Major in de pen dents and specialized niche bookstores stand the only chance of fighting off this nationwide plague of homogenized, discount superstores. After Friedman repeatedly said that different stores weren't interested in Davis because the market wasn't here, I asked him how that same market could support a Borders superstore. His answer was that Borders feels there are enough unspent book dollars to support this big box that would be bigger than all of our downtown bookstores put together. Having managed both chain and independent bookstores in Davis for close to 15 years, I must be blind to all those millions of book dollars that Borders sees all the way from Ann Arbor, Michigan. Jerry Kaneko's cable TV theories about book market saturation aside, the fact is that the money just isn't there folks.
Competition is tough in Davis.
Gayle's Books gave up the struggle after 30 years. We worked with the owners and came up with a creative solution to make a depressing transition easier. Independent bookstores compete and cooperate. Referring customers and working together to find each store's fit in the market's delicate balance is what being part of a book community is about. A superstore doesn't seek to become part of a book community.