Wednesday, July 25, 2012

Report: St. Mark's Bookshop crowdsourcing funds to relocate



Per Crain's, we learn that there's a Lucky Ant campaign under way to raise $23,000 to help the St. Mark's Bookshop move to a new, smaller location... Per the campaign:

In order to survive these difficult times, St. Marks is repositioning itself in the marketplace and implementing a new strategy for the future. These changes, such as moving to a more affordable location and developing a more sophisticated online presence, are a direct response to the changing business environment and will help the bookstore to once again become financially viable. Major changes are not cheap however, and St. Marks needs capital to finance these improvements. Through community investments, St. Marks hopes to raise the capital needed to once again make itself a viable business.

Learn more on this here. This comes on the heels of the successful Cash Mob that Jeremiah Moss organized last Saturday.

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

I wish them good luck but I think they'll fail wherever they relocate. It's just a sign of the times. Even Borders went out of business. I suppose there is some market for the type of books they stock but not enough to survive.

Anonymous said...

Ok, so they have been cash mobbbed twice and had their rent reduced for an entire year and NOW they are begging for money?? Where is their business plan???

tourist said...

book stores are done.

nygrump said...

I think the comments here well represent why the E. Vil is such shit these days - the obsession over bars closing but the joyous zeal with which they comment on the closing of a bookstore - this only has to do with the heroin economy of manhattan poromoted by blomberg where if you aren't selling some commodity costing 1000% more than its worth - booze, fascion, and foodie shit like mommyfuckyou. If you leave your little closed world of manhattan you'll find bookstores are doing quite well, and even thriving in many places. In general, the War against intelligence remains in full effect and the morons are as arrogant as ever.

abrod said...

I hate to say it but - I agree with Anon 8:36. Every couple of months we are exhorted to spend more and more of what little of our money is left after rent, electricity and food, to keep this store open. And now, not one week after the latest "cash mob" was trumpeted as a resounding success, they ask for more money. It sucks, it really does, but I'm not sure this is a viable business anymore.

LvV said...

Bookstores are not done. And before the eReader zombies get in here, I'd like to repeat myself: EIGHTY-FIVE percent of books sold are still print books. I'm not pulling this number out of my ass. You can find it in the NYT, in Publishers Weekly, and I've heard/read it in approximately 1,000 boring meetings/articles the past year. Also: The kinds of books sold at SMB are not typically available in eBook format (i.e., they're not selling Fifty Shades of Fanfic Crap or the latest James Patterson), and I'd imagine that the clientele of SMB prefers printed books with beautiful covers, interior design, pleasing text layout, beautiful photos, and all the rest that print entails.

I don't hate eBooks or eReaders. They are great for certain genres (e.g., mass market fiction) and for things like textbooks. But I have noticed that people who love their eReaders tend to be two things: projectors ("Everyone's switching to eReaders! Print is dead!") and proselytizers ("Bookstores are dead, accept the future!"). Printed books have been around since Ancient Egypt. It's going to take more than a few cool shiny devices to kill them.

All the bookstore naysayers seem to overlook East Village Books on St. Mark's, which seems to be doing just fine -- and they only sell used books! As for SMB (to be on topic), perhaps they've not handled this situation as well as they should, but it's not my store.

sorry for the epic rant

chris flash said...

Abrod + AnonymASS 8:36: St. Mark's Books HAS had a working business plan. That's how they've managed to stay in business for several decades.

The problem now is that the rent is TOO DAMNED HIGH!!!! How many books must they sell each day just to cover $667 toward the $20,000 monthly rent? What is left to cover their other overhead and salaries???

St. Mark's Books had a great space on St. Mark's before they were lured to their current ugly industrial-looking space by Cooper Union, which could better balance its budget by reducing some its top-heavy administration whose members receive more than $500k each annually, rather than jack up the rent on this fine neighborhood institution.

abrod said...

Chris Flash:

The rent issue is exactly why I'm not sure their business is viable. I'm no expert on rent rates but I don't get the feeling that the rent that Cooper Union is charging for the property is very high compared with the average commercial rents in the area.

The sad truth is that New York, and the East Village in particular, is becoming a playground for finance titans and their trust-fund kids. It's impossible to get by here on a regular salary, and in this case, St. Marks Books is in this same position, only as a business rather than an individual. Like I said before, it really sucks, but I'm afraid it's the case. You can't make money in this neighborhood anymore unless you have a liquor license or a high-end fashion line.

Anonymous said...

They're toast - unless maybe NYU could throw them a bone & let them sell the curriculum books to their students.

JAZ said...

I still think the future of great independent bookshops is to partner and share space with great independent used record/tape stores.