With one store closed and two stores shrinking, A Woman's Place Bookstore owner Sally Smith has never been more sure of the importance of her work. "This is a positive thing. I'm determined to do whatever it takes to keep doing what we are doing."
Business is tough for independent booksellers right now, she agrees. Large chains get special deals from publishing houses. The American Booksellers Association is currently suing Random House, among others, over some of those deals.Meanwhile, Smith makes this report: Her Park City store is flourishing. She would like to have been flush enough to have held on to the Draper store a little longer because she is sure business would have picked up. She likes the new cozier Cottonwood Mall store. And the Foothill store is going to be a unique and exciting kind of place.
She has sublet half her Foothill space to Kelly Broussard, who will open a travel business there sometime after the first of April. Smith says it will be a full-service agency. "She's going to do workshops, seminars, have videos and CD-Rom. She'll sell luggage and maps. But 90 percent of her inventory is going to be in books." Smith believes the two halves of the store will blend seamlessly.
"Her concept of a store is just like mine. If it's about travel, it's going to be there. My focus is, if it's about women, it's going to be there."
The Salt Lake area has more independent booksellers than most metropolitan areas do, Smith says. There are plenty of larger cities with not one independent bookstore. Smith says, of herself and her fellow bookstore owners, "We are doing what it takes to survive." If that means adding a travel agency, great.
She'll also continue to serve high tea in her half of the Foothill store, Smith says. High tea is "about women" because, she notes, "Women like to eat."