[ShareTompkins] Community Buy-Out of Buffalo St. Books

Tue Feb 22 02:38:40 UTC 2011

Amen to all that! I can go a share as well.

On Mon, Feb 21, 2011 at 7:14 PM, Amy Walton <alwalton23 at hotmail.com> wrote:

>  I would love to see this happen.  I'd be in for a share or two.
> alwalton23 at hotmail.com
> Amy Walton
> ------------------------------
> From: mberman116 at hotmail.com
> To: darasilvermanus at gmail.com; tc-hsc-l at cornell.edu;
> sharetompkins at lists.aktivix.org
> CC: bobproehl at gmail.com; village-plus-tree at ecovillage.ithaca.ny.us
> Subject: RE: Community Buy-Out of Buffalo St. Books
> Date: Mon, 21 Feb 2011 07:08:22 -0500
>
> Great thinking. I would support for two shares.
> Monty Berman  mberman116 at hotmail.com
>
> ------------------------------
> Date: Wed, 16 Feb 2011 16:26:15 -0500
> Subject: Community Buy-Out of Buffalo St. Books
> From: darasilvermanus at gmail.com
> To: tc-hsc-l at cornell.edu; sharetompkins at lists.aktivix.org
> CC: bobproehl at gmail.com
>
> *Hey All,*
> ***I got this on facebook and and re-posting it here. PLEASE forward
> widely.
> *
> *Send replies to bobproehl at gmail.com
> *
> *-Dara Silverman*
> *------------------------------------------------------------------------
> *
> *I am an employee of Buffalo Street Books, having worked as outreach
> coordinator here for roughly the past year. The opinions expressed below are
> entirely mine and not those of the owner, other employees of Buffalo Street
> Books. *
> *Also, when I refer here to independent local bookstores, I am referring
> quite specifically to comprehensive new bookstores. This is in no way meant
> to denigrate the importance of any of the fantastic used bookstores in town,
> nor of Colophon Books or either of the on-campus bookstores. *
> *What I am going to propose here is not a bailout.  The unfortunate truth
> is a bailout at this stage would be a temporary fix.  I am proposing that
> the community buy out the bookstore and run it on a cooperative model. *
> Here we are at the wake. For the past few days, I have sat quietly by while
> people queue up to express their sympathies regarding the closing of Buffalo
> Street Books, announced last Thursday. There have been three prevalent lines
> of discussion, each one of which bears a bit of looking at.
> 1. What the hell happened?
> 2. This is a terrible loss for the city of Ithaca (or the variant, this is
> disgraceful for the city of Ithaca).
> 3. If Ithaca can’t support a local independent bookstore, who can?
>
> Yes, it is a terrible loss. But is it a quantifiable loss? It’s not as if
> it will suddenly become impossible to buy books in Ithaca. No book that you
> could have gotten on our shelves will now become utterly inaccessible, I
> promise you.
> In addition to simply providing a excellent selection of books, a local
> independent bookstore provides the community with readings by local and
> national authors, facilitates reading groups that are open to the community,
> hosts benefits for worthy local agencies, provides performance and rehearsal
> space for local theater groups and sells books to local libraries and
> schools at deep discount or at cost. Perhaps most importantly, we provide a
> space in the center of the community where literary arts can flourish.
> Of course, none of these things bring in revenue, and all of them are a
> little tricky to put a price tag on. But I would submit that everyone who
> has ever bought a book in an independent bookstore has done just that. If
> you buy a $30 hardcover at an independent rather than at Barnes & Noble or
> Amazon, either of which might carry the same book at 50% off, you have said
> it is worth $15 to you to have all of the benefits of a local independent
> bookstore. If we imagine that Amazon is selling every book it has at an
> average of 20% off (this number drops precipitously if your interests stray
> from the mainstream), then by buying your books at a local independent, you
> are saying it is worth 20% of your book budget to have that independent
> there.
> Beyond the concrete, there is serendipity of place unique to a local
> bookstore. It’s an environment where everything on the shelf has been hand
> selected by someone in the store, a member of the community. Any Borders
> will look like any other Borders, even if they go through the trouble of
> tacking on a local interest section. In a local independent bookstore, the
> whole store is a local interest section. Part of the magic of a local
> bookstore isn’t finding what you came in for, but finding something you
> never knew existed in the first place. By providing a space for readers to
> meet authors, authors to meet authors, poets to meet playwrights and so on
> in endless combination, a local independent bookstore waters the seeds of
> talent within a literary arts community.
> Let’s move back to question one, which will quickly bring us to question
> three and the variant of question two.
> What happened was that the business was losing money. Every year, something
> new got tried and every year, things worked out about the same. Gains in one
> area were barely enough to compensate for losses in another. And as will
> inevitably happen in a situation like this, the owner, who I have the utmost
> respect for, got tired of lifting the load by himself.
> Was it a poorly run business? Not at all. It was innovative and perceptive
> in a quickly changing market. There was a constant search for options that
> would save the store. A program was developed to sell books to students on
> both campuses that has been wildly successful. The store has managed to
> become an integral part of nearly every aspect of the local literary
> community, has established an online presence and has explored every
> possible solution that would have staved off the situation we find ourselves
> in now.
> Believe me when I tell you that the store was in an ideal spot to survive.
> Included in the options explored was the idea of converting the bookstore
> to a not-for-profit model.  This would mean the bookstore itself would run
> about the same, but the owner or our staff would run a constant capital
> campaign to make up the difference between sales and operating costs. This
> move would have been unprecedented, but it looked to be a long road ahead
> and one we were unlikely to reach the end of.
> The fact of it is, the market will not support a local independent
> bookstore in a town the size of Ithaca. It simply won’t. It is easy enough
> to blame everyone who spends their money on Amazon or Barnes & Noble, who
> doesn’t wear their Shop Local pin proudly, who got a Kindle for Christmas.
> But that’s not the point. If you look at the terms of the market, it is
> inevitable that a local independent bookstore will fail in all but the
> largest markets. We can’t sell you a bestseller for 45% off. We can’t stock
> every title in print and some that aren’t. And that’s not going to change.
> The market has spoken and it has said, No, Ithaca does not get to have a
> local independent bookstore.
> But where is it written that the market dictates everything that goes on in
> our community? Why should it dictate? The thinking behind Local First at its
> heart asks the consumer to go against the natural drives of the market
> (where can I get it cheaper faster bigger) and to purchase in a way that
> supports less concrete advantages. In very few towns and cities has the
> Local First philosophy been taken more to heart. And still the market is
> squeezing local businesses out of our town.
> What is necessary in this case is for the community and its members to
> realize their power not as consumers, as players within the game of the
> market, but as a community. The market says an independent bookstore isn’t
> possible in Ithaca. It’s time for the community to have its say.
>
> Ithaca, if you want to have a local independent bookstore, I’ve got one for
> you. You’ve just got to come get it.
> Understand I’m not talking about a bailout. I’m talking about a community
> buy out. At the end of this process, the participating community, and I’m
> talking a cooperative of dozens if not hundreds, would own the bookstore
> outright.
> If you’re still reading, please keep in mind all the numbers below are
> highly approximate. But they should get the idea across.
> It would take somewhere in the range of $200,000 to buy out the bookstore,
> including everything on the shelves. For a while, I thought the way to do
> this would be to find ten people who truly believe Ithaca should have an
> independent bookstore downtown who each have $20,000 to sink in. But let’s
> face it, I don’t know ten people who have a spare $20,000. But what if we
> think about it differently? What if that amount was split into shares of
> $250 a piece. I know quite a few people with $250 who truly believe Ithaca
> should have an independent bookstore. And that amount could buy them one of
> 800 initial shares in an organization that would buy out and then own the
> bookstore. If they’ve got more, it could buy them a couple shares.
>
> I also know a number of people who don’t have a spare $250 but still
> believe Ithaca should have an independent bookstore. I’ll get to those
> people in a minute.
> If it works, what does it look like? It looks an awful lot like a
> corporation, one that would elect a board of trustees and hire a CEO. Like a
> corporation, shareholders would have a stake and a vote in major decisions
> regarding the future of the bookstore,, and, obviously, would receive a
> discount on books.
>
> Are you going to get that money back? No more than you’re going to get your
> PBS pledge back. What you’re doing with that money is helping to buy a
> present for your community. You’re saying not just that Ithaca wants an
> independent bookstore, but that it truly deserves one and will do what it
> takes to have one. And when this happens, that bookstore won’t belong to one
> person or a small group of business partners who have to share the heavy
> financial burden. It will belong to a community of member-owners, with each
> member lifting the weight they can.
> If it all works and Ithaca owns its own bookstore, what does year two look
> like? Or year five?
> Being approximate, let’s say the bookstore, left to its own devices, faces
> an annual shortfall of $100,000 a year. This, incidentally, is fractional to
> what an organization like the Hangar Theatre would face if their only source
> of income were ticket sales and they had to pay all of their ushers. This is
> where the folks with more time than money become part of the project. About
> half the above figure can be accounted for in labor costs, just to staff the
> desk. That cost could be offset by a committed corps of volunteers, each of
> whom “buy” a piece of ownership with their labor. A worker-owner would earn
> an equitable share of the store through his or her labor. Essentially, if
> each share is worth $250, a worker-owner could “buy” a share with
> twenty-five hours of labor.
> Which leaves us with a $50,000 shortfall. Fundraising campaigns and member
> drives would have to be run periodically throughout the year, every year.
> This is a daunting amount of work, but within this model, instead of a
> single owner and his staff of ten trying to make this happen, it would be a
> community of worker- and member-owners.
> I’m talking about a community buy out, and one that would need to get off
> the ground fast. If this bookstore closes, another one will not rise to take
> its place, I will practically guarantee it. The difference in start-up cost
> and effort between opening a new bookstore from scratch and buying out an
> existing bookstore is huge.
> And let me again stress, this is not a money-making opportunity. No savvy
> entrepreneur is going to exploit this newly created lack in the market
> because there is no lack in the market. The lack will lie in the community
> and it is in the community where it will be keenly felt.
> There are any number of adjustments and additions that can and should be
> made to this plan. I’m just throwing sparks onto a fire that is otherwise
> dying out. If they catch, it will be entirely due to you.
> If you believe this city needs and deserves a local bookstore; if, like me,
> you are appalled at the idea of living in a city without one;   if you are
> ready to put your money and time where your mouth is; if you are ready for
> Ithaca to live up to its reputation rather than bask in it; if you are ready
> to be part of a community that decides for itself what it looks like, rather
> than allowing itself to be shaped by outside forces …
> … then let’s give it a try.
> At this point, I’m looking to gauge interest. And by interest, I mean
> willingness to commit financially. I’m just a poor kid, but I’m putting it
> out there right now that I’m in for $1000. Four shares. It’s what I can
> afford right now. There are 796 to go.
> Anyone interested in more information or in participating should please
> contact me at bobproehl at gmail.com.
>
>
> --
>
> ----
> Dara Silverman
> Consultant, Farmer, Yoga Teacher
> darasilvermanus at gmail.com
> dara at riseup.net
> 917-327-6528
>
>
>
>

-- 
*Franci Saunders *
**positivity, connectedness, adaptability
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <https://lists.aktivix.org/pipermail/sharetompkins/attachments/20110221/78918757/attachment-0001.htm>