Is SouthPark overbooked?

Joseph-Beth Booksellers believes it can be best seller

SAM HODGES
Book Editor

For many book lovers, the rise and fall of bookstores in their community makes for an absorbing drama. Today, in Charlotte, the plot thickens.

At 9 a.m., Joseph-Beth Booksellers is to open a 29,000 square-foot store at SouthPark mall, around the corner from a Borders bookstore, across the street from a Barnes & Noble and a fairly short drive from Park Road Books, the Media Play on South Boulevard and a new Books-A-Million at Cotswold Village Shops shopping center.

Catch him one moment, and Joseph-Beth President Neil Van Uum sounds confident.

"If we get people within 30 feet of our door, we'll own them," he said. "We're opening a store that will blow a lot of people in Charlotte away."

But a few minutes later, as the interview moves toward the overall climate for bookstores, as well as the high rents and intense competition around SouthPark, caution kicks in.

"We're rolling the dice here," Van Uum said. "We think we'll do well, but this is a reach for us."

Some veterans of the Charlotte bookstore scene are flatly skeptical.

"He's been successful in some areas, and he's closed stores in some," said David Friese, co-owner of The BookMark in uptown Charlotte's Founders Hall. "I'm not sure his model is going to work here."

Nationwide, book sales have seen only modest growth in recent years. Bookstores have had the further problem of competition from online sellers, such as Amazon.com, and mega-retailers like Wal-Mart that discount bestsellers 40 percent or more.

Independent bookstores have struggled especially, squeezed by the longer hours, greater stock and deeper discounting of Borders and Barnes & Noble -- two corporate giants sometimes called "the Killer B's" by independent partisans.

But Joseph-Beth was featured in a recent Wall Street Journal article about the modest comeback by independents.

Though privately held, the company has expanded from its original store in Lexington, Ky., into Cleveland, Cincinnati and Pittsburgh. It bought the independent Davis-Kidd Booksellers stores in Nashville, Memphis and Jackson, Tenn., and operates them under that name.

The Charlotte store is the company's eighth. Along the way, it has closed two stores. Company sales are projected at about $50 million for this year.

Van Uum and his wife, Mary Beth -- sister to the Borders brothers who founded Borders bookstores -- opened the first Joseph-Beth in 1986 and gave it their middle names. He bought her out after their divorce.

From early on, Joseph-Beth's strategy has been to match or exceed the big chains in store size, stock and amenities, while also providing the book knowledge and personal service independents are known for.

"Our goal in every market is to be the number one store," said Van Uum. "If we're going to compete with the chains, we've got to be."

In Charlotte, Joseph-Beth will offer not just a coffee corner with pastries or sandwiches -- typical in the chains -- but a restaurant and a wine bar. "Bronte Bistro" features dishes prepared from cookbooks sold in the store, and will focus on lighter fare, including vegetarian entrees.

That's part of the courting of women, who buy far more books than men. Van Uum said most bookstores are busy on the weekend, but success depends on attracting women during the week.

Toward that end, Joseph-Beth supplements its book and music stock with several lines of greeting cards and stationery. Book bags, reading lights, scented soaps and hand lotion are prominently displayed.

The two-story SouthPark store includes an upstairs room for book club meetings. As another part of its community emphasis, Joseph-Beth stocks any local book, including those by self-published authors.

"If it's your grandmother's recipes, we'll carry it," Van Uum said.

The new store will also, Van Uum suggests, upgrade Charlotte to an A List book tour town. The authors the store has already booked -- travel expert Arthur Frommer, and novelists Adriana Trigiani, Mary Kay Andrews and Lisa Scottoline -- are popular but not superstars.

Hang on, Van Uum said.

"We'll have authors coming who haven't been here in forever," he promised, declining to name names.

Whatever its strengths, Joseph-Beth is little known in Charlotte, and Van Uum acknowledges it has spent about $2 million preparing the space built for it by SouthPark owner Simon Property Group. He wouldn't share specifics of the rental deal, but said sales need to be strong.

"If we do less than $4 million (in annual sales), we're weeping here," he said.

Barnes & Noble remains committed to its Sharon Corners store, said Howard Spiva, the company's real estate director. Borders isn't running from the SouthPark area either.

"We've been able to co-exist with a lot of other book retailers in a variety of settings," said Jenie Dahlman, Borders' manager of field marketing.

Sally Brewster is owner of Park Road Books and president of the Southeast Booksellers Association, a group of independents. Joseph-Beth is a member, but Brewster fumes at its positioning itself as a community bookstore.

"They're a chain," she said.

Though outspoken on the problems facing bookstores, Brewster said hers can withstand the Joseph-Beth challenge. While small at 3,700 square feet, her store has lots of author events and close relationships with book clubs that look to her for recommendations and group-sale discounts.

"We keep doing what we're doing," she said. "I don't think they can match us for customer service."

Meanwhile, Books-A-Million, a Birmingham, Ala.,-based chain, has added to the pressure with a 16,000-square-foot store 2 1/2 miles from SouthPark. Though there are other Books-A-Million stores in the area, this one -- which opened Tuesday -- is the first in the city limits.

Jeff Skipper, the company's vice president for marketing, said the store will focus on serving the surrounding Cotswold neighborhood, which he described as "upscale" and "special" in its support of local businesses. "We're going to be a little more of a community bookseller in that market," he said.

But according to Van Uum, Joseph-Beth can woo book lovers from all across the region by bringing to its new store the best of what it has learned in nearly 20 years of business. It has even added some features for the new store, including an outdoor patio. And it's got the draw of being in the area's premier luxury mall.

But in tough times for bookstores, how special must Joseph-Beth be to prevail, here and elsewhere? Van Uum alluded to another upscale retailer headed for Charlotte.

"We want to be the Whole Foods Market of the book industry -- that special."