Black Bond Booksco-owner Cathy Jesson said she’s getting lots of questions about the company’s decision to buy Book Warehouse’s West Broadway location in what’s widely believed to be a shrinking market for neighbourhood bookstores.
“So many people are going, ‘Really? You did what?’” she said with a laugh.
But Jesson, a 42-year veteran of the book trade, contends that the move – while not premeditated before Book Warehouse assets came onto the market – is more than a leap of faith.
Jesson said after a tough year last year, sales for Surrey-based Black Bond begin to turn around in mid-December.
As of May, she said, the chain’s numbers were up year-over-year in 10 of 11 locations, with revenue up 7% or 8% across the chain.
She added that, from what she just saw at the Bookexpo America conference earlier this month, the book-selling market is starting to turn around in the United States.
She added that doom-and-gloom discussion in the sector about ebooks had subsided since previous conventions.
“We’ve come to realize that there’s a level for [ebooks], and a lot of people will have both [books and ebooks].”
Jesson added that ebooks don’t respond to customers’ desire to fill bookshelves and give books as gifts.
She said ebooks aren’t the first challenge – and evolution – the book business has faced.
“The business has always been sort of like Eeyorein many ways,” she said.
“I’ve been at it forever and it seemed like there was always something: it was the big box, and then it was Amazon and it’s still Amazon, and then it was ebooks. And those that complain will just use it as an excuse not to just get on with what we do.”
Jesson said neighbourhood bookstores are still viable, but owners need to be strategic.
“You need to diversify your product line.”
Black Bond buys overstocks of previous seasons’ books to sell a mix of discount and new-season books.
“Some of those books that you loved six months ago, you can buy them for half the price now and offer them to your customers,” she said.
“They were gorgeous then; they’re gorgeous now.”
Joseph Stewart owners Vancouver’s Blackberry Books. He said 2011 was his business’ toughest year ever and he has yet to see sales turn.
He noted that Blackberry has just opted to downsize to a smaller location at Granville Island.
Stewart attributed business challenges to broad economic malaise, rather than book industry-specific woes.
Jesson said she’s viewing Black Bond’s expansion with confidence.
She said the new location, which will continue to operate under the Book Warehouse name, has inherited a strong, 32-year-old business on a dynamic strip.
Jesson’s daughter, Caitlin Jesson, is the manager of the new location at 632 West Broadway. She said sales have been strong and growing since the store re-launched on June 1.
And she thinks neighbourhood bookstores have a brighter future than is widely believed.
“We wouldn’t be [expanding] if we didn’t feel that.
“We love books and bookselling, but we’re business people.” •
