DJ Ernst: Place and People, Present

When you drive into Selinsgrove for the first time and see the almost Victorian style architecture, the quaint, locally-owned storefronts, and even the lamposts adorned with flowers, you can see the quintessential American small town. The town’s main strip, Market Street, cuts right down through and acts as the center of almost all activity and business. It is lined with a mix of local and corporate stores, such as Domino’s Pizza and Subway, as well as Pink Pinup, the local resale boutique, and finally, DJ Ernst, the only locally owned bookstore in town. There is even a market square of sorts, complete with arches and shrubbery, laid with red brick ground and its own small stage, all reserved for farmer’s markets and local events. Unmissable, however, are the orange and maroon banners hung from almost every other lampost on Market Street that proudly display name of the college attached to this small town: Susquehanna University.

With that in mind, the demographics for Selinsgrove begin to make more sense. According to the United States Census Bureau, the largest age demographic in Selinsgrove lies at 20.2% within 20-24 years old. Below that, 15.3% are 15-19 years old. Beyond that, 9.5%, 9.2%, and 7.3% of the town’s population are 35-44 years old, 44-54 years old, and 65-74 years old, respectively. Susquehanna University is the main source for young business in Selinsgrove, as well as the main source of diversity, the town being 92.5% white out of 5,875 people in total. Selinsgrove thrives from the business and exposure brought by the university, however, even then, you can still find empty storefronts and houses marked for sale along Market Street.

 

DJ Ernst, the only independently owned bookstore in town, lies somewhat hidden behind a large tree, next to an empty store, and down the street from the Kind Cafe, a popular coffee shop. DJ Ernst is relatively undecorated compared to a few of the other businesses, such as BJ’s, the stark blue building with awnings on awnings just down the street. With wide windows and an eye-catching sign jutting out into the view of any pedestrians, the bookstore still catches your attention when you walk by. Its aesthetic fits perfectly into the rest of the traditional neighborhood, as many of the other storefronts have the same style of architecture. In fact, many of the corporate businesses seem to be the ones out of place for the quaint feel of this small town.

Image taken from Google Maps: D.J. Ernst
Image taken from Google Maps: D.J. Ernst

DJ Ernst is unlike the traditional bookstores, instead, it deals in a wide array of used, antiquarian, and out-of-print books (“DJ Ernst Books”). This type of product fits in well with the overall appreciation of classic, quality, older aspects of life and history that Selinsgrove has. It also fits well with the University in town, seeing as how the college has a very popular creative writing program, as well as a publishing program, that brings students to this bookstore. This is essential to a successful bookstore; a sense of community and place. Seeing as how the prices are affordable for both citizens of the town and the university, quality is extremely appreciated. When quality is prioritized over quantity and profit, customers feel as though their interests are also being prioritized. When people walk in and see how different the ambiance of this bookstore is to others, with its small space dedicated to a large collection of diverse books of all aesthetics, they feel as if they have walked into a different experience, a different culture. A successful place of business is one that creates with its customers a connection and has sentimental value, one that sticks with the mind and makes it feel as though it is home. While DJ Ernst does not standardize its business in order and make itself look like every other bookstore, standardization is not always a good thing. Many times, when a bookstore as specific as DJ Ernst becomes the standard, it loses its identity as a place. Even still, DJ Ernst’s ability to reach out and distribute good reading seems to stop at the university and its connection to its students. With their own bookstore on campus and a strip mall just down the highway with a larger, wider array of popular books, the question that comes to mind is whether DJ Ernst’s specific sense of place and community is enough.

 

Citations

  • “DJ Ernst-Books.” Biblio – Uncommonly Good Books Found Here., CRC Press.
  • Data Access and Dissemination Systems (DADS). “Your Geography Selections.” American FactFinder – Results, 5 Oct. 2010.
  • Miller, Laura J. Reluctant Capitalists Bookselling and the Culture of Consumption. University of Chicago Press, 2014.

Sex, Birth, and Death: The Rise and Supposed Fall of the Independent, Liberal Bookstore

The idea of driving to Lewisburg, Pennsylvania seems like a hassle to most Susquehanna University college students because it is a whopping twenty-five minute drive to get there. Admittedly, I had only been there a handful of times, but I wish I had understood what the town has to offer before my senior year of college.

On a rainy day in February, I embarked on a trip to visit Mondragon Books, a small, independently owned bookstore on the main street of Lewisburg. Upon entering the building, I initially noticed the Basquiat-like drawings on the walls encouraging me to pick up a book and read. This request was not hard to fulfill seeing that there are books everywhere. I quickly noticed that the space is not limited to just literature but is instead filled with art, records, maps, and Victorian-inspired furniture. While the store may seem like a Marie Kondo nightmare, Mondragon Books represents the mismatched identity that Lewisburg is learning to adopt.

Before Bucknell was introduced to the town, Lewisburg was a small town located in the heart of Central Pennsylvania that prided itself on being Victorian. There are still remnants of that identity because the town is filled with elegant architecture and local shops. Although that is the case, Lewisburg is presently known as a college town to the 3,264 students residing at Bucknell. Due to this and the other surrounding schools, education-related professions, followed by administrative work, are the two most popular occupations.

What is most interesting about the town is that it has a high level of specialized occupations, including the arts. I found this to be intriguing because I generally associate art professions with liberal politics. In the 2016 presidential election, Lewisburg was a red town in a red county, as were most counties in central Pennsylvania. Yet, the presence of a college and its outside students forced the town take on an artsy façade. This allows for certain business, such as Mondragon, to exist in a conservative area.

Pennsylvania Electoral Map

But, maybe I am too quick to judge this town as putting on a liberal façade when there truly are parts of Lewisburg that are liberal in nature. According to Doreen Massey’s definition of a place, a place is not static and is, instead, affected by movement (Cresswell 69). The college students exemplify this notion because they are not necessarily living in Lewisburg year-round. Regardless, they are an integral part of the town and change the definition of Lewisburg.

While the town has been able to retain a rich sense of culture through its independently owned shops, it does have a younger feel to it. Down the road from Mondragon Books, there is a Chipotle-like restaurant called Mercado Burrito. This is not a chain restaurant, but it closely mimics trendier food places that are popular amongst college students.

Students haven’t just influenced the shops but also the general environment. I was happy to notice that Lewisburg recycles, and they want visitors to recognize this. A block away from Mondragon was a completely-filled recycling container. In our current political environment, where global climate change is debated, it is refreshing to see recycling placed at the forefront of a red county.

Although the college has shaped the town, there are other aspects of it that are more reminiscent of a conservative identity. For example, there are plenty of churches in the surrounding area. As a student of art history, I have spent a lot of my time examining religious structures, but the quaint architecture in Lewisburg stood out more to me than the churches. This is partially due to the main street in downtown Lewisburg being filled with small boutiques and restaurants. Religious structures exist near the main street shops but not on the main street. The small shops serve as a distraction from the historically conservative area. It could be a ploy to seem more appealing to potential students visiting Bucknell, but it may also serve to demonstrate how the student life is starting to dominate the space.

Mondragon understands the dichotomy of culture and specifically caters to the college audience. In a way, the bookstore acts as an extension of the college itself. On the outside of the shop, there are holiday lights that students typically decorate their dorm rooms with. This is again seen on the inside, giving the space a homier vibe akin to a residence hall. Additionally, there are signs that promote equality and acceptance throughout the bookstore. Again, this contrasts Lewisburg’s conservative population, but it is not meant to target that audience.

In the book Reluctant Capitalists: Bookselling and the Culture of Consumption by Laura J. Miller, the author delves into the idea that there are three different types of consumers. The three types of consumers are: those that shop for the lowest price, those that exclusively shop at independently owned stores, and those that don’t put much thought into their shopping habits (Miller 16). Mondragon knows that their customers are broke college students, so they appeal to two types of consumers. They are an independent bookstore, so they inherently attract shoppers that like small businesses. Second, they price their books lower than the prices of a chain bookstore. College students can find a wide variety of books without having to pay ridiculous prices for them, appealing to economic shoppers.

Mondragon, and even Lewisburg, may seem out of place in a generally conservative area, but it is important to understand that cultures can clash. While locals may view the town as historical, college students may think that Lewisburg is a quaint town with a vibrant art scene.  Mondragon may not be a conservative space, but it still wants to emphasize Lewisburg’s locality and charm. It is clear that the stores in Lewisburg take pride in being there, and Mondragon is no different. They want customers to know they are an integral part of the community because they dedicate precious shelf space to local magazines and advertisements. Mondragon is not trying to rage against the conservative culture but, instead, has learned to form its own identity within Lewisburg.

 

Sources

Images

Mondragon Books and Lewisburg photos courtesy of Samantha Thompson.

Pennsylvania 2016 Election photo < https://billypenn.com>

 Maps

Google Maps: Lewisburg, Mondragon Books, Mercado Burrito, First Presbyterian Church, Holy Protection Church, Beaver Memorial United Methodist, St. Paul’s United Methodist Church, First Baptist Church.

 Text

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

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

Powell’s Plan: Cultivating Citizen Consumers

Imagine walking down the bustling streets of Portland, Oregon on a restless Saturday afternoon and you happen to stumble upon Powell’s City of Books. Once you enter the doors of the establishment you are hit with the magnitude of the place: a building that takes up an entire city block that is four stories tall, filled wall-to-wall with books. Due to the grandeur of the store browsing becomes rather difficult, especially to the untrained newcomer. While this experience may seem initially jarring; you, Powell’s newest costumer, shouldn’t worry because there is an underlying method to the uniquely hectic atmosphere found within the doors of Portland’s own Powell’s City of Books.

            By this point you are most likely asking yourself what on earth Powell’s particular method could be.

The layout of a bookstore is never an accident; the owner develops a certain way of setting up their stores. The goal of this set up is to get the most mutually beneficial response in relation to the business and the costumers; Powell’s City of Books is no exception. Since the store is so large, the space has been broken into smaller categorized rooms, each room having a different selling point. Each room is given a cleverly intriguing name, associated with color, as well as a distinct place within the bookstore and a theme.

         To the right is a diagram of the entirety of Powell’s City of Books. As you can see, there are many separate rooms on each floor.

            Other than these vague titles, how does Powell’s attempt to get its customers to actually visit as many rooms as possible?

            In the final chapter of Laura Miller’s book, Reluctant Capitalists, we can find an answer to this pressing question. She introduces an idea by the name of the citizen consumer. In short this is the idea that all products across the globe have some effect on the rest of the world. The ideal citizen consumer makes a conscious effort to gain this knowledge; acquiring a sense of social responsibility along with it.

Yet the question remains how does the concept of the citizen consumer appear in bookstores?

One thing that makes this bookstore particularly unique is that their goal is to sell literally every book they can possibly get their hands on. Through selling all these books they give their customers a large amount of freedom in the literary choices they man. This distinct freedom fosters a sense of citizenship and social responsibility. Powell’s City of Books also demonstrates these concepts through their layout and products.

(The riveting history of Powell’s and its uncommon mission can be explored in my previous post)

            The space has been set up to draw people in a certain direction through the store. When they first enter they are greeted with coffee from the World Cup Roasters and the entertainment rooms in the store. These rooms, depicted below, are designed to grab the attention of the customer, like a great opening paragraph might.

As they continue their stroll through these entertainment based rooms they are led to rooms with larger social and educational appeal. Some examples of this appeal being the Blue and Orange rooms which must be passed in order for the customer to reach the only cash registers in the establishment.

The Blue Room, or the Literature room, is filled with classic novels and poetry.

The Orange Room is filled with books offering personal benefit, such as books on cooking, gardening, and humor, as well as many others in this general genre.

Powell’s City of Books is attempting to entice their customers immediately upon arrival with flashy entertainment centered works, followed by guidance towards the books that may assist them in beginning their journey towards becoming a socially responsible citizen consumer.

            While this guidance may seem to be targeting adult shoppers, Powell’s City of Books also works to develop these ideals in children as well.

   

The image above depicts the layout of Powell’s Rose Room. It becomes apparent that there is a designated route that children are enticed to take. Starting at the stairs they are systematically coached through the room by a chain of promotional items, best sellers, and toys. If the child follows proverbial bread crumb trail, they will eventually find themselves immersed in the children’s literature section.

Mary Shelley’s classic adapted for children.

            As mentioned before, Powell’s prides itself on having the largest variety of books possible, meaning these child sized shelves are filled as many riveting titles available. While they do hold more traditionally children’s literature, such as pop-up books and Doctor Seuss classics, they also hold more experimental and educational pieces; an example of this is the presence of “classic” literature. They offer a plethora of novels and works that are revered in the literary world; having been adapted to a young child’s reading ability. In this section there are also examples of financing and interracial communication which can be further explored in the children’s section of the website.

            Through their exposure to a variety of different pieces of literature as well as their freedom of choice in the Rose Room. Powell’s City of Books seems to be attempting to foster an educational atmosphere where children are able to begin their growth into little socially responsible citizen consumers.

Citizen Consumer Logo

Children, as well as adults, are put into a particular atmosphere in Portland’s own Powell’s City of Books, one that gently encourages and demands social responsibility to the surrounding world. Being a well-educated human being who takes the time to care about the world around them has never been considered a bad thing; this is seen in Laura J Miller’s book, Reluctant Capitalists.

Powell’s City of Books is taking full advantage of the progressive country and modern age humans currently occupy. They do this by attempting to elicit a subliminal sense of social responsibility through the products sold in the store, as well as, the general layout of the individual rooms. Through this is becomes apparent that Powell’s City of Books is arguing that people of all ages, big and small, should strive to be active citizen consumers.

Citations:

Links

Powell’s Website http://www.powells.com/

Citizen Consumer http://www.huffingtonpost.com/auren-kaplan/2011-year-of-the-citizen-_b_779606.html

World Cup Coffee http://www.worldcupcoffee.com/

My Previous Post https://unpackingthebookstore.susqu.edu/powells-books-betting-underdog/

 

Photos:

Storefront http://www.bloomberg.com/ss/09/06/0619_best_independent_stores/image/016_powells.jpg

Store Layout Map http://www.powells.com/images/BURN-MAP-2014-01.jpg

World Cup Coffee http://dtc-wsuv.org/gnasca/nwguide/images/worldcup.jpg

Powell’s Gold Room http://f.tqn.com/y/gonw/1/S/Z/I/-/-/goldroomSF3.jpg

Glass Window http://explorethepearl.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/powells_logo.jpg

Blue Room http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_zKFo7OwbIp8/TTHj7qUoh2I/AAAAAAAAFEg/ZpPZFDRJfHI/s1600/powells%2Bblue%2Broom.jpg

Orange Room http://f.tqn.com/y/gonw/1/S/b/I/-/-/orangeroom.jpg

Adapted Frankenstein Cover http://g-ecx.images-amazon.com/images/G/01/ciu/2c/84/7872c060ada0a521f0998110.L.jpg

Citizen Consumer Logo  http://www.dgdesignnetwork.com.au/dgdn/wp-content/images/DGmagazine129/eulda07_best_of-1.jpg

 

Images on ThingLink:

Powell’s Tour https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XvDxKILa5s8

Child Care Book  http://www.gillmacmillan.ie/AcuCustom/Sitename/DAM/047/9780717156269-20121112121414_fullsize.jpgm

Board Games https://cmclquickpicks.files.wordpress.com/2013/11/stack-of-games.jpg

Axel’s Show https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f0kjCDI0xd0

Book Fiesta Image  http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/61WMyVfFCQL._SX258_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg

Shelves http://f.tqn.com/y/gonw/1/9/i/I/-/-/roseroom2.jpg

Kids Reading http://www.cascadiakids.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/PortlandDay6.jpg

 

Text:

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

Cresswell, Tim. “Defining Place.” (n.d.): n. pag. Print.

Cresswell, Tim. A Global Sense of Place. N.p.: n.p., n.d. Print.

Within the Borders of Forty Years

A Narrative in Four Perspectives

History

By Melani M.

I grew up an hour and a half away from the original Borders bookstore, but it wasn’t until I heard the chain was being liquidated that I realized this; I hadn’t even known that the chain was founded in my home state. My grandparents lived next door to the manager of the Borders in my local mall and he is essential to any picture my mind forms of the chain. When the store closed, he left the state to find employment and I haven’t visited that mall since they both left.

The sorrow caused by Borders’s liquidation is still palpable in the residents of Ann Arbor Michigan where the store was founded forty years before. Members of the Facebook group “Borders Class of 2011 and Before” are still exchanging memories and experiences asking, “where are my peeps store #514?”  Many also shared in the sadness that in last season’s finale of “The Simpsons” Homer said “just like Borders I’ll always be there.” Some of those leaving comments admitted they cried. It’s been two years since the last store closed, but they still haven’t stopped grieving that something once so great had to die.

When the Borders brothers first opened their used bookshop at 211 South State Street in 1971, they had eight hundred square feet and five hundred dollars of inventory to work with. By 1974 the store had changed its location three times and occupied a two story building totaling 100,000 square feet; an unheard of amount of space for a bookstore at the time.

Though the brothers owned the store, it was Joe Gable, whom they hired as a manager, who really established the foundations for the Borders experience though his efforts to “make it the best bookstore in America” (Leopold 2).  Before the inventory got too large to allow him to do so, Gable would personally unpack each shipment, stock the shelves and arrange the displays.  He operated with the understanding that it was his responsibility to connect the customer to the right book.  You would not find instruments in a section of music books because in his words “he did not create museum displays” (3). They were a bookstore and customers should be able to see that by their stock.

Happy Employee
This was a drawing by a former Borders employee to show his happiness after being hired at the flagship store.

Gable also took pains to make sure he had well informed staff. As Archibald MacLeish says in “Free Man’s Books”  “True books are sold by the enthusiasm of those who love them “because they persuade readers to talk” (13). Often the books recommended by staff members sold more than the national bestsellers. In order to work at Borders applicants had to pass a qualifying test to show their literary knowledge (which I admit I failed with only one correct answer) and were assigned to work specific sections.  Everyone was also required to clean the store and help with customer service, but according to one former employee, they loved to do it (Leoplod 3).  The environment led to several marriages between co-workers and many satisfied customers.

 

The Borders brothers expanded to a second store in the 1980’s.  When they sold the twenty one store chain to K-Mart in 1992, coffee and non-book items started to become regular additions to the inventory. In Ann Arbor, Borders patrons were expressing dissatisfaction with the switch from paper to plastic bags and many refused to enter the store again because it didn’t feel like Borders anymore. According to Gable, they tried to “take the book business which is complex and boring and make it simple and sexy” (Leopold 5).

 

Present

By Jordan T.

I entered a Borders Bookstore for the first time when I was I was about nine years old. I went in for the purpose of finding a childrens dictionary that my teacher required us to have. And although Borders was not the bookstore I went to all the time, it’s a place that I remember very well. It is a place my father loved taking me to. In my experience, Borders was a place for families: a place for academic and personal needs.

What remains of Borders in Ann Arbor is the redesigned storefront: five compartmented spaces on the first floor, and the second floor is split into a business space and a University program (Greenberg).

The owners of the restaurants inhabiting the old Borders space are hoping that their food will attract people and boost the economy of Ann Arbor like Borders once did.

Borders catered to college kids in the area as well as the local community. The fact that the bookstore’s storefront has been broken up into five restaurants, a large business, and a University program seems to suggest that the college students aren’t necessary for the new businesses in town to thrive.

Borders had something for everyone and when the Flagship store in Ann Arbor closed down it devastated not only the Ann Arbor community, but also the business owners in the surrounding area. It has been reported that foot-traffic in the area has decreased significantly since its closure. Borders seemed to function as a hub for the town. “Thousands more people were on our sidewalks when Borders was open,” Susan Pollay said.  “It also brought a greater diversity of foot traffic: young and old, campus related and not, townies and visitors” (Lizzy Alfs). People have also said that when Borders closed it felt like losing a family member. This bookstore was not just a bookstore.

Slurping_Turtle_Sign-thumb-646x430-1466533-300x199

According to the demographic, Ann Arbor has a very large Asian population. As a result, many Asian restaurants line the streets of Ann Arbor and it only makes sense that another one, The Slurping Turtle, would appear in the old Borders storefront.

Screen Shot 2013-11-17 at 2.31.17 PMIn Parnassus on Wheels by Christopher Morely, Roger, the owner of Parnassus, loved bookselling. For him, bookselling was not a job so much as it was a way of life. He strived to bring the joy of reading into peoples’ lives, just as Borders did. 

Even though Borders didn’t just sell books, it was a place for people to buy entertainment. By selling entertainment they were selling happiness to many. Borders did their best to make it a place for people to enjoy themselves. They held events that made Borders a part of the community. It was a space for more than consumerism. People had a hard time letting go of Borders because of their emotional attachment to the store. People felt strongly about Borders because it was a part of their lives.

In Reluctant Capitalists the author states: “Independent booksellers […] claim that the chains’ standardized look is of a piece with their […] homogenous selection. And, it is charged, the impersonal, bland experience of shopping at a chain is alienating for customers and demeaning for books” (Miller 88). But for the people of Ann Arbor, this rings untrue. People loved Borders. The citizens of Ann Arbor did not see this Borders store as a part of a chain: they saw it as theirs. Borders had been a part of Ann Arbor for 40 years and the people who lived there […] grew attached to it (Lizzy Alfs). Those who spent their time in this Borders store saw it as secondary home for them. Borders was a part of Ann Arbor just as a small independent bookstore would be part of its town.

 

Space and Objects

By Stephanie H.

19230109
A panoramic shot of a typical Borders store

The Ann Arbor store began as a product of its local community when Tom and Louis Borders opened their used bookstore in 1971. It is easy to invent a picture of the two-room store above the LakeArt’s Supply with books lining the walls and either tables or more bookcases taking up the center area with other wares, space allowing. The early Borders locations have also been described as community centers, so there were probably chairs located in the space for customers to sit down and discuss their finds.

For the final Ann Arbor Borders I was unable to find a blueprint of the location and it is difficult to distinguish between photographs of the flagship and the hundreds of other Borders locations, but there is a description of the store included in Mary-Brook Todd’s A Place for Everything: Examining the Organization of Children’s Materials in Bookstores & Libraries. It is described 6114738313_24b1b5fb1e_oas being organized by subject and then broken down alphabetically by author or series, notated by signs above the sections to call attention from far away and within the isles to guide customers. The collection included Fiction in genres such as Science Fiction/Fantasy, Historical Fiction, and Mystery Thrillers as well as Non-Fiction such as Art, Music, Cooking, and General Science. Though both were represented the non-fiction options were limited, implying that there was a greater focus on entertainment reading. Popular series were given specialty displays, while books covering controversial issues were grouped into “Family Issues” or placed in an entirely different room labeled “Teaching Reference”. The other major distinctions made for collections were the children’s literature and the multimedia, which were grouped together and separated from the rest of the store (Todd). While the factual description of the store is useful, it is Todd’s commentary under “Key Findings” which truly pique my interest.

The item on the Key Findings list that most caught my attention was the comment “Organization not based on community needs or demographics” (Todd). I wish she had spent time to expand this observation, because it is my assessment that this is the major divide between chain stores and independents and could be used to pinpoint the moment Borders no longer “belonged” to the Ann Arbor community. Limited by the master plan for all of the chain stores, the Ann Arbor Borders was forced to become less connected with the community that had created it and more standardized with what the Borders Group wanted the chain to become as a whole.

While the standardization as studied by Laura J. Miller in her book Reluctant Capitalists is often criticized as being bland or impersonal, as seen in Borders it also offered an opportunity to streamline the book shopping experience, which has been at the top of consumer demands for years (Miller, 88). As Miller explains, the chain no longer cared to be seen as “high-brow”, instead moving towards a modern look that would attract a wide array of customers once they transitioned into suburban malls. In particular, they focused on bright colors, contemporary materials, bold signs, and better lighting (Miller, 92).  All of these traits became iconic in Borders stores around the globe, the basic ingredients, and were what worked together to create uniformity no matter the size or shape of the building. This concept is shown below in my mock-floor plan of a typical Borders bookstore. I created it by studying photos of various locations and pulling out some of the persistent themes such as the furniture and color pallets. This technique was chosen over mapping out a particular store in order to highlight how similar all of the locations truly are.

 

We return again to Christopher Morley and his enigmatic “Professor”. In Parnassus on Wheels Parnassus is a wagon that contains more than one might assume, it is a bookstore and it is a home. Regardless of where it is, the moment you enter it you are taken far away. Through the stark separation between what is inside the space and what surrounds it, Parnassus becomes a sort of liminal space. With all the isolating qualities of the standardized chain stores, the fact that you can enter a store in Pennsylvania only to travel across the country and enter another of the same name in California and feel as if you’ve returned to the original evokes that same sense of liminality. The stores within a chain, with all of their carefully chosen swatches and shelving, form a network and a community that cannot be contained by a single town. While one might mourn the loss of a personal connection between a town and its book provider, it’s hard to deny the appeal of always feeling like you can escape to your favorite bookstore, no matter where you are.

Cultural Function and Literature Definition

By Chelsy B.

Borders started out as a small college town second hand bookshop. However, Tom and Louis Borders did not allow the college setting to define their inventory. The Borders brothers went beyond the academia, specifically pushing their focus away from textbooks, and reached out to a larger community.

In 2004, Borders reached an agreement with the Starbucks subsidiary, Seattle’s Best Coffee to operate cafes in its domestic superstores under the Seattle’s Best brand name.

Seattle’s Best Coffee Cafe in Borders of Santa Barbara, CA.

This allowed Borders to become a space for which books, coffee, and food were all accessible. There were now tables and chairs and a space where conversations could be held. In other bookstores, independent or chain, I feel as though there is still a library-like reverence for quietness. Borders physically created a separated space within its walls to promote discussion. There is literally a line drawn between the two parts of the store, as seen in the different flooring of this Santa Barbara Borders. This distinction allows for a place within the bookstore to facilitate discussion.

This is reminiscent of Habermas’ idea of the public sphere. Jürgen Habermas’s concept of the public sphere is a realm within social life in which public opinion can be formed and which is accessible to all. The engagement within the public sphere according to Habermas is blind to class positions and the connections between activists in the public sphere are formed through a mutual will to take part in matters that have a general interest.

The image Borders wanted to portray to its customers is a welcome space for the sharing of ideas and interests. The space itself becomes the moderator in its broad collection, unbiased in its large inventory. It is also a place for discovering new ideas. Therefore Borders configuration of ‘literature’ is works that bring people into a discussion with the text(s) and one another. Literature is for people, it is not defined by any specific genres or limited to any niche interests. It has a diverse openness quality that is unique to the Borders experience. Ultimately, instead of the book finding the person, it is about the people finding the book.

New Paperbacks Table Borders in Madison Square Garden

However, outside of that ideal into actuality, Borders focus of literature rarely strayed beyond the bestsellers. The bestsellers were the focus of the store, shown to the customers through windows and the first tables and shelves within the store itself. The largest section in the store was dedicated to fiction and all other sections were pushed off into back corners and behind tables of novelty items. In those sections, it was difficult to tell what was quality because everything was in the publishers bought space. There was only a few handwriting recommendations on books in various sections but read like something taken off of an Amazon review. It felt artificial and there was no sense of the personal in this bookstore when I believe book selection is one of the most experiences a true reader could ever have.

I didn’t visit the Borders in my hometown often because my experience was always the same. It was a very confusing space to navigate. Trying to trek towards the actual books, I would get stuck between the music/DVD section and the Seattle’s Best café. I would pass by people setting their coffee cups on the books stacked on the ‘New Paperback’ table while looking at their new DVD or CD. This happened too frequently and I wanted my experience to be dedicated to search the stacks for a hidden gem or seeking out a novel by a specific author. I found that I could not trust a bookstore that had customers that disrespected the physical book and the space of a bookstore as a whole.

 

Sources:

Floorplan powered by thinglink.com

Text:

http://www.michigandaily.com/news/former-borders-books-building-have-several-new-tenants (greenberg)

http://www.annarbor.com/business-review/one-year-later-borders-closure-leaves-its-mark-on-downtown-ann-arbor-retail-environment/ (Alfs)

http://www.annarbor.com/business-review/well-known-chef-bringing-slurping-turtle-noodle-house-to-ex-borders-building-in-downtown-ann-arbor/ (Freed)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fg8jWhAkELY

 http://annarbor.areaconnect.com/statistics.htm

“Borders Class of 2011 and before.” Borders Class of 2011 and before. Facebook, n.d. Web. 20 Oct. 2013. https://www.facebook.com/groups/229620883744332/

Leopold, Todd. “The Death and Life of a Great American Bookstore.” CNN. Cable News Network, 12 Sept. 2011. Web. 24 Sept. 2013. http://www.cnn.com/2011/US/09/12/first.borders.bookstore.closing/index.html.

MacLeish, Archibald, and Franklin D. Roosevelt. A Free Man’s Books: An Address ; Delivered at the Annual Banquet of the American Booksellers Association. Mount Vernon [u.a.: Peter Pauper, 1942. Print.

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

Morley, Christopher. Parnassus on Wheels. Philadelphia: Lippincott, 1955. Print.

Todd, Mary-Brook. A Place for Everything: Examining the Organization of Children’s Materials in Bookstores & Libraries. The School of Information. University of Michigan, n.d. Web.

Images:

Bomey, Nathan R. N.d. Photograph. Ann Arbor. Borders’ Rise and Fall: A Timeline of the Bookstore Chain’s 40-year History. Ann Arbor News. Web. http://www.annarbor.com/business-review/borders-rise-and-fall-a-timeline-of-the-bookstore-chains-40-year-history/.

Bowen, Ross. 2012. Photograph. 14 Nov. 2012. Web. 30 Sept. 2013. http://www.ashvegas.com/russ-bowen-of-wlos-kmart-confirms-tunnel-road-location-closing.

Constant, Paul. “Books without Borders My Life at the World’s Dumbest Bookstore Chain.” Portland Mercury, 1 Sept. 2011. Web. 03 Dec. 2013. http://www.portlandmercury.com/portland/books-without-borders/Content?oid=4613534.

Hollister, Sean. N.d. Photograph. Borders’ Kobo EReader Available for Pre-order, Ships June 17th. Web. 30 Sept. 2013.

Linder, Brad. Borders Launches New Amazon-free Web Store. 2008. Photograph. Huffpost Tech, 28 May 2008. Web. 30 Sept. 2013. http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2008/05/28/borders-launches-new-amazon-free-web-store/.

Steiner, Robert J. Popular Holdings Singapore. 2008. Photograph. Singapore. Web. 30 Sept. 2013. <http://www.streetdirectory.com/stock_images/travel/normal_show/12101451200320/119363/popular_holdings_signage/.

http://joelcomm.com/borders-twitter.jpg

Panoramic of store – Space and Objects

 

 Genre signs – Space and Objects

Borders: Streamlining or Sacrificing?

What do you see when you hear the word “bookstore”? Close your eyes, take a breath, and say the word to yourself. Say it again. Does the image change? Is it a memory or an imagined place you explored in a dream or a picture you saw browsing the web? The first thing that hits me about my mental bookstore is the smell. It has a noted presence, but doesn’t smother or choke you when you walk over the threshold. The smell of paper and ink and glue and coffee and blueberry muffins. A clean smell, but a clean that has been lived in and loved without the sterile undertones of chemicals. The space is populated by wooden bookcases, a warm breed of either cherry or a dark walnut, low rows in the body of the space and seven feet tall along the perimeter with ladders to assist reaching the upper shelves. It has an open ceiling with a balcony level on the second floor of more tall bookcases, second hand and collectibles. A modest café sits to the left, a children’s space with a small stage to the right. I can never figure out where the register goes.

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A panoramic shot of a typical Borders store

Over the course of my previous two posts we’ve explored the outer dynamics of a bookstore through our case study of the Borders in Ann Arbor, Michigan such as the immediate surrounding area and the history of its development. While these are vital forces that shape a bookstore it is the expression of these forces, the internal space and organization of the store itself, which the casual observer and customer interact with directly. Following the theme of my post on the history of the Borders Group, I will begin by focusing on the Ann Arbor flagship and then expand to a generalization of the chain as a whole. Unlike independent stores which are personal expressions of the direct owners, chain stores focus on the idea of uniformity across their various locations because they want to create a standard image of the “Borders experience” in their customers minds.

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The first Borders location

The Ann Arbor store began as a product of it’s local community when Tom and Louis Borders opened their used bookstore in 1971. Although little information is available on the specifics of the floor-plan of that location, it is easy to invent a picture of the two-room store above the Lake Art’s Supply. Books lining the walls and perhaps either tables or more bookcases taking up the center area with more wares, space allowing. The early Borders locations have also been described as community centers, and so there were probably chairs located somewhere in the space for customers to sit down and discuss their most recent finds.

sections
An example of the genre signs found in Borders

Although it is hard to recreate an idea of the original location, the final incarnation of Borders Bookstore in Ann Arbor is a different story. I was unable to find an exact blueprint of the location and when searching through photographs it is difficult to distinguish between the flagship and the hundreds of other Borders locations, but there is a description of the exact store included in research done by Mary-Brook Todd of the University of Michigan titled A Place for Everything: Examining the Organization of Children’s Materials in Bookstores & Libraries. It is described as having a clear organizational scheme based off of subject and then broken down alphabetically by author or series, notated by signs above the sections to call attention from far away and within the isles to guide customers more directly. The collection included Fiction in genres such as Science Fiction/Fantasy, Historical Fiction, and Mystery Thrillers as well as Non-Fiction such as Art, Music, Cooking, and General Science. Though both were represented Todd notes that the non-fiction options were more limited, implying that there was a greater focus on entertainment reading than instructional or technical. Popular series were given specialty displays, while books covering controversial issues were grouped into “Family Issues” or placed in an entirely different room labeled as “Teaching Reference”. The other major distinctions made for collections were the children’s literature and the multimedia, which were grouped together and separated from the rest of the store (Todd). While the factual description of the store is useful, it is Todd’s commentary under “Key Findings” which truly pique my interest.

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Borders liquidation signs, creating visual chaos in the store

While she does state that the large signs throughout the store are helpful in directing customers quickly, in her Key Findings list only three lines down she also expresses that there were too many displays located throughout the store, which disrupted her exploration (Todd). This comment stuck me as odd considering the fact that  chain stores like Borders are often thought of as having a strong emphasis on the accessibility of their layout, aiming for a more hands-off role for the staff members. My assumption is that this comment speaks to the commercialism of book selling and the growing influence major publishers can have over the set-up of a bookstore through the ability to rent display spaces. When there are multiple organizations designing displays for a single space it makes it difficult to coordinate the overall store design, which could cause the results to be overwhelming or simply aesthetically displeasing to customers. With so many options of reading materials available, publishers sometimes find themselves shouting their advertisements in order to be heard over the rest.

The second item on the Key Findings list that caught my attention was the seemingly throw-away comment “Organization not based on community needs or demographics” (Todd). Out of everything in this short section of her study, I wish she had spent time to expand this observation, because it is my assessment that this is the major divide between chain stores and independents and, if able to be traced through the history of the store, could be used to pinpoint the moment Borders no longer belonged to the Ann Arbor community. Limited by the master plan for all of the chain stores, the Ann Arbor Borders was forced to become less connected with the community that had created it and more standardized with what the Borders Group wanted the chain to become as a whole.

Laura J. Miller dedicates an entire chapter to the type of standardization seen by Borders bookstores world wide in her book Reluctant Capitalists. Chapter four begins with the sentence “The history of retailing in the United States has shown that standardization is fundamental to a mass merchandising strategy” and then the following thirty pages of chapter four continue to outline the history and reasoning behind this process (Miller, 87). In 1922 standardizing techniques were being applied to grocery, drug, and department stores, but bookstores were still held in a sacred space similar to the early Borders locations or any number of used and independent booksellers you can find today, although over the years even those locations have started to subconsciously conform to the expected “idea” of a bookstore.

While the standardization is often criticized as being bland or impersonal, as seen in Borders it also offered an opportunity to streamline the book shopping experience, which has been a demand from consumers as our society continues to move faster and faster (Miller, 88). As Miller explains, the stores no longer cared to be seen as “high-brow”, instead moving towards a modern and casual look that would attract the wide array of customers available to them once they transitioned into suburban malls. In particular, they focused on bright colors, contemporary materials, bold signs, and better lighting (Miller, 92).  All of these traits became iconic in Borders stores around the globe, such as the bright yellow and red paint that was present in almost every store, the pine paneled shelving, the black leather chairs, the stark white on black signs, and the fluorescent lighting hanging from the ceiling. These were the basic ingredients of a Borders store and were what worked together to create uniformity no matter the size or shape of the building. This concept is shown below in my mock-floor plan of a typical Borders bookstore. I created it by studying photos of various stores and pulling out some of the persistent themes such as the furniture and color pallets. This technique was chosen over mapping out a particular store in order to highlight how similar all of the locations truly are.

So, I ask again: What do you see when you hear the word “bookstore”? We’ve reached the same point as the conclusion of my previous post, to Christopher Morley and his enigmatic “Professor”. In Parnassus on WheelsParnassus is a wagon that contains so much more than one might assume, it is a bookstore and it is a home. Regardless of where it is, on a country path or a busy street, the moment you enter it you are taken far away. Through the stark separation between what is inside the space and what surrounds it, Parnassus becomes a sort of liminal  space. With all the isolating qualities of the standardized chain stores, the fact that you can enter a store in Pennsylvania only to travel across the country and enter another of the same name in Washington and feel as if you’ve returned to the original evokes that same sense of liminality. The stores within a chain, with all of their carefully chosen swatches and shelving, form a network and a community that cannot be contained by a single town. While one might mourn the loss of a personal connection between a town and its book provider, it’s hard to deny the appeal of always feeling like you can escape to your favorite bookstore, no matter where you are.

 

SOURCES

Floor Plan powered by thinglink.com

Images found through Google search

TEXT

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

Morley, Christopher. Parnassus on Wheels. Philadelphia: Lippincott, 1955. Print.

Todd, Mary-Brook. A Place for Everything: Examining the Organization of Children’s Materials in Bookstores & Libraries. The School of Information. University of Michigan, n.d. Web.