EARLY next month, Pablo Sierra is opening a used book store in Northwest Washington — an unlikely bet in the digital age made even more inconceivable given that his only experience with books is reading them.
“I guess it is pretty crazy,” Sierra said. Or maybe not. Sierra, like other book lovers, has read articles about slowing e-book sales and watched as independent book stores, catering to readers who value bookish places as cultural hubs and still think the best reading device is paper.
Used book stores, with their quintessential quirkiness, eclectic inventory and cheap prices, find themselves in the catbird seat as the pendulum eases back towards print. In many cities, that’s a de facto position: they’re the only book outlets left.
While there are no industry statistics on used-book sales, many stores that survived the initial digital carnage say their sales are rising.
“It gets better and better every year,” said Susan Burwell, the co-owner of Reston’s Used Book Shop, the only book store left for an intellectually diverse Northern Virginia city of nearly 60,000 people.
Riverby Books DC, a used store on Capitol Hill, closed last year after owner Steve Cymrot was hit by a truck and killed. His son Paul reopened the store in the fall — and didn’t hesitate. “The business side of it never gave us a moment’s pause,” he said. “We’ve never had better business.”
And it’s a business with good economics. Used book stores can beat Amazon on price, offering shoppers both a browsing experience and a money-saving one. Also, profit margins on used books are better than new ones — so good that many indies are quietly adding used sections.
Sensing a good deal, entrepreneurs are jumping in. Sierra, 38, is a former Navy officer with an MBA and experience in government contracting. His new store, in a small strip mall on Georgia Avenue NW in Park View, is called Walls of Books, a chain started by Gottwals Books in Georgia. The company has opened eight locations since 2012, including one in New Orleans, and offers a training programme for owners.
Shane Gottwals, the chain’s co-founder, said some franchisees are fulfilling lifelong dreams to sell books. Others are in it solely for the money. All of them see unmet demand.
“It’s a cultural centre. It’s a place people want to go. And that’s why it’s a good investment,” Gottwals said.
It is by no means an easy business. Many used booksellers — with either bad management or bad locations (or both) — still struggle against the digital headwinds.
For one, Amazon is still just a few clicks away. But some used book store owners have made a shrewd move: widening their customer base by listing their inventories on Amazon’s marketplace.
Used book stores rise and fall based on the books they’re able to buy. They’ve been both savvy and lucky in that department.
Savvy: locating themselves in culturally diverse and book-friendly neighbourhoods. “Everything we have comes from the neighbourhood,” said Cymrot of Riverby Books.
Lucky: baby boomers are downsizing. (Downsizing is one of the four D’s in how used books surface, the others being divorce, departure and death.) “We get a lot of our best books that way,” Burwell said.
Owners still have to get people in the door. For that, readings and other events have been helpful. Sierra, whose book store is in a changing neighbourhood with many Hispanic residents, will host bilingual events.
But nothing provides a stronger pull than the experience of browsing — getting lost in the stacks, making serendipitous finds, having chance conversations with interesting people. And with information so easy to find these days, used book stores offer the thrill of the hunt.
Lori Hamrick, 40, stopped by Reston’s Used Book Shop recently. There’s an old wooden card catalogue in the corner, with cards tracking store credits for customers.
She was looking for several titles — written in a notebook — in a series of historical fiction called White Indian by Donald Clayton Porter. Hamrick nosed around the historical fiction section. Nothing. On a hunch, she checked in westerns. Bingo. She found book #3, War Chief, in paperback. She took it home for $1.38.
“I can find these books online, but I don’t want to,” she said. “It gives you a sense of accomplishment.”
A buck thirty-eight won’t make Burwell and her husband rich, but the economics are good enough for them to pay the bills and do what they love.
Oren Teicher, chief executive of the American Booksellers Association, said “dozens” of independent book stores around the country are featuring used books, and interest is growing.
And you never know what you’ll find in a used book. Chacko Chakiath, shopping recently at Wonder Book in Gaithersburg, Maryland, said he seeks out books with plenty of notes in the margins. “You can go, ‘What were they thinking here?’ “ he said. “Or sometimes I have the same issue they had.”
Wonder Book staffers find postcards, bills, love letters, prescriptions — markers not just of pages, but the endurance of print.
