Our Story - Book Dealer Micro-Retailing
Small Is Beautiful
For Book Dealers, Micro-Retailing
Fuels Entrepreneurship
In Suffering Retail Economy
The book business is suffering, the economy is stagnant, and the city is planning to tear-up the street in front of their location. So what are Nancy Stevens and Dan Danbom doing? They're starting a used book store that will house them and seven other booksellers - all in a location of about 1,000 square feet.
Call it "micro-retailing." Stevens and Danbom plan to convert a Victorian house at 1416 S. Broadway into Printed Page Bookshop. They rent space in the house to other booksellers, who can reduce their rent by working shifts at the store. This enables them to have a brick-and-mortar retail presence for as little as $50 a month.
The idea appeals to dealers such as Mitchell Hankins, who had to shutter his book store in Breckenridge when $4 a gallon gasoline pulled the rug out from under the town's tourist trade. "Having your own store means constant work, constant worry and constant bills. Being a part of a micro-retailing operation minimizes my risk and time commitment, and still allows me to be in retailing and to interact with customers face-to-face," he said. "I know the Internet has made a lot of people entrepreneurs, but online business doesn't allow for the kind of direct face-to-face feedback from customers that is so critical to building your business."
Pat Grego, one of Printed Page's tenants, has experience with micro-retailing as a co-owner of the Denver Book Mall, which is closing in late August when its lease expires. "In the 15 years I've been active in the book trade in Denver, I've seen lots of book stores come and go. Most owners soon learn they cannot afford to hire help, so vacation and sick time become real problems. The constant daily responsibility for operating a retail shop causes many to close prematurely. A co-op where everybody shares responsibility and success is really a smart way to go," she said.
A single-owner book store, Book Buffs, located only blocks from Printed Page, closed last year.
Stevens, who specializes in children's literature, and Danbom, who carries a general stock, are optimistic about their venture, despite a trend that shows declining book purchasing of almost two per cent in 2008, according to Book Industry Trends, and a construction project that will revitalize their South Broadway location, but be disruptive in the meantime. "We have persons such as Pat Grego who know the pitfalls and opportunities of micro-retailing. We have the experience of being dealers in a co-op and knowing what dealers want. And we have a commitment to marketing the store and being involved in the community in ways that are rare in the used book business," said Stevens, a former college professor.
"We know that consumers like it when they can find a book that came out two months ago for half the price it is at a chain bookstore, and we know that collectors like it when you can offer them interesting, collectible items that they may have been trying to find for years. Our dealers are absolutely attuned to both those groups -and everyone in between. And as book-lovers, we know that it's important to consumers that we have a store that's fun and inviting, and not some musty, cluttered place that hasn't seen a dust mop since Gone with the Wind came out," said Danbom, a former corporate communication and marketing manager.
Micro-retailing isn't unique to the used book business. Antique malls follow the same concept with antique dealers.
By taking on the marketing of the store through their own website www.printedpagebookshop.com and other media, Stevens and Danbom relieve dealers of another responsibility. They plan book giveaways for day-care centers, teen shelters and the unemployed and a promotion about banned books.
Printed Page Bookshop, which is located roughly at Arkansas and South Broadway, will open August 15 and can be reached at 303-777-7653.