Labyrinth of the Strand

The largest collection of books in the world is the Library of Congress with 30 million books but the Strand with almost 3 million books would still be quite a private collection if they stopped selling books today. Certainly the Strand has more books of any single bookstore in the country (Amazon may possibly have more books, but then, they have pretty much everything) and possibly some smaller chains. There are two main ways to look at one bookstore having so many books: one, they treat books like Costco treats all its products and wants to offload as many books as possible to make the most money as possible, or two, they treat books like the Library of Congress treats its collection, with care and dedication with the idea of spreading literacy and being a general good to society. Are Strand’s books merely objects that exist to make the owners money and are simply what they choose to make money with? Or are they things with meaning? To answer that, we need to look at how the Strand presents its books and, by extension, the way they market themselves to the public.

Having eighteen miles of books and accompanying shelves to hold all of it, my floor plan may prove somewhat inadequate of showing the scale of how large the Strand is. Regardless, the first thing one sees walking into the Strand for the first time are the large tables of books organized by “Classics”, “Best of the Best”, “Bestsellers”, and so on. At a single glance, this setup is similar to any other chain bookstore, putting the most popular and well-known books upfront to keep people in the store. The difference here being that the line of tables stretches almost the entire length of the store. Most chain bookstores simply have anywhere from one to three, or even four, tables organized like this before opening up to the wider store.

This photo of The Strand Bookstore is courtesy of TripAdvisor
Any key difference is the sensory overload of books contained in the store. Some people have called the Strand a Mecca of books, a booklover’s paradise, and it would seem a little intimidating with eight feet tall shelves that require stools to access some of the higher books. But as you see from the pictures, the lighting is kept very bright and airy, even when a customer is squished between the other customers and the books themselves. There is certainly room to wander, but that wandering is contained more to searching for a book in the labyrinth, rather than the actual store itself. One thing you won’t see in most other bookstores, independent or chain, is the branded merchandise. Located off the side of the checkout, situated almost like the candy in a grocery store to get one last impulse buy, a customer can come out not just with a book or two but tote bags, shirts, magnets, bookmarks, notebooks, stationery, glasses, calendars, gift cards, etc. None of these are really connected to books besides the obvious bookmarks, but when the Strand is such a big name already, why does it need all the merchandise?

The Rare Book Room on the third floor

Going deeper into the dichotomy of “corporate” vs. “independent” what kind of books does the Strand put on the first floor of their store? Yes, some curious visitors will go to the other floors, but most people just sightseeing and buying a souvenir are less likely to go to the other floors. You have your generic “Fiction” in the back shelves, the bestsellers on the tables, cookbooks, history, travel guides to New York, and New Yorkicana (New York/Americana.) The second floor keeps the more “genre” and “niche” books like the art and architecture books, young adult, graphic novels, and children’s with a similar layout to the first floor. Anyone silly enough to like books outside of the mainstream literary culture have to go up the stairs to find what they’re looking for. Additionally, on the third floor is the Rare Book Room with a far more elegant and traditional air to it than the rest of the store (you can even rent out the room for wedding receptions, it’s that fancy.) The shelves are all against the walls and what few tables on the floor are spaced farther apart and hold fewer books than tables on the lower floors. The room even has chairs where you can actually seat down and read.

The basement, like any other basement, is filled with unwanted things like bargain books and non-fiction

Here lies the complication, the first floor has the trappings of being any other bookstore in America, pack in all the books guaranteed to sell and put all the special interest in a more out of the way place for the dedicated fans to find. On the first floor, books are simply commodities and while you’re at it, why not buy a mug to drink some tea while you’re reading your book? On the third floor, however, seems to be where the Strand has taken all their passion and love for books and stored it there. But the question is whether the Rare Book Room is a only a museum of books or a place where books can actually be appreciated for their rarity and value. In fact, the most expensive book in the Strand is $45,000 dollars. But as Fred Bass says in the “About Us” video on their website, the pride and joy of the store is a signed, illustrated copy of Ulysses where Joyce realized the illustrator (Matisse) had drawn pictures from the original Ulysses and refused to sign anymore after that. That anecdote does give humanity to the store, it’s not the most expensive item but perhaps it proves I’m being too harsh on the store.

So going back to my opening, does the Strand really care about books? Yes, I believe the history of the Strand and the fact that it’s been run by the same family does lead to think that while the Strand may be trying to brand themselves more to get some more profit, the Bass family’s love of books can’t really be denied. The question is more one of integrity, if they were care about books, a skeptic may say, why do they sell them like it’s a fire sale? Are books more than objects to be sold in a cold, capitalist manner with only an eye on what sells the most? Bruno Latour says about things that it is “in one sense, an object out there and, in another sense, an issue very much in there, at any rate, a gathering.” The issue here being, has the Strand “sold out?” Have they been more corporate and sacrificed that unique, communal sense of local identity in favor of tourist dollars? In this case, the books are almost secondary, more about what they represent than just being ink and paper. What separates the Strand from Barnes & Noble or Books-A-Million? On the surface, very little. But unlike either of those two, Strand does employ people who genuinely know and care about books. So perhaps the real measure of the Strand is not the books inside them but the people who fill them. Perhaps the Strand will only have lost its soul when it starts employing people who are little more than cashiers who just happen to work at a bookstore, rather than true booklovers who want to spread the good word to anyone who enters the store.

Sources:
Text:

Latour, Bruno. “Why Has Critique Run Out of Steam?” Critical Inquiry. 2004.

Images:
http://litreactor.com/sites/default/files/images/column/Indie%20Bookstore%20Spotlight/strand%20bookstore%20int%202.jpg

http://justletmefinishthispage.com/2014/09/bookstores-the-strand/

http://iipdigital.usembassy.gov/st/english/article/2010/12/20101207163354nerak7.187599e-02.html#axzz3UCahctBd

http://www.tripadvisor.com/LocationPhotoDirectLink-g60763-d208901-i112478962-The_Strand_Bookstore-New_York_City_New_York.html#112176613

http://www.tripadvisor.com/LocationPhotoDirectLink-g60763-d208901-i29001397-The_Strand_Bookstore-New_York_City_New_York.html#123354832

The Strand: A Place for Book-lovers of all Sorts

Like any good bookstore, The Strand offers plenty of books in a variety of interests reflective of the customers it has. In such a diverse city where people take interest in all types of things, it is crucial for the bookstore to be able to supply the materials necessary to satisfy these intellectual cravings. The Strand, with its extensive collection, succeeds in doing that. Like New York City, The Strand offers a space where people of all interests can interact and explore something different while still providing an atmosphere that feels like home. In chapter ten, titled “On Collecting Art and Culture,” of his book The Predicament of Culture, James Clifford writes that collecting is a “probably universal” habit, though “the idea that identity is a kind of wealth (of objects, knowledge, memories, experience)” is not universal, but more of a Western idea. With other cultures, such as in Melanesia, collecting objects is done “to give them away, to redistribute.” (Clifford, 218) It can be argued, then, that bookstores have a way of doing both- of creating an identity based off of their collections but for the purpose of redistributing.

strand-bookstore
Just like the arrangement of books above the registers of the first floor suggests, The Strand offers a collection of books and other merchandise of every “color,” or type.

In Tim Cresswell’s book, Place: A Short Introduction, he calls for readers to think about the way in which we use the word place every day. He goes on to explain that our usage of the term “suggests ownership or some type of connection between a person or a particular location or building.” If someone were to say, for example, “The Strand is a nice place,” Creswell explains that this “suggests something of the way it looks and what it is like to be there.” (Creswell, 1-2) With this in mind, by taking a look at the collection of books The Strand offers and the way in which they are arranged, we are better able to understand what type of place this bookstore is trying to be.

 

Upon entering the store, one may be immediately overwhelmed by the amount of books at the ready to be picked up and paged through. The layout of the store gives the impression that there is so much to see that one must at least try to see it all, leading curious customers to explore sections that they might not otherwise venture in to, though sometimes accidentally.

The front of the store may seem pretty typical with a brief glance at the floor plan I’ve sketched out. Bestsellers, New Arrivals and Popular Fiction are located near the entrance along with the current or upcoming holiday-themed stand. But, The Strand is so much more than meets the eye- my sketch does not do it justice. Venturing further into the store, customers will find a Banned Books section near the Popular Fiction as well as a massive Poetry section and tables of “Underground” Books. Unlike chain bookstores which primarily focus on selling what’s popular, The Strand caters to a wide range of interests. The store does not disregard those who enjoy bestsellers, which elitists might say are of lesser value, but rather it invites this audience in by providing these bestsellers and popular fiction, while giving them an environment to explore a wider range of books. The same goes with those who like to disregard the bestsellers. The Strand is saying, it’s ok to enjoy what you enjoy, but maybe you will enjoy these other books, too.

Again, it’s too tempting to not explore at least the rest of the first floor. After entering, most people will be inclined to go away from the registers first, toward the right side of the store. From there, they will most likely be drawn to another nearby section, moving further back throughout the store until they wind up walking toward the registers, perhaps drawn there with the desire to purchase something, to double-back to something that had previously caught their eye, or to find the stairs to continue exploring the upper levels.

In her book Reluctant Capitalists, Laura Miller writes, “A locally owned and operated store is directly dependent on the goodwill of local residents and cannot risk alienating large parts of the community… The store proprietor knows that the fate of her entire business is tied to the future of that community.” (Miller, 26) This idea is clearly incorporated into the layout and stock of The Strand, but is perhaps most evident on the second floor.

As you can begin to see from my sketch, the second floor is home to thousands of young adult, children’s, and various types of art books. While downstairs caters to a more general population of New York City, the second floor is for specific types of people. As New York City is a very popular place for artists of all types to reside in or frequent, I suppose I should not have been as surprised as I was to find such a wide selection of books. It is evident that The Strand does not want to alienate any type of artist. The store welcomes and enjoys supplying books for painters, dancers, photographers, architects, fashion designers, and even crafters. Non-artists are, of course, also welcome. During my visit, I noticed another customer had even brought his Schnauzer!

The Third floor is a little different. The fact that there are no stairs to this level suggests a knowledge of the fact that there’s a certain type of person that will be interested in going up there, though everyone should at least take a peek.

Some customers might feel uncomfortable on this floor because it may be the area of the store where the stock of books isn’t quite within their reach, either intellectually or financially. The books are more expensive here and may tend to be more of collector’s items than for the pleasure of reading. This is possibly enough to make those who are just exploring the third floor feel as if they shouldn’t be there. However, no one actually seems to mind any of the browsers. My sketch shows comfy armchairs to the left of the store when exiting the elevator, whereas throughout the rest of the store the chairs are less inviting. Perhaps this is an attempt to compensate for any discomfort. It’s a way for the store to tell customers it’s okay to be here and even stay for a little while.

Throughout each level of the store, you may notice that sections such as Sci-Fi, Sports, and Graphic novels end up being located in corners, suggesting that these may not be the most popular sections, but those who are looking for them will find them. If not, there are information desks on each floor and signs everywhere telling customers to “Ask Us!” A recent Publisher’s Weekly article even announced a new in-store positioning-based marketing technique being implementing at The Strand in order to connect with customers and “build the Strand brand-” which is ultimately and thus far recognized as a friendly, interesting place welcoming of all types of book-lovers.

 

 

Sources

Websites

www.strandbooks.com

www.thinglink.com

www.publishersweekly.com

Images

www.google.com

ThingLink images taken with personal camera

Text

Clifford, James. “On Collecting Art and Culture.” The Predicament of Culture: Twentieth-century Ethnography, Literature, and Art. Cambridge, MA: Harvard UP, 1988. 215-51. Print.

Cresswell, Tim. Place: A Short Introduction. Malden, MA: Blackwell, 2004. Print.

Miller, Laura J. Reluctant Capitalists: Bookselling and the Culture of Consumption. Chicago: U of Chicago, 2006. Print.

Strand Bookstore: A Space of Separation

Escaping reality is a large motivator when it comes to reading. The act of reading puts you in a world that is not your own, whether it be genre fiction or literary fiction. Last week I interviewed Strand employee Brianne Sperber, who said “Customers love to shop at Strand because they love to get lost in the stacks. There are rows and rows and rows of books everywhere—it can be very easy to spend an entire day here and still not see everything.” This suggests that Strand customers are looking to be whisked away from reality, if only for a few hours at a time.

When walking in to the bookstore, there is an onslaught of merchandise, bestsellers and staff picks. These sections are meant to draw in the customer. A little past these tables are the New York travel guides, cookbooks and history, all aimed at getting tourists more interested in the store. Even farther behind that begins the fiction stacks. One of the most interesting things to me about Strand is the fact that it is trying to draw in tourists. The entrance to the store is concentrated on getting tourists hooked so that they will move farther and farther into the stacks.

From what I gathered by looking through some online reviews of Strand is that not as many people know about the vast amount of books waiting in the basement. This is what confuses me about the organization of Strand. With all the goods at the front to draw tourists in, the store loses emphasis of the basement, except with the locals who know it is there. This might be because the basement has mostly non-fiction and bargain books, which may be less demanded by tourists. With the selection of bargain books in the basement, that is where a lot of locals must flock to and get lost in the stacks. It seems counterproductive to draw tourists in backwards towards fiction rather than up and down to the other floors. It just goes to show how much emphasis society puts on fiction rather than non-fiction and things like young adult and art books that wait on the second floor.

This separation of locals and tourists could also speak to the phrase “citizen consumer” because with bargain books being in the basement where more locals venture, it is easier for them to support the bookstore by buying the bargain books.

Sperber said that fiction was their leading genre when it comes to sales. It seems like this is so because their main floor is taken up mostly by fiction. Most of the other genres are either upstairs or downstairs, but as mentioned before, tourists aren’t pushed toward the stairs but rather back toward the fiction stacks. The other issue that gets run into with this set up is the fact that most of the children’s and teens books are on the second floor. This suggests that there is a separation not only between locals and tourists but also between children and adults. With the way the store is organized is pushing for families to head to the second floor rather than the first. This could be problematic since parents might want to browse the fiction section but children would be browsing solely on the second floor.

While on the topic of separation, I would like to point out that while I am not certain where the science fiction and fantasy section of the bookstore is, I can easily infer that it is most likely on the second floor with young adult fiction and graphic novels. This suggests a third separation, a common one between genre fiction and literary fiction. If I am correct and it is on the second floor, that means Strand purposefully split the genre section from the fiction and put it upstairs with the children and young adult books. This means that independent bookstores have somewhat of the same opinion of those kinds of books that chain bookstores do. Tim Cresswell writes how some bookstores feel that “’Our place’ is threatened and others have to be excluded. Here ‘place’ is not so much a quality of things in the world but an aspect of the way we choose to think about it—what we decide to emphasize and what we decide to designate as unimportant.” This suggests that bookstores are specifically thinking less of science fiction and fantasy writing, which leads them to organize it with the young adult books rather than with fiction.

Steven S. of Rocky Mount, VA, commented on yelp.com that “if you’re looking for any pretty typical modern bookstore creature comforts (nice bathrooms, comfy chairs, coffee), they’re not here. There’s no room!” This is one of the aspects of Strand that I really love. The store is so full of books that there is no room to sit. That means that right off that bat, this store will attract a different kind of customers than a Barnes and Noble would. Barnes and Noble is meant as a hang out spot, a public place to browse books and buy coffee and talk to friends. Strand is the opposite. Strand wants customers to lose themselves in the stacks, and having no sitting spots allows for just that. Several other yelp.com comments mentioned how there would be people sitting in between the bookshelves reading on the floor. This is one of the few aspects that makes Strand feel more like an independent and less like a chain.

Another aspect of Strand that is organizationally intriguing is the fact that the rare books room is on the top floor. It makes sense that it would be but at the same time, it feels as if Strand is hiding away the most “elite” section of the bookstore. It is the kind of thing that you would only know about if you really take the time to browse the store.

The organization of Strand bookstore offers several common ideas of separation, between tourists and locals, adults and children, and genre and literary fiction. These sometimes subtle separations become much clearer when you take a deeper look at the space and organization that defines the Strand. Though to some degree these separations happen in every bookstore, it seems more pronounced in the Strand. Strand is the kind of bookstore that is teetering on the edge of feeling more like a chain bookstore than an independent. Having these separations that are slowly but surely becoming more common makes it seem like Strand is heading in a chain store direction rather than keeping with their original independent bookstore.

 

Sources

Websites

  • “Google.” Google. Web. 13 Mar. 2015. <http://www.google.com/>.
  • “ThingLink – Make Your Images Interactive.” Thinglink. Web. 13 Mar. 2015. <http://www.thinglink.com/>.
  • “San Francisco Restaurants, Dentists, Bars, Beauty Salons, Doctors.” San Francisco Restaurants, Dentists, Bars, Beauty Salons, Doctors. Web. 13 Mar. 2015. <http://www.yelp.com/>.

Print

  • Miller, Laura J. Reluctant Capitalists Bookselling and the Culture of Consumption. Chicago: U of Chicago, 2006. Print.
  • Cresswell, Tim. Place: A Short Introduction. Malden, MA: Blackwell Pub., 2004. Print.

The Strand and Book Row: A History

History of the Strand on Dipity.

The Strand Bookstore is now ubiquitous with the common notion of the used bookstore. Walking past the 18 mile, several building store, its imposing largeness would make you think that the Strand has always been the large, well known bookstore that every book fiend flocks to while in New York. This is of course not the case, as the Strand has a history as rich and large as the insides of its large store.

If you take the time to look around the Strand bookstore with Google street view, you can see the main area’s of Greenwich Village, full of independent stores, coffee shops and movie theaters. The Strands wrap around banner has become as well known as the store itself. It gives the book lover just a taste of how long the bookstore really is. However, what many people do not know is that the Strand’s current location is not its original location.

The Strand was started in 1927, by founded by Benjamin Bass on 4th Avenue. At the time, the Strand would have not stood out solely own its own merits, for a very good reason. The Strand was located on Book Row, a collection of streets “six blocks from Union Square to Astor Place in Manhattan, a corridor of three dozen shops selling used books” (The New York Times). Walking into the shops one by one could take over a week, as there was much to see and many books to buy. Interestingly enough, many of the booksellers on book row were not like the jovial Professor that we see in the novel Parnassus on Wheels, but had a much more unlikable temperament, as shown in the video below.

 

“They hated you,” says Fran Leibowitz in the video above, “it was like you had broken into their house.”

Sadly, yet unsurprisingly, the Strand is the last of all of these used bookstores that exists today.

“I think what happened to Book Row” says current Strand owner Fred Bass, “is that it was run by a lot of interesting, strong, self centered individuals, including my dad, and very few of them imparted knowledge to the younger generation.”

The Strand in its original location in Book Row
The Strand on Book Row

Laura Miller writes in her book Reluctant Capitalists that “a booksellers judgement about what books to carry and sell is shaped by the extent at which she sees herself as rightfully taking an active role in guiding the reading of her customers” (55). Its increasingly obvious that most of the booksellers on book row did not subscribe to the idea of guiding their readers.

“The sort of thing that goes on now at Barnes and Nobel, where they give you service with a smile and have coffee,” says Marvin Mondlind, the estate book buyer for Strand, “old Book Row people would have just scorned the whole thing. We’re selling books here, and if people don’t want old books we don’t want them here.”

The original Book Row
The original Book Row

The days of Book Row have ended, and now there are less then ten used bookstores in New York City. However, Benjamin Bass did not seem to be as overwhelmed with the snobbish attitude of his bookselling peers. Benjamin was “twenty-five years old when he began his modest used bookstore. An entrepreneur at heart and a reader by nature, this erudite man began with $300 dollars of his own and $300 dollars that he borrowed from a friend” (Strand website). Unlike his fellow bookstore owners, who would throw you out of their shops for no reason whatsoever, Ben “create a place where books would be loved, and book lovers could congregate” (Strand website).

He hired his son Fred to start working at the store while Fred was still in high school, where Fred would develop a love for the trade and selling of books. After serving a tour in Armed Forces, Fred joined his father working at the Strand, and would eventually take over the business when his father retired. Like how Christopher Morley feels, Fred Bass seems to consider it his “duty and a privilege” to sell books (46).

It would be soon after Fred tool over the Strand that the once powerful Book Row would begin to disappear. In 1958, the Strand lost its lease due to their landlord dying, and the small bookshop could no longer afford to stay in their current location.

”My rent tripled,” said Fred Bass, talking to the New York Times. ”But I bit the bullet and I made the deal. If I was 10 or 15 years older I might have quit. But I’ve got a lot of young people. I’ve got an organization here.’’

The store then moved to its current location on 12th and Broadway, continuing its progression as the only used bookstore left from Book Row. As the bookstore continued its transformation, so did the surrounding neighborhood of Greenwich Village. It would be around this time that the village would become known as an artist bohemia. After the horrors American youth had seen in WWII, a new kind of youth was emerging from the shadows.

As profiled in a 1951 TIME magazine profile on American youth:

“Some are smoking marijuana; some are dying in Korea. Some are going to college with their wives; some are making $400 a week in television. Some are sure they will be blown to bits by the atom bomb. Some pray. Some are raising the highest towers and running the fastest machines in the world. Some wear blue jeans; some wear Dior gowns. Some want to vote the straight Republican ticket. Some want to fly to the moon.”

images-1

Many of the more artistically and book inclined youth were coming to Greenwich, clashing with the original Italian neighborhood. The “image of the Village as the heart of New York subculture, the neighborhood still retained a significant immigrant element. Though the Italian immigrant population of the Village experienced a steady decline starting after World War I, by 1960 there were still nearly 9,000 persons of Italian birth and parentage in the South Village.” Conflict between the Italians and the new bohemians was very common, with many fights breaking out.

“I had seen plenty of [racism] in the Village of 1953-54,” said Diane Di Prima, “when Italians would swarm up MacDougal Street en masse from below Bleecker to threaten or wipe out a Black man for coming to the Village with a white woman”

The new bohemians, also known as the Beat generation, helped the Strand create its notoriety as a mecca for book lovers. As the bohemians grew is size, so did the store. by 1973, plans to remodel the store to make it bigger, growing total space to 21,000 square feet. By 1979 the major remodels would be completed, and by 1997 the Bass family would buy the building for $8.2 million, cementing their place forever among Greenwich village as one of the few used bookstores that was not going to disappear.

Nancy Bass and Fred Bass
Nancy Bass and Fred Bass

Around 1987 the Strand tradition of keeping the business in the family would continue when Fred’s daughter, Nancy Bass, would join the business to co-manage the store with her father. Nancy, like her father, grew up in the bookstore, her fist job being sharpening pencils for the Strand Staff at the age of six. Though she tried to work at a different place of business then her father after college, “books were in her blood,” and eventually she followed her father to start working at the Strand. She now oversees the behind the scenes business at the Strand, while Fred remains mostly up front, interacting and forming relationships with customers, both long time and new.

The Strand bookstore has made a truly remarkable transformations, being once a small bookshop among many to the largest used bookstore in the world, carrying over 2.5 million books, as well as other merchandise. Its obvious, looking at the history of the Strand and other stores on Book Row, that the Strand knew what other booksellers did not: that forming a relationship with ones customer is more important that ones snobbery when it comes to books.

Sources:

Images:

The Strand on Book Row: http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2007/06/the_strand_turns_80.html

Book Row: https://nyhistorywalks.wordpress.com/2012/02/20/the-books-of-new-york-past/

Greenwich Village: http://www.heartofavagabond.com/things-new-york-counter-culture-bohemia-greenwich-village/

Fred and Nancy Bass: http://www.zimbio.com/photos/Nancy+Bass+Wyden/Fred+Bass

Maps:

Google Maps: The Strand Bookstore

Text:

Print: Morley, Christopher. Ex Libris Carissimis. New York: A.S. Barnes & Company, Inc

Print. Miller, Laura J. Reluctant Capitalists: Bookselling and the Culture of Consumption. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2006.

Book Row Is Gone, But Used Bookshops Aren’t: http://www.nytimes.com/1988/03/13/nyregion/book-row-is-gone-but-used-bookshops-aren-t.html

The Late 20th Century (1950-1999): http://creatingdigitalhistory.wikidot.com/late20thc

STRAND BOOKSTORE: Crain New York Business: http://go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?id=GALE%7CA208046463&v=2.1&u=susqu_main&it=r&p=ITOF&sw=w&asid=cfecb3922c81bed86bf2ad2d93ccb4fd

Strand History: http://www.strandbooks.com/strand-history

Timeline:

History of the Strand on Dipity

Video:

Book Row: The history of the Strand Bookstore with Fran Lebowitz: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Wl9zhC-snY

(Not) Stranded In the Past

Map of the Book Row on 4th Avenue

The Strand, at present, holds almost 3 million books in its three story building as well as a warehouse and kiosks in Central Park. It is one of the most well-known and beloved independent (but certainly not small) bookstores both in New York City and America at large by all booklovers. The Strand’s beginning is a story of survival. Benjamin Bass opened the Strand Bookstore (named after a street in London famous for gathering writer like Thackeray, Dickens, and Mill) in 1927, with 300 dollars of his own money as well as another 300 from a friend, on Fourth Avenue, then known as “Book Row.” But Ben Bass went all in and even put his personal book collection on the shelves for sale. Book Row contained almost fifty bookstores and six city blocks, but the Strand is the Highlander of Book Row (minus the decapitation), being the only bookstore originating from there still open today. But the Strand caught many lucky breaks in its early history, such as a generous landlord who would give rent breaks in times of hardships. Fred Bass, Ben’s son, was learning the ins and outs of bookselling by the time he was thirteen and would take over management of the store in 1956. Unfortunately, their landlord died in 1957 and Fred made the decision to move the Strand to greener pastures at its current location on 12th Avenue and Broadway in the same year.

Not one to rest on his laurels, Fred would expand the Strand beyond the brick and mortar of his building, bidding on space in Central Park for a book kiosk (NYC’s attempt to create a more Parisian feel for the city) in the 1960s that you can still visit on fair weather days (probably not the single digit weather as of this writing.) This would become one of the Strand’s most fruitful ventures with the kiosks racking in more than $300,000 in 2011 for a rent of $40,000. Even the kiosks least successful year, they managed a meager $211,935.15 in 2008. Some even worried about the Strand’s state of affairs when they hadn’t yet put a bid on the space in 2012. But the Eddie Sutton, general manager of the Strand for more than 20 years, said that, “We’ve had the contract and we’ve not had the contract.” The Strand has even taken over another vendor’s lease after the vendor encountered financial difficulties. The Strand has become such a monolith that even losing several hundred thousand dollars a year is a drop in the bucket to them. A long way from using an old cigar box as a cash register.

Strand Books Annex on Fulton Street

Not simply content with a few kiosks in a park, Fred also opened the Strand Book Annex in the 1980s on Front Street in the South Street Seaport, eventually moving to Fulton Street in the Financial District in 1996. Sadly, the Annex had to close on September 22, 2008 due to a 300 percent rent increase. One blogger reported the closing of the Annex by saying:
“Last week I thought I was having vertigo when I couldn’t find the Strand Book Annex downtown on Fulton Street near the South Street Seaport. It didn’t even occur to me that the roughest and toughest bookstore in all of New York City could just be gone. I guess 9/11 didn’t hit me hard enough. OFFICICAL [sic]: the Strand Book Annex is gone and the city’s already a little cleaner and a little less interesting. Good luck finding a used book that’s guaranteed to smell like burnt coffee combined with the reek of mildew from the water-damaged carpet in the children’s section. Anyway, if they replace the building with a Crunch Fitness Center I’m gonna eat my hipster slang dictionary.”
Another regular of the Annex said, “This city needs less banks, less Duane Reades, and more bookstores.” In addition, construction on the street limited the Strand from placing their customary book racks on the sidewalk outside. Fred himself said, “Sales just fell tremendously after the construction began.” However, no employees were laid off as a result of the Annex folding, something practically unheard of in most American industries, let alone the retail industry with only five percent of its workers unionized. But Strand employees unionized in 1976 under the United Auto Workers Union (a much more diverse group of unioneers than just auto workers) so Strand proved itself another exception in a history of exceptions. But before the Annex closed its doors, Fred Bass bought the building on 12th and Broadway for a cool eight point two million in 1997. Fred no longer paid rent to a landlord, he was now in control of his destiny (and certainly to avoid any rent increases that the Annex would succumb eleven years later.) More recently, Fred has taken on more help in the form of his daughter Nancy Bass Wyden (married to Ron Wyden) who gained a position as co-manager in 1986 at the age of 25. Fred, now 85 years old, still actively works on the floor of his family legacy.

Family-owned businesses are often beloved and respected because of their comforting and familiar attitude to customers who try to make them feel at home. Some businesses, the Strand included, treat their employees like family, with very low turnovers and people working for decades for the same family. But a sea change occurred in 2011 with a contract dispute between the 150 non-management workers and the Strand. Some employees believe the change happened when the Strand starting bringing on managers from Borders after the chain closed and creating a more “corporate” atmosphere into the workplace. Strand management attempted to get the employees to agree to a new contract that would slash benefits in half and double health insurance premiums. The management also tried to create a two-tier wage system, a system that has been used previously to bush unions by pinning senior and junior employees against each other.

The rejected contract also included a wage freeze for eighteen months, where previous employees would get a 25 or 50 cent increase every six months. Also, management also bought out some of the oldest employees by giving them a week’s pay for every year they’ve worked at the Strand. Some employees also alleged racial discrimination, a pregnant employee was almost fired for taking time off for doctor appointments. And one employee, Saundra Buchanan, claimed that Nancy Bass came into the bathroom and said, “You should be using the bathroom on your break time!’” Strand management claims that they needed to cut costs with competition such as e-books muscling in their profits. However, that claim rings false when the Strand bragged of breaking record profits in the 2011 Christmas season. But on June 15, 2012, Strand employees accepted a new contract and reported feeling more invigorated about belonging in a union.

The Strand Bookstore as a whole has a rich history but seemingly not much nostalgia. But this isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Starting out on “Book Row” the Strand might have sustained itself in a neighborhood that tells all bibliophiles what to expect. But simply relying on your physical neighborhood to bring in the dosh doesn’t always equal success. The Gotham Book Mart in its beginning relied heavily on its theater neighborhood to survive, and only by luck did it. As W.G. Rogers says when R.H. Burnside buys three hundred dollars worth of stock, “For the second time, proximity to the theater center where people in theory didn’t read had kept her business from foundering” (Rogers 76). The inverse for the Strand may have easily become reality, the other bookstores on Book Row stayed where they were, but the Strand moved to the more central and touristy Broadway. Throughout its history, the Strand has been more about bringing books to the people and not simply the people coming to the books. The kiosks, the Annex, these are/were all reachings out to the community at large. Had the Strand simply stayed on Book Row, the Strand might have become another footnote in the supposed “death of the indie bookstore.”

 

Sources:

Images:

Diane Krauthaumer : http://truth-out.org/images/071712book_2.jpg

Strand Books: https://nyhistorywalks.files.wordpress.com/2012/02/book-row-map.jpg

Robert Maddock:  http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_JGD4JBrmxRQ/SQCC-wARxI/AAAAAAAABAI/fLRDREdOvp8/s400/Strand+Book+Annex.jpg

Text:

At the Strand Bookstore, a Retail Labor Struggle in the Age of Amazon and Occupy

http://www.cnn.com/2011/US/09/12/first.borders.bookstore.closing/index.html?hpt=hp_c2

http://www.strandbooks.com/strand-history

http://www.downtownexpress.com/de_269/strandedbyconstruction.html

https://nyhistorywalks.wordpress.com/tag/strand-books/

http://www.dnainfo.com/new-york/20121025/upper-east-side/strand-bookstores-central-park-stalls-up-for-grabs

http://robertmaddock.blogspot.com/2008/10/dead-man-in-suitcase-and-cloves.html

http://truth-out.org/news/item/10391-in-new-york-bookstore-contract-fight-occupy-helped-workers-draw-energy-media-spotlight

http://www.thebaffler.com/blog/working-woes-strand/

Rogers, W.G. Wise Men Fish Here. Harcourt Brace & World, 1965. Book.

18 Miles of Books: Something for Everyone

The Strand Bookstore, with its unmistakable red awning, has its main location at 828 Broadway (& 12th Street) in New York City. Nestled in between the borders of Manhattan’s Greenwich Village and East Village (the territory which the store’s location favors) the Strand is home to “18 Miles of New, Used, and Rare” books, as well as to many New Yorkers. According to the 2010 Census, the East Village alone has approximately 24,527 housing units among which their population of roughly 43,755 people live, the majority of them aged from 25-34 years old, and that’s only a portion of the Strand’s potential customers. The Strand has had this location as its home since 1957, when Fred Bass, the son of the store’s original owner Ben, moved the store just around the corner from its original location on Fourth Avenue. The Strand itself has been in business since 1927 and is known as the “Sole survivor of Book Row.”

 

With its long-standing history, the Strand has been a home to book lovers of all types for around 88 years now. The store carries a little bit of everything for everyone, catering to the diverse interests for those living in or visiting the diverse city of New York. According to Tim Cresswell, the Lower East Side of Manhattan, which East Village is part of, “has been known as a place of successive immigrant groups- Irish, Jewish, German, Italian, Eastern European, Haitian, Puerto Rican, Chinese.” The majority of the East Village’s population, around 42,536 people, identify as one race, while only around 1,219 people identify as two or more races. With approximately 31,859 identifying as Caucasian, East Village is now known to be a predominantly white area. At a significantly lower number, approximately 6,419 people identify as Asian, followed by Hispanic/Latino at around 5,195 and Black/African American at around 2,719. While these are only the top three largest groups, the area is not as diverse as one might have originally thought. Though in the past few years there may have been some changes in these numbers, as they have evolved throughout history, it is not likely that the overall demographics of the area have changed too drastically. While race is not the determining factor of interests or literary preferences, it is, in some cases, one of the many influences that determine the diverse interests of an individual. This is why it’s important for a bookstore in the city to carry a little bit of everything, even outside of books.

The Strand carries other goods such as coffee mugs, totes, and even onesies, though this merchandise tends to remain relevant to literature or to the store. In this regard, the Strand stands firm in its footing as a location for book lovers which many other bookstores throughout history have been unable to do successfully. “Bookstores, in fact, were really the first drugstores, as we know them now,” writes John Tebbel in the first chapter of his book, A History of Book Publishing in the United States. It has proved difficult for bookstores to survive only selling books, especially in locations which require the bookstore to pay a high rent. Luckily for the Strand, a densely populated area is likely to have many readers with many different interests. Plus, when the surrounding area is taken into consideration, it is clear to see certain connections throughout the community which allow the store to thrive, as well as some which may not.

New York University and The Cooper Union, both in relatively close proximity to the Strand, are home to thousands of bright-eyed students craving knowledge. Without a doubt, the relationship between the schools and the Strand is a symbiotic one. The students bring business; The Strand houses a plethora of knowledge-filled books, ready to be cracked open. On the other hand, Barnes and Noble is just a tad farther and university students may feel more comfortable in the familiar, standardized setting that it has to offer. According to Laura J. Miller, author of Reluctant Capitalists, Bookselling and the Culture of Consumption, chain bookstores such as Barnes and Noble or Waldenbooks “communicated that they were informal places welcome to all by standardizing the interiors from one outlet to another.”

Though the Strand may offer a multitude of books for many different people, some may still find it intimidating due to its atmosphere and size, and may instead choose to go the extra distance to Barnes and Noble. “Because of a continuing association of books with education and an attendant stratification system,” writes Miller, “any bookstore is vulnerable to being perceived as an elite enterprise.” It is possible that some may shy away from the Strand then, with its determination to claim its identity as a store for lovers of literature. Or, some may simply stick to perusing the discount racks outside where they feel more comfortable. Regardless, the Strand seems to have remained an integral part of the community and probably won’t be going anywhere anytime soon. Customers can peruse the many aisles at their leisure or stop by for one of the many events being held. They can even request to host one of their own. While in the area, they can check out Second Hand Rose Music to go along with their new (or used) books and grab a bite to eat at one of the many restaurants in the area, offering a vast range of food types from Asian to Mexican and everything in between. The Strand, despite any competition, is a home within a home for book lovers of all types, and is probably more welcoming than those who are intimidated by it believe it to be.

 

Sources

Images/Maps

http://www.google.com/maps

Text

Cresswell, Tim. Place: A Short Introduction. Malden, MA: Blackwell, 2004. Print.

Miller, Laura J. Reluctant Capitalists: Bookselling and the Culture of Consumption. Chicago: U of Chicago, 2006. Print.

Tebbel, John. “A Brief Hisory of American Bookselling.” A History of Book Publishing in the United States. New York: R.R. Bowker, 1972. 7. Print.

Websites

http://www.strandbooks.com

http://www.nycgovparks.org/parks/union-square-park

Strand Bookstore – Present Place and People

Taking over half a city block and with over three and half floors and two point five million books in the store (in addition to another quarter million books in a warehouse in Brooklyn), Strand’s slogan of “18 miles of books” sounds less like hyperbole and more a statement of fact. Founded almost 80 years ago in 1927, Strand Bookstore has become a landmark of East Village even as it sits at the intersection of every major neighborhood in New York City. South of Union Square, north of New York University and Cooper Union, west of the Lower East Side, and east of (you guessed it) West Village, Strand’s success is evident when you take into account that the whole bookstore has 240 employees, more than some chain businesses.

Originally situated on Fourth Avenue or “Book Row” as it was known, Fred Bass moved Strand to its current location in the heartland of New Yorker culture. After the Beats made East Village their home, it has since attracted a certain amount of artists, musicians, and other counter-culture figures, and while some of those landmarks are gone, i.e. CGBG, the East Village is a place that takes pride in its culture.

But wherever there is a “quaint” little neighborhood or town, there are always people willing to buy into that culture without living it. What I mean of course is gentrification. New, wealthy people move to a place that unique and different, but end up homogenizing that place as a result of larger business moving in as well to capitalize on that new money. Or, one of these “yuppies” might end up buying a historic building and tearing it down to build a mansion as David Schwimmer did in 2012 (not cool, Ross.) As one local resident put it, “All the new people are yuppie transients. If I see David Schwimmer on the street, I’ll be sure to give him my two cents!” But it’s not just celebrities moving in, it’s the college educated. Around forty percent of East Village’s residents have a bachelor’s degree minimum. Simultaneously almost thirty percent of people in the East Village haven’t graduated high school. And with a median income in 2011 of $65,000, the neighborhood is attracting more money than NYC as whole with the median income in the city being only $49,000. Additionally, thirty-five percent of East Villagers are from outside of New York State, compared with NYC overall’s ten percent of people from out-of-state.

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Has the Village really been gentrified though? On the map you can see that places like Starbucks and Dunkin Donuts are only a few blocks away from small cafes like The Bean. Within three blocks of each other is a Chipotle and Hotel Tortuga, a vegetarian Mexican restaurant. On the same city block as the Strand is a Forbidden Planet comic store, one of the largest comic book chains in the world. The conflict of gentrification is very real in the East Village and how long before another bookstore tries to muscle in on its territory?

But what does this mean for the Strand? Surely a wealthy, educated yuppie population would be good for any business right? Perhaps, but that depends on what you want out of any neighborhood. Strand might get more business, but they could end up being like any other chain bookstore. If the people surrounding Strand don’t see it as a ‘place’ of pride but rather as just another bookstore, something is lost.
As Cresswell says about place, “When we look at the world as world of places we see different things. We see worlds of meaning and experience. Sometimes this way of seeing can seem to be an act of resistance against a rationalization of the world, a way of seeing that has more space than place. To think of an area of the world as a rich and complicated interplay of people and the environment.” The Strand’s popularity may be self-sustaining because so many non-New Yorkers know about it and visit it because it’s “the Strand” but then it only becomes something distant to the locals. Why should the locals be invested if the Strand doesn’t make a stand on the gentrification of the East Village? If the Strand makes to be a ‘place’ in the neighborhood, it has to give something back to the Village.

MCHALESThen&Now
Before and after gentrification

 

 

Sources:

 

Maps:

Google Maps: 828 Broadway Street

Images:

Google Streetview: Strand Bookstore

James and Karla Murray: <http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Utk5rgonVnA/UzAk9emWzCI/AAAAAAAAXG8/bPclgST6iv8/s1600/MCHALESThen&Now.jpg>

http://www.city-data.com/neighborhood/East-Village-New-York-NY.html

Text:

Cresswell, Tim. “Defining Place.” Place: A Short Introduction. Wiley-Blackwell, 2004. Book

The Ultimate Book Lover’s Dream

New York City. The Big Apple. One of the greatest cultural centers the world. A person might dream of walking down the streets of Manhattan, looking for celebrities, or dining in one of the cities best restaurants. They might walk around and look at some of the great cultural relics of our history, such as the Statue of Liberty. If you walk down to the Broadway, you might take in a show or simply look around at the multitudes of bright, flashing signs. But there is more to the Broadway area than just tap dancing and Shakespearean monologues. Its a store that can only be described as 18 miles of a book lovers wet dream.

Strand

The Strand bookstore, located on the corner of Broadway and East 12th Street, is 18 mile long bookstore in Greenwich Village. The Strand contains  “2.5 million used, new, and rare books, covering topics as far-ranging as occult to philosophy to finance.” Browse the used books collection or take an elevator up to the rare books room, where you can find signed copies of classic books like Ulysses. Chat with some of the many book enthusiasts that you will meet wandering the aisles of the store. Or simply talk to the owner of the store, Fred Bass, who has been working there since he was thirteen, before he inherited the store from his father. It’s exactly what Laura Miller described in her book Reluctant Capitalists, in that it is a place for readers and writers to meet as a community, to learn and to grow.

With the 12th and Broadway bus stop right next to the store, it isn’t difficult to travel to this populous and popular area. The Strand stands on what was formerly known at “Book Row,” founded there in 1927, it eventually moved from 4th street to its current location, and it is the last original bookstore from Book Row to stand there. Nows its only bookstore competition is Forbidden Planet, a comic book shop right down the block. Surrounding the Strand is a variety of restaurants, including The Bean coffee shop right across the street from the Strand, where many people like to go and read their new purchases. Also surrounding the store is a Pret a Manger, Pie by the Pound, and various grocery stores such as Daily and Grocery and Trader Joes.

Walk around the area for a few blocks, and you will see that the area is a popular academic one. New York University’s main campus is just a walk down to Broadway and Bound Street. Walk north up to East 16th Street and you will come across Washington Irving High school. Walk one block up to East 17th street, and you will find New York Film Academy. Right nest to NYU is Washington Square Park, and right nest to the New York Film Academy is Union Square Park. Of course, it wouldn’t be New York if there wasn’t several theaters in the area. Unsurprisingly the area is becoming very touristy with all these attractions drawing in visitors from around the world.

As it resides in Greenwich, the area around Strand has always considered an artists true bohemia, with some of the worlds great artists and writers living there. However, when one looks around now, it becomes apparent the the neighborhood has become increasingly gentrified.

Screen Shot 2015-01-29 at 10.38.39 PM

Despite the diversity that New York is so known for, The Greenwich Village area that surrounds the Strand is predominantly white. 79% of the area is white, followed by people of Asian descent at 9%. Unsurprisingly, the bookstore is surrounded by coffee shops and restaurants, as well as the white persons ultimate grocery store, Trader Joes. Nearby is the main New York University campus, whose students get the majority of their textbooks from the store.

The neighborhood is one of the most affluent in New York. The “median household income in Greenwich Village for 2005-2009 was $101,568 – more than 50 percent higher than the median for Manhattan, more than double the median for New York City as a whole, and more than double the median for the U.S.” As such, though the neighborhood seems to still enjoy its bohemian reputation, the Strand is surrounded by some of the wealthiest people in New York City.

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With a total population of around 22,785 people in Greenwich Villages, and almost equally male and female populations, and a median age of 32, though there is a slightly larger amount of women who live in the area then men do. A dense 78, 821 people live in this area of Greenwich village per square mile, making it one of the most populated neighborhoods in New York.

As for people who you will find around the store, there are two main groups: traveling book lovers and NYU students. NYU students get most of their textbooks from The Strand, and seeing how the bookstore is a mecca for book lovers, one will usually find an abundance of tourists in the store. Because owning Stand merchandise is a popular thing to show how much of a book lover you are, tourists will usually walk out of there not only with plenty of books, but with the famous strand onesie or a tote bag. As such, this mix of students, tourists and some of the wealthiest people in the world make the area surrounding the Strand one of the most mixed and interesting neighborhoods in New York City. Even with this shift in culture, the Strand remains one of the true gathering spots for the cities artists, writers and readers who can come together and share their love of books.

 

 

Sources:

Charts:

Greenwich Village Statistics, Race Graph: http://www.washingtonsquareparkblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/greenwich-village-profile-2011-05-161.pdf

Greenwich Village Statistics, Median Household Income Graph:  http://www.washingtonsquareparkblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/greenwich-village-profile-2011-05-161.pdf

Images:

The Strand Bookstore: http://www.strandbooks.com/index.cfm 

Maps:

Google Maps: The Strand Bookstore

Text:

Print. Miller, Laura J. Reluctant Capitalists: Bookselling and the Culture of Consumption. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2006.

Strand History: http://www.strandbooks.com/strand-history

City Data: http://www.city-data.com/neighborhood/Greenwich-Village-New-York-NY.html

The Economy of Greenwich Village: A Profile: http://www.washingtonsquareparkblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/greenwich-village-profile-2011-05-161.pdf

How Community Helps to Shape Strand Bookstore

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Strand Bookstore is situated on the corner of New York City’s Broadway and East 12th Street. It is nestled in the 8 blocks between Union Square Park and Washington Square Park. On the map, the bookstore is shown as a little teal star. When I was exploring the neighborhood, I concentrated on the eight blocks in between the two parks. I looked at all the different stores and eateries, as well as defining landmarks. Some of the defining landmarks included the two parks labeled with yellow pins, New York University which is labeled with a magenta star, two movie theaters labeled with blue pins and Grace Church and School labeled with two green pins.

The presence of New York University suggests that this area of Manhattan is partly geared towards college students. Where there are college students, there is usually an abundance of bookstores, coffee shops, and art galleries. I have labeled some of these on the map with red squares. There is even a coffee shop called The Bean, located across the street from Strand. The amount of coffee shops in the area makes it an ideal place for college students to hang out or go exploring. The idea can be applied when it comes to the two movie theaters. Not only do movie theaters attract college students, they also attract families that live in the area.

I have heard of both Washington Square Park and Union Square park. I have seen them in movies like August Rush as well as various TV shows and on postcards. These parks are important to the neighborhood because they not only bring families with children but also tourists. There is a constant flow of people in downtown Manhattan and most of them, according to the 2014 census, are between 20 and 40 years old. This is the ideal age group for a bookstore like Strand. On the map there are also brown squares labeling places like children’s clothing stores, antique shops and banks. These are stores cover a wide range of age, so though the area might be investing in the high population of 20-40 year old’s, there are also businesses that cater to both younger and older generations.

The design of Strand Bookstore is both homey as well as standardized. In chapter four of Reluctant Capitalists: Bookselling and the Culture of Consumption, Miller talks about how modern chain bookstores are becoming more standardized rather than homey like independent bookstores. Strand has bookshelves lining the sidewalks, as well as little quirks like a basement full of used books, which gives it more of that homey, independent bookstore feel that certain types of consumers are drawn towards. On the main floor of Strand the design is a bit more standardized, with end caps bought out by publishers and a floor plan that is meant to draw consumers in. These standardized design aspects draw in consumers that are less likely to enjoy an independent bookstore and more likely to feel comfortable in a chain bookstore.

Strand is a middle ground between the community and the businesses around it. The bookstore brings business to places around it like the coffee shop The Bean, which I mentioned earlier. The fact that the Strand is across the street most likely significantly raises the profits of The Bean. I think it is more effective having a coffee shop outside of the bookstore, unlike Barnes and Noble and Starbucks, because it gives businesses the chance to create a lasting relationship that can be good for both their individual profits as well as the community as a whole. Without The Bean to help support it, Strand Bookstore would not have as much of a social influence in its community as it has today.

Additionally, Strand has a book kiosk on the edge of Union Square Park, which further raises their sales and publicity in terms of targeting the kinds of consumers present in their community. Strand Bookstore is in the kind of neighborhood that is ideal for all ages. Although the area mostly concentrates on college students, families and tourists, there is something for everyone. This was a strategic move for Strand, since they used to be in a neighborhood farther north in downtown Manhattan that didn’t have as much of a variety when it came to stores in and around the community.

 

Websites

http://www.realtor.com/local/Downtown-Manhattan_New-York_NY/lifestyle

http://www.strandbooks.com/about-strand-books/

 

Maps

Google Maps: Strand Bookstore, The Bean Coffee Shop

 

Texts

Miller, Laura J. Reluctant Capitalists Bookselling and the Culture of Consumption. Chicago: U of Chicago, 2006. Print

Morley, Christopher. “Escaped Into Print.” Ex Libris Carissimus. New York: A. S. Barnes. Print.