New York’s last remaining independent bookshops | Hacker News Reader

New York’s last remaining independent bookshops

theguardian.com

76 pointspmoriarty20 comments

I'm guessing the problem - as with most small retail stores in Manhattan - is rising rent. Ironically, that is resulting in plenty of retail vacancies.

I have a hard time believing that this is the main problem. I used to live near the mentioned St. Marks Bookstore and visited it several times a month. I moved before it closed in 2016, but I remember what it was like when it was fighting hard via crowdfunding [0] to stay alive. Even at that critical time, the place felt like a ghost town. Yes, high rent was a factor, but only because it didn't seem to get much business as Amazon/Kindle continued to grow.

From the article:

> That extends to its bookshops, many of which have fallen to astronomically rising rents. St Mark’s Bookshop, for example, which opened in 1977 and became a sort of literary HQ for punks, was the oldest independent bookshop in Manhattan until it closed in 2016, despite celebrity support from Patti Smith and Salman Rushdie.

I'm confused. Isn't The Strand (just a few blocks away from St Mark's original location) an independent bookstore too? Wikipedia says it was founded in 1927 [1]. That was another bookstore that I visited frequently, though I would argue that it's reached a certain level of critical mass and success that makes it able to buck the general trend -- even if Amazon has a bigger selection and better prices, visiting The Strand is a worthwhile experience in itself. Similar to B&H Photo Video [2]

[0] https://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/08/01/st-marks-bookshop-...

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strand_Bookstore

[2] https://www.bloomreach.com/en/blog/2016/03/bh-photo-competes...

Yes, Strand Books is indeed an independent book store. In fact that whole stretch of of 4th Ave a block away used to be NYC's "book row." See:

https://untappedcities.com/2015/08/26/4th-avenue-the-history...

I think there’s two elements. One is rent, which is a very real issue: Saint’s Alp and The Cheese Shop never had a quiet moment, were basically on the same block, and have both gone belly up.

That said, the bookstore sucked. It had far too few books per square foot - easily an order of magnitude or more less than the Strand - but their curation was, outside of political tracts, bland and unsurprising. I’d never walk in there and find the book I was looking for; I’d never walk in there and find an unexpected gem. You have to deliver at least one of those, and your curation had better be top notch if your position is “we will only stock a (relative) handful of books.”

They went out of business because they were bad at what they did, but great stores on the same block can’t cope with the rent either.

> I'm guessing the problem - as with most small retail stores in Manhattan - is rising rent.

I think the bigger problem is jerks like me who go to bookstores to browse or use the restroom and then go home and order the books on amazon. Sadly, I just can't be bothered to carry the books home. I just can't.

> Ironically, that is resulting in plenty of retail vacancies.

Is this odd to anyone else? From the Manhattan mall to downtown to the UWS, I'm seeing as many vacancy signs today as I saw during the financial crisis 10 years ago. Strange to see so many vacancies in such a strong economy. Maybe it's that so much of economic commerce is going online. What's going to happen during a recession? Are all storefronts going to be banks and RiteAid/Duane Reade?

For those wondering where the list of bookstores actually is there are about 25-28 here :

1. https://mymodernmet.com/ny-indie-booksellers-bohbot-ungar/ 2. http://www.franckbohbot.com/nyib

I think the full book including interviews is yet to be published.

Ah thank you. This is a great list. Surprised to see that Argosy didn't make the cut. Its actually the oldest indie bookstore in NYC now. Also started on book row back in the 1920s. The place is a treasure trove. I would highly recommend it. You can kill an afternoon in there [1]

I love that they included that woman on Astor Place though.

[1] https://www.argosybooks.com/

Thank you. I have to check it out next time I am in NYC. The article also reminded me of the roughly 200 Seine-side booksellers in Paris.

The "bouquinistes" of Paris, yes. There used to be more of that style along stretch across from Cooper Union before the IBM building was built. That's why I loved that they included that one woman who is still there hawking used books on the sidewalk.

Definitely give Argosy a visit, you won't be disappointed. If you are a bibliophile and want to see the rare book offering on the 5th and 6th floors you can do so by simply making an appointment ahead of time. But even just visiting the other 3 floors is more than worthwhile. Cheers.

Since I did not see any entries from Queens (One of the five boroughs of NYC), I would like to add Astoria bookshop and a new entrant in Kew Gardens - Kew & Willow.

The story of how Kew & Willow came to be is also interesting: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1844468864/lets-bring-a...

This is a example of great photojournalism. The images of the booksellers tell a great story on their own.

What's sad is that the great neighborhood bookstores never manage to own their spaces. That was just as true 40 years ago (when my favorite in a retired old-fashioned brick firestation went under.)

I'm probably wrong (never talked to an insider) but owning just doesn't seem to be in the DNA of the store owners to go for that. A shame for them, and for the fate of the thousands of books that make them special in the first place.

Wouldn’t owning their real estate in New York require access to tens of millions of dollars in cash? Where is a bookshop owner going to get that? It sounds more like a practical barrier to doing that rather than a choice thing in their ‘DNA’.

"tens of millions of dollars in cash"

You're replying to someone who wrote "40 years ago." Real estate in New York was cheap, back in the 1970s and early 1980s. I have friends who bought their brownstone in Brooklyn for $200,000, which is now worth $2 million. If you were lucky enough to buy real estate in New York in the early 1980s, it was among the best investments possible.

For awhile I lived in a 4 story building in Brooklyn, just across from the Navy Yard. It had 14 apartments in it. It was owned by a Hasidic Jew, who I got to know pretty well. He told me he bought it in 1982 for $300,000. I'd guess it is now worth $3 or $4 million.

I realize that the national story is different from the New York story, but those bookstores could have bought their buildings, when real estate values crashed, back at the end of the 1960s.

If you invested $300k in the Dow in 1982, it would be worth $8,700,000 today, for reference.

40 years of collecting rent, or alternately deriving utility from living there is a significant part of the return on top of the increase in market price.

Running a business is about cash flow.

Yes, and if you have a landlord then the cash will always end up flowing in their direction.

If you own the building, the cash flows right where you want it. Until then, you're a turtle without a shell.

Did I miss something obvious where is the actual list of the 50 independent book sellers?

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