Martini said she lives near the Books Inc. at Opera Plaza on Van Ness Avenue, which is “definitely an area that just simply sees fewer people coming in.”
She said the initial news that Books Inc. had filed for bankruptcy was “crushing,” but the announcement that it would be bought by Barnes & Noble felt more bittersweet.
“It is … disappointing to lose what was an indie bookstore to something that’s no longer indie,” she said, but added that the stores remaining open is a definite upside.
Another positive Martini sees in the deal is that Barnes & Noble is investing in the indie model — “they’re seeing where the money can actually be made,” she said.
In 2024, Barnes & Noble purchased Denver-based Tattered Cover’s book stores after it filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. The chain has also been opening smaller stores that feel more local and personable, Martini said.
“When you go into the newly opened Barnes & Noble that they are positioning, there are smaller footprints, they have much more obvious staff involvement, like handwritten shelf talkers, which didn’t used to be the case,” she told KQED. “They have front table displays that are definitely modeled after the indie selections.”
That’s because even as in-person book shopping declines, she said, indie bookstores offer a purchasing experience that’s different from Amazon, or even Barnes & Noble. At those neighborhood stores, she said, people are more often introduced to new authors or titles, and more likely to pick up a book in a genre they wouldn’t usually because it’s on one of their aesthetic display tables.
“What an indie bookstore does is [say] ‘OK, here’s the thing that you know about and have heard about, but here’s something else that you never would have picked up without somebody who’s plumbed through all of the thousands of pieces of publisher catalog copy to find the most interesting thing for you,’” Martini said. “The power of discovery is still what indie bookstores do best.”
KQED’s Rachael Myrow contributed to this report.
