Bailey/Coy Books owner Michael Wells told his staff over the last
week—first, individually, the employees who rely on the bookstore
for health insurance and then everyone else in a large, reportedly
teary meeting—that Bailey/Coy Books will be closing by the end
of November. Anyone who has seen Bailey/Coy’s nearly bare shelves
lately—some holding just a single lonely book—shouldn’t be
surprised by the news.
In a press release, Wells thanked the community and the employees
for keeping Bailey/Coy in business for nearly 30 years, and he asserted
that recent rumors of Elliott Bay Book Company’s move to Capitol Hill
had nothing to do with the closure. There is talk about hosting some
sort of a party—something Wells referred to over the phone as
“a wake“—at Bailey/Coy before the store closes its doors
forever.
It will no doubt be a brilliant affair. In the last year, Bailey/Coy
threw launch parties for Rebecca Brown’s hyperintelligent, deeply
personal collection of essays American Romances and new Stranger
Genius Stacey Levine’s short-story collection The Girl with Brown
Fur. Both were well attended by a diverse sampling of Seattle’s
literary scene. At the party for Levine, the serious, earnest men
behind Subtext (the recently shuttered experimental-poetry reading
series) chatted with a local cartoonist in the fiction section; over by
the free vodka, a reporter and a writer discussed the latter’s recent
book deal. No other Seattle institution has such a cross-demographic
appeal. Bailey/Coy is a neutral ground, where absolutely everyone
feels welcome.
Local blogs are heavy with comments by patrons and friends
distressed at the store’s passing. Some lament it as the death of the
old Broadway, a death that has been playing out slowly over the last 10
years. Everyone is rending their shirts, but the simple fact of the
matter is this: If you live on Capitol Hill and you’ve ordered books
from an online retailer, you have a hand in Bailey/Coy’s
closing, especially if you’ve browsed at Bailey/Coy and then
ordered the books online.
Bailey/Coy is at least going out with class. Despite awful sales in
recent years, Wells paid off a significant portion of his bookstore’s
debts, and the fact that he maintained health insurance for his
full-time employees to the end is emblematic of a businessman who
knows what really matters. Wells’s announcement came almost a week
before National Bookstore Day, which takes place on Saturday, November
7. If you are saddened by Bailey/Coy’s announcement, you should take
the time to visit on Saturday, and go support a few other independent
bookstores besides. 
I love that old ratty phrase “long awaited new book.” There’s going to be a lot more long awaited books in the wings—as the print culture nose-dives like the NYTimes, magazines, paperbacks and pulp fiction in general. The Obama generation doesn’t read books. Email maybe.
“If you live on Capitol Hill and you’ve ordered books from an online retailer, you have a hand in Bailey/Coy’s closing.”
Give me a mother-loving break, Paul, while crying a river for Bailey/Coy. Great bookstore, but like most of the failing independent bookstores, the blame is put on individuals making their own economic choices, instead of bookstore owners for rethinking what they do and what they offer.
I worked at Amazon in 96-97 (and got no stock as I was there too briefly, so I’m not some whining millionaire early retiree), and I will tell you what the biggest fucking difference was between Amazon and most bookstores — then and now.
Amazon would order any book you wanted. You didn’t have to go through this whole hassle. They would charge you full price and shipping and tell you it might take as long as 6 weeks. But it was available.
Bookstores have notoriously disliked special orders, stuff they can’t get from the few hundred thousand items stocked by major book distributors, and available quickly as part of existing order shipments.
That’s because it was a pain to process these by hands. But starting in the 1980s, we had these things called computers, and smart bookstores invested during the good times in making inventory more efficient. Powell’s was ahead of the curve both in intershelving used and new books (used book buying is an art in and of itslef), but also on the information technology side.
The fact that they were on the Internet early wasn’t because they were all geeks (they did have a great tech bookstore early on). Rather, it was because they understood that inventory + computers = good idea.
So don’t tell me that indie bookstores are failing because of Amazon. They are failing because they didn’t understand how to both connect and engage their customers, while using technology to their advantage, like every other fucking retail business has to do, independent or chain, to be competitive.
Glenn @2, what you’re saying doesn’t conflict with what Paul is saying at all.
People vote with their dollars. If Amazon is what they like, Amazon is what they’ll get.
Of course indie bookstores are failing because of Amazon. Indie bookstores don’t have millions of dollars of shareholder money with which to develop fabulous websites. Indie bookstores can’t afford to lose money for years while they eliminate their competition by undercutting them on price. (You mention Powell’s but do you actually know how they are doing financially? I think a lot of people were surprised to learn how badly off Elliott Bay is.)
The same thing is happening with record stores, video stores, and all kinds of small retailers. If the majority of people want to shop online or in big box stores, because of price, or convenience, or whatever, that’s what will survive.
I think Paul was just pointing out the hypocrisy of people who bemoan the loss of bookstores but don’t actually support them with their dollars.
wow. glenn makes it sound like booksellers are lazy, cause if they can’t order it from a large distributor they won’t (simply not true). but i would like to see a single button pusher at amazon work harder than any of my coworkers.