“Bookstores have no future!” cried the digitally deluded futurists of 2009. And yet, 10 years after it opened in ’09, Boswell Book Company is thriving. “The pundits said there would be no bookstores—or even books!—by 2014,” recalls owner Daniel Goldin.
Goldin came out of Harry W. Schwartz, the decades-old Milwaukee chain that finally broke under the strain of the Great Recession and the mindless cackling of the “print is dead” crowd. It didn’t seem like a good time to start a new bookshop, but Goldin managed to convince his lenders and his landlord that his was a good business strategy: make Boswell a destination for events, including readings by local and traveling authors, and participants will return to the store to shop. Next step: develop a deeper selection than even the biggest big box store, composed of back catalog titles and academic press publications for an inventory that goes well beyond any bestseller list.
Employees have been crucial to Boswell’s success. Three who have been with Goldin from the beginning—Jason Kennedy, Conrad Silverberg and Amie Mechler-Hickson—were also veterans of Schwartz. A fourth, Anne McMahon, worked in the defunct Book Nook chain. Says Kennedy, one of Boswell’s book buyers, “When I go out to shop, it’s the environment, the experience, the ambiance, the relationships. I like to talk to people who are knowledgeable. You can’t replace that by shopping online.” Even Boswell’s special orders service remains active, despite the availability of virtually anything on Amazon. “What keeps us going is the relationship we have with our customers,” Goldin continues. “Really, there’s no reason to buy anything from us. Even most of our greeting cards are available online.”
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However, browsers along Boswell’s many display tables and open shelves often find books they wouldn’t discover online. “The algorithms are often wrong,” Kennedy says. And the fake customer reviews are no substitute for the recommendations of bibliophiles working in the book trade. “I love history—I get excited by the Harvard University Press catalog,” Kennedy continues. “We once had a bookseller who sold a lot of hard science-fiction—the books he was really excited about. The staff can really make a difference by talking about what we love.”
According to Goldin, the eBook market is “stable” and moving toward a leasing as opposed to selling books. This presents an opportunity for a retailer dealing in the tactile reality of printed books. “Bookselling has always been a niche,” Goldin says. “We’ll be around as long as people want us!”
