ABA Winter Institute Puts Emphasis on Alliances, Going Green
by Jim Milliot -- Publishers Weekly, 1/28/2008 10:08:00 AM
The best chance independent booksellers have to survive in today’s hyper-competitive retail market is to be an environmentally-sensitive store that is part of a shop-local business alliance, while also using technology to make more customers aware of what is going on at your store. That was one conclusion that could be drawn from two days of educational seminars at this year’s ABA Winter Institute held January 25 and 26 in Louisville, Kentucky.
ABA was so intent on keeping to its green theme that the name tags and educational materials were produced on recycled paper and printed in Louisville. In addition to a “green retailing” seminar, Friday’s luncheon speaker, Gary Hirshberg, president of Stonyfield Farms and author of Stirring It Up, spoke on how companies (including bookstores) can improve profits by adopting green programs. And the three speakers at the Saturday luncheon tied in the green/buy local movements in a presentation that met with a standing ovation.
On Saturday, Bill McKibben, environmentalist and author (Deep Economy) implored booksellers to lead both the green and buy-local movements. Acknowledging that it was a bit unfair to ask of hard-pressed booksellers, McKibben nonetheless said that since bookstores are the home of ideas, booksellers “have a moral obligation” to drive interest in what people can do to combat global warming, adding that in doing so indie booksellers will increase their profile in their communities. Michael Shuman, author of The Small-Mart Revolution also said indie booksellers should use the fact that they are places where people can think about issues to differentiate themselves from competitors. “Amazon and Barnes & Noble will never be the great cultural center of their community,” Shuman said. McKibben did not hide his distaste for some of indie booksellers’ competitors, calling big box retailers “machines for global warming.” And Shuman wasn’t overly impressed with Wal-Mart’s moves to become more environmentally friendly. “At the end of the day there is no such thing as a green Wal-Mart,” he said.
In one of several technology-oriented sessions, Megan Sullivan of Harvard Bookstore and Margie Scott Tucker discussed the growing importance of creating blogs and Web sites promote a store’s products and events. The ABA’s Len Vlahos observed that the top reason people use BookSense.com is to search for a book, followed by getting a list of store events. Online sales through a store’s Web sites are growing, but still remain very small.
In a panel on print-on-demand, Lightning Source’s Dan Sheehan introduced the possibility of booksellers using Lightning and sister company Ingram to publish their own titles. Public domain titles and books of local interest or by local authors provide a chance for booksellers to create a publishing niche, he said. Booksellers seemed intrigued (if somewhat confused) by the idea, and while Sheehan and Vlahos both acknowledged it wasn’t clear how the pod business model would work, Vlahos said “it’s worth investigating.” The two parties hope to have a more formal proposal ready by BEA.
While, understandably, much of the talk at the Winter Institute discussed ways to fight off competition from chains and e-tailers, attacking chains is the wrong approach when trying to build an independent business alliance, said Betsy Burton, owner of The King’s English Bookstore in Utah. “Stay positive,” Burton advised when promoting the idea among your community about the benefits of shopping at locally-owned stores. That was the same message delivered by BookPeople’s Steve Bercu who credited the Austin Independent Business Alliance as a key factor in his store’s success. The AIBA provides local businesses a strong voice on the city council and provides great publicity opportunities, Bercu said. The key to success he said, is staying on message: “We have one agenda item—support locally-owned businesses. We stay out of politics.” Bercu said alliances don’t need to be very big, “but you need to be active.”
Once again, ABA capped attendance at the Institute at 500, and the entire program (except travel and hotel expenses) was underwritten by publishers and wholesalers. Given the fact that it was barely above 0 degrees when the Winter Institute began last week, ABA COO Oren Teicher said next year the ABA will not even try to find a mild climate and will hold the 2009 event in Salt Lake City.