This is a great piece. I am opening an indie bookstore outside DC this fall and this was a very helpful reminder that indie bookstores need to be constantly responsive to their communities.
I support indie bookstores whenever I can, but I have to admit that I love the new Barns and Nobles I’ve visited. The CEO seems to understand what readers want. Hoping for the best at TC.
I feel exactly the same, such complicated feelings! I'm not from anywhere near the area, but I'm a former indie bookseller, and it's a very small world (at least on social) and over the years I'd heard many, many things from staff and employees about the exact things you've described, and losing its shine. I also agree that an indie, for me, is made by its employees and their recommendations. Hoping this is a good thing? (But I'm skeptical . . . cautiously and partially optimistic, I suppose?)
This past winter we did a family ski trip to Winter Park and I visited Mountain Shire Books. It was so cute...women owned, small but with well currated shelf sections. Amazing what thoughtful work can go into a small space.
Thank you, Sarah. I have so often felt like the only person who was willing to suggest the TC was not the indie bookstore that I knew when it was in the Cherry Creek store. Yes, the current store is in this historic, great funky building but....there was no magic, no hello or what could I help you with? They broke my heart with some of their political stumbles and it didn't just start with George Floyd. The day after Columbine, they had Ted Nugent who was talking about gun rights.
After Book Bar closed (that was my store and they did some indie pretty good ), I started shopping online at The Bookshelf or Fabled or Storyhouse Bookpub or Cafe con Libros rather than shop at TC.
Yes yes YES!!! To every single word, observation and sentiment here! I'd go point by point but, seriously I feel like I could have written this. I had been lobbying my TC location for years about literally all of these things and even finally got a job there (I worked exactly 5 shifts at McGregor before it was announced my location would close -- and FWIW they let me write a ton of shelf-talkers in those few days because I felt so strongly about them)!
Anyway, given the new B&N philosophy of leaning into local control and readership, I'm keeping an open mind (and so is my former manager who I ran to see when this news dropped). And agreed, actually having inventory will be amazing. I'll for sure continue to support smaller local indies as always but I do like having a place to visit that will have a larger selection (nowadays I hop on a bus and go all the way to Boulder Bookstore when I really need to shop for a list because TC never has what I'm looking for -- I'd also (kindly) complained that they didn't have an Aspen Words or Booker display).
Here's hoping for the best here -- Denver has too many book lovers to lose this institution altogether and it was on a very downward spiral.
A few years ago I read this article in NYT. Could it be that B&N helped Indies stay alive? I don’t go into the store near my house often, but I rather pop in there rather than “click” on Amazon when I need a quick book fix. 😄
This is a great piece. I am opening an indie bookstore outside DC this fall and this was a very helpful reminder that indie bookstores need to be constantly responsive to their communities.
I support indie bookstores whenever I can, but I have to admit that I love the new Barns and Nobles I’ve visited. The CEO seems to understand what readers want. Hoping for the best at TC.
I feel exactly the same, such complicated feelings! I'm not from anywhere near the area, but I'm a former indie bookseller, and it's a very small world (at least on social) and over the years I'd heard many, many things from staff and employees about the exact things you've described, and losing its shine. I also agree that an indie, for me, is made by its employees and their recommendations. Hoping this is a good thing? (But I'm skeptical . . . cautiously and partially optimistic, I suppose?)
Look at one thing this Indie bookstore is doing: https://www.instagram.com/p/C7z6YCIP3qU/?igsh=MTd6dGJkcmk3ZGhtZQ==
Hey Sarah. We’re about to visit my son in Denver so what ARE the smaller independents I could visit?
This past winter we did a family ski trip to Winter Park and I visited Mountain Shire Books. It was so cute...women owned, small but with well currated shelf sections. Amazing what thoughtful work can go into a small space.
Thank you, Sarah. I have so often felt like the only person who was willing to suggest the TC was not the indie bookstore that I knew when it was in the Cherry Creek store. Yes, the current store is in this historic, great funky building but....there was no magic, no hello or what could I help you with? They broke my heart with some of their political stumbles and it didn't just start with George Floyd. The day after Columbine, they had Ted Nugent who was talking about gun rights.
After Book Bar closed (that was my store and they did some indie pretty good ), I started shopping online at The Bookshelf or Fabled or Storyhouse Bookpub or Cafe con Libros rather than shop at TC.
Yes yes YES!!! To every single word, observation and sentiment here! I'd go point by point but, seriously I feel like I could have written this. I had been lobbying my TC location for years about literally all of these things and even finally got a job there (I worked exactly 5 shifts at McGregor before it was announced my location would close -- and FWIW they let me write a ton of shelf-talkers in those few days because I felt so strongly about them)!
Anyway, given the new B&N philosophy of leaning into local control and readership, I'm keeping an open mind (and so is my former manager who I ran to see when this news dropped). And agreed, actually having inventory will be amazing. I'll for sure continue to support smaller local indies as always but I do like having a place to visit that will have a larger selection (nowadays I hop on a bus and go all the way to Boulder Bookstore when I really need to shop for a list because TC never has what I'm looking for -- I'd also (kindly) complained that they didn't have an Aspen Words or Booker display).
Here's hoping for the best here -- Denver has too many book lovers to lose this institution altogether and it was on a very downward spiral.
A few years ago I read this article in NYT. Could it be that B&N helped Indies stay alive? I don’t go into the store near my house often, but I rather pop in there rather than “click” on Amazon when I need a quick book fix. 😄
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/15/arts/barnes-noble-bookstores.html?unlocked_article_code=1.2U0.txJU.QMKt1ZTfGHrd&smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare