Target. Ah, Target.
One of the things I like best about small independent bookstores is that the owners’ touch can be felt throughout the stores. A smaller shop and a restricted buying budget means someone has to make choices about what to keep in stock. There will always be certain titles everyone has to buy and display (I have yet to find a general bookstore that turns its nose up at New York Times bestsellers) but once you get beyond those requisite big names, indie owners get to influence their clientele by picking and choosing the books they want to promote. That’s what gives these bookstores so much individuality and makes the experience so much richer than simply walking into any chain and getting bombarded by, well, everything.
Target stores should be the anti-Indie. They’re the opposite of everything we promote on this blog–they’re ubiquitous and sprawling and have huge volume sales. They’re also not bookstores–they’re department stores. But for that very reason, Target is able to take a similar “pick and choose” approach to promoting books and authors that small independent bookstores do.
About a month ago, Motoko Rich had an article in the New York Times entitled “Target Can Make Sleepy Titles into Bestsellers.” In the piece, she writes, ”Compared with a large chain bookstore like Barnes & Noble, which averages about 200,000 titles per location, Target carries only about 2,500 titles in each of its 1,700 stores . . . . By assembling a collection of books by unheralded authors, Target behaves more like an independent bookstore than like a mere retailer of mainstream must-haves.”
She goes on to say that while Target does stock major authors and bestsellers, their books buyers do something unusual: they sift through upcoming books and choose a few to promote in their “Bookmarked Breakout” section. They also have a Target book club. The books they choose to promote on their aisle ends and (fairly small number of) book aisles aren’t necessarily by well-known authors, but because of the huge volume of Target shoppers and their incredible visibility (Target shelves books so that their entire covers face out, not just their spines), sales tend to shoot way up for the books they showcase.
Okay, now for the full disclosure paragraph of this post: Target picked my last two novels for their “Bookmarked” section. It’s been an amazing and wonderful thing for me, and I’ve been showing my gratitude by shopping frequently and with financial abandon at our local Target. (Okay, I was doing that anyway, but at least now I can justify it.)
But even before I felt I owed Target for their generosity toward me, I liked shopping for books there. The choices are narrowed down in a way that appeals to me. I don’t know if it’s my gender, my age, my reading habits (probably all of the above), but when I walk down their trade paperback aisle, I kind of want to buy all of the books there. Part of that is the way they’re displayed: the titles are easy to read, the covers are visible, and there aren’t too many choices. What’s there appeals to me. And (forgive me for this) the price point is good.
I’m uneasy as I write this. I clearly have a conflict of interest. I want to promote independent bookstores but I owe Target a lot. And I like Target as a department store–always have. All I can do, I guess, is be completely honest and refer you to Rich’s article which is interesting and shows the power a mass retailer can have in shaping tastes. Whether you find that appealing or worrisome is completely up to you.
Tags: Target books
Reply
Recent Articles
-
Wonderful Video of What Happens in a Bookstore at Night
I’ve been in a bit of a posting slump, but I’m working my way out and what better way to start the new year than with this lovely stop action video, “The Joy of Books,” about what happens in Type bookstore at night. I can’t wait to visit Toronto just to stop by Type Books to [...]
-
Scrambling For A Last Minute Gift? Head To Your Local Bookstore!
Farhad Manjoo ignited the latest round of ‘will the local bookstore survive’ with his “Don’t Support Your Local Bookstore” tirade on Slate. (I couldn’t fail to notice that while Salon promotes a campaign to support local bookstores, Slate is bashing them.) Numerous responses Manjoo were published, twitter feeds with special hashtags popped up, and even [...]
-
57th Street Books – Chicago, IL
57th Street, the actual street, is perfect for the meandering bookworm. We started with lunch at the graffiti clad Medici Restaurant. Famous for its burgers and scribbled upon walls and furnishings, we filled the time waiting for our food by adding our own “tags” to the table top. More importantly, within blocks there are three [...]
-
Essay Challenge Recap
I coming in just under the wire this year, this challenge must be completed today!! The Essay Challenge over at Books and Movies is the only one I joined this year, even so, I didn’t keep up with it the way I have the past two years. Not that I haven’t read essays all year [...]
-
Salon says “Support Your Local Bookstore!”
In the latest pitch to keep bookstores alive and well, or at least breathing, Salon.com gave credit to indies for finding and promoting the latest excellent book most of us don’t know: An independent bookstore brings a lot to a city or a town: a showroom for the latest literary releases, an auditorium where authors [...]
-
Small Business Saturday – Shop at Local Businesses on November 26th!
Actually shop at them as much as possible, they are the engine that drives your local economy. But, let’s give the little guys a leg up in the middle of Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Drop by a local business, chat with a real person, and contribute to your neighborhood economy by purchasing a Christmas [...]
-
Which authors would you invite to Thanksgiving dinner?
Taking a riff from NPR’s story last week about which deceased composers Miles Hoffman would invite to Thanksgiving dinner, I pondered the same question for authors and asked quite a few friends. Here are the guidelines: which dead authors would you invite to Thanksgiving dinner? Which author would you invite to give a reading Thanksgiving [...]
-
Breaking Dawn – Part 1 Opens Today
One of the pleasures of having a teenage daughter is the opportunity to share silly, girlly experiences. While I understand all of the criticism about the Twilght series, and agree with some, as I’ve written before, I’ve enjoyed the ride. Even more, I’m grateful for the opportunity to share the sheer reading fun with my daughter. [...]
-
Abbey Books & Gifts – Valyermo, CA
I spent just over 24 hours last week at St. Andrews Abbey. I’m not Catholic, but I enjoy joining the monks in the Daily Office. For those of you new to that term (and that would’ve been me a couple of years ago), it’s the practice of pausing at several set times through out the [...]
-
Alexander Book Co. – San Francisco, CA
Alexander Book Co. is a traditional independent bookstore tucked around a corner in downtown San Francisco. Wedged between office towers and the Academy of Arts complex, it’s a cozy respite from steel, glass, and marble. The store even smells like good books waiting to be discovered. The first time I tried to visit the store, [...]
No comments
Comments feed for this article
Trackback link: http://www.bookstorepeople.com/2009/08/a-mass-retailer-with-an-independent-heart/trackback/