 members. Imagine having 3,300 new customers buying up to 20 books a year! Plus, each of the members gets the events calendar mailed to them.
I think the bookselling community needs more people like Hans and Tom to open stores. Tim Huggins at Newtonville Books is another of my favorite new booksellers. I know there are more out there. Let's get their stories out there for others to learn from!
Univ of Minnesota Bookstore - The campus bookstore underwent a renovation recently and added hundreds of square feet for trade books. I wonder if they can expand to match the excellent model of the University Bookstore in Seattle, Washington.
With the closing of Ruminator/Hungry Mind, the Twin Cities is in a unique time where a few area bookstores have a chance to expand their operations to absorb customers, but also to take on some of the Hungry Mind's reputation as a literary center for the region. My own opinion as an outsider, is that Bound to Be Read (see below) and the University bookstore are the best poised, in terms of resources, to become the new bookstore landmark in the city. But Micawber's and Magers and Quinn are building very impressive infrastructures to make a run at it too. I'm completely speculating that any of these booksellers are thinking this way, but the opportunity is out there. I really don't mean to manufacture competition between the stores, but the Twin Cities for the next few years will be an amazing chance to witness decisions made in terms of bookstore operations and how the decisions affect store growth.
Minneapolis Institute of Art - Another museum in the city that is renovating. The MIA is scheduled one year behind the Walker. The museum should be fully up and running by the spring of 2006. Their new buyer, Maggie Davis, has a good eye for art books and a great enthusiasm. This will be a fun store to watch how it changes with the new space.
Birchbark Books - On a list of most beautiful, unique bookstores in the country (and there are a lot of them), Birchbark Books makes the shortlist for its use of real birch branches for bannisters, furniture, and other decorations throughout the store. Entering the store feels like walking into a quiet forest grove filled with books. What could be better than that? I'm a fan of the manager, Brian Baxter, a long-time twin cities bookseller. The store is owned by author Louise Erdrich. If you like her books, this is the place to order signed copies of all of her titles. I'd love to learn more about Erdrich's reasons for opening a store...oh, why hello there Google:
Birchbark About Us page (one of the best store history descriptions I've seen)
Local press interview with Louise Erdrich
Bound to be Read - Here's the description of the store from their website, "Bound to be Read is an independent community bookstore with all the bells and whistles of the big box chains." At 20,000 sq ft and filled with one-of-a-kind store fixtures, this store is definitely worth making a trip to see. There is a second location in Albuquerque, NM. I like talking with Bound to be Read because it's an example of a bookstore really taking the innovations that came out of the chains (yes, I can admit that there are some) and giving them to an independent bookstore. I think they do an excellent job of merchandising books and sidelines, advertising and promoting the bookstore, and creating a professional environment for the staff.
Red Balloon Bookshop - My three days in Minnesota finished with another wonderful children's bookstore. The Red Balloon has been in business since 1984. It blows my mind to think of kids who found the store in 1984 now bringing their children to discover books here. The staff at the Red Balloon are experts at matching books to kids. In their backroom in the basement, there are shelves with tags naming local schools and teachers. Educators have accounts here and simply call or email with lists of titles they need. The booksellers track each down and have the order ready for pickup or shipment. This is what we talk about when we talk about store service.
On Wednesday night, I drove back to Madison to catch a couple days rest before the next trip. I leave on Monday for a two-week trip. It starts with Michigan, followed by a weekend in Ontario, and the following week in Toronto.
