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A 30-year-old independent bookstore in Lincoln and a Bellevue bookstore that opened two years ago are closing.
Owners of Lee Booksellers in Lincoln and Confluence Books, Bistro and Business Center in Bellevue say the decisions to close their doors were related to the economy.
While all retailers today face one of the toughest economies in decades, independent bookstores have faced challenges since the early 1990s when corporate bookstore chains came into prominence.
Additional challenges have arisen from online booksellers such as Amazon and from digital technology that allows books to be read on computers, smartphones and, most recently, electronic book readers.
“It is a very tough world for independent booksellers, because there is so much competition,” said Linda Hillegass, who owns Lee Booksellers with husband Jim McKee. “Books are everywhere.”
In a press release, Confluence owner Sue Lynn addressed the “headwinds” contributing to her decision to close the store Dec. 31: two minimum wage increases in the past 18 months; inability to get credit from banks; interest rate increases by credit card companies to as much as 32 percent; and city, county, state and federal tax burdens that consumed 20 percent of revenues.
“Now you have the daunting prospect of health care reform and additional taxes being levied on small businesses in 2010,” Lynn said. “A little too much to ask of small business today.”
For Lee Booksellers, the decision was a long time coming, Hillegass said.
Hillegass, 62, and McKee, 69, who have spent the last 17 of their 30 years in business at 5500 S. 56th St. in Lincoln, knew for several years that retirement was nearing. An expiring lease and the economy provided further impetus, Hillegass said.
“Sales had slowed because of the economy, and that was another reason we were not interested in signing a lease,” she said. “But it really amounts to the fact that we just got old.”
The couple opened the store as newlyweds in 1979, calling it “J&L Lee Booksellers” after each one’s first initial and a shared middle name, Lee. Over time, customers dropped the “J&L.”
Hillegass and McKee decided around Thanksgiving to close after a failed attempt to sell the bookstore, which employs 16 other people. They plan to close after a liquidation sale, which Hillegass expects to end in mid-January.
Lee Booksellers held its own until the financial crisis in October 2008, Hillegass said. Typically, Christmas sales start in September and heat up in November.
“That didn’t happen this year, and it didn’t happen last year,” she said. “I didn’t think there was going to be a good Christmas season this year. That’s why we decided to have our closeout sale in December and January.”
She described the closing as bittersweet: The couple are looking forward to retirement but are sad to say goodbye to loyal customers.
Ultimately, she said, there were too many booksellers — on the Internet, at stand-alone or mall locations of the major chains, at airports — and not enough customers shopping at independent booksellers, Hillegass said.
“They have decided by voting with their dollar that they don’t care about keeping their money in a local economy.”
Dan Cullen, senior director of editorial content for the Tarrytown, N.Y.,-based American Booksellers Association, the national trade association for independent booksellers, said the group had roughly 4,500 members in the early 1990s. Today it has 1,400.
Membership increased by about 100 new stores each year in 2005, 2006 and 2007, he said.
“ ’08 was just a horrible year for retail across the board,” Cullen said. “It’s too soon to know what we’ve seen in ’09.”
It’s also too soon to gauge this holiday season’s performance, he said, “but a lot of booksellers are hopeful because this was a remarkable publishing season.”
As difficult as independent booksellers have had it, they do have some advantages, Cullen said.
“One of the strengths of any independent business is that they are nimble, and they can innovate and adapt. And they’ve worked hard to do that. I don’t think any bookseller is taking anything for granted, and they all are working hard to provide choice and value, great customer service and a really great experience in the stores.”
Contact the writer:
444-1183, christine.laue@owh.com
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