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. It means to replace it. Borders would arrive with such backing that making a profit could wait while they capture the market for themselves. This superstore would be seven times the size of our largest independent bookstore, bigger than all combined, and just two blocks away from most.