There's no denyingit: We live in a world ruled by huge multinational corporations increasinglyestranged from their places of origin. Perhaps the best any of us can hope foris that they outpace even themselves and eventually run out of steam.
Luckily,
Perhaps Chris Chiu,when choosing a name for the bookstore more than three decades ago, had aninkling that it would one day be run by the people, for the people. Aftersinglehandedly running the shop for all those years, Chiu decided to closeandperhaps sellthe business a couple of years ago. Yet when UW-Madison graduate BrianRothgery first approached him with the idea of turning it into a co-op, Chiu wasa little wary. And with good reason: Keeping a bookstore afloat is a challengeto say the least, and running a co-op is especially difficult during tougheconomic times.
Rallying the Community
Nevertheless, earlyin 2007 Chiu gave Rothgery the go-ahead to assemble a business plan for thebookstore's transition to a cooperative structure. Jim Draeger was appointedthe task of rallying community support, and after months of discussion, thearticles of incorporation, mission statements and bylaws were ironed out andthe store and its assets were sold to a 150-member cooperative. Each year theco-op members select a committee of board members to oversee store operations.
Sitting in on one ofthe board's biweekly meetings almost one year later and watching the democraticdecision-making process at work, it's hard to believe Draeger when he describessome of the teething problems the co-op experienced initially.
“One major problemearly on was disagreement among board members over the direction of the store,”he says. “It was difficult to get everyone to agree on the same issues.”
Fellow board memberJohn Donat adds: “Some people wanted to transform it into more of a fair-tradestore while others wanted to branch out into children's books and romancenovels.”
After muchdeliberation, the board agreed on turning the People's Books into a membercooperative that raises capital by selling membership at $20 a year and $100for a lifetime. In turn, members become owners and receive one vote apiece.
Nonetheless,vestiges of some of those early ideas remain. Apart from being given a modestmakeover that includes a new awning, a more inviting window display and generouslyspaced aisles, the bookstore expanded its selection of children's books with acozy reading nook located nearby. Each month a newsletter is issued to membersand posted on the co-op's Web site, describing new books the store has in stockand informing the public of upcoming events. At the same time, it remains thesmall and local gem it has always been, offering a selection of progressivepublications you'll be hard-pressed to find elsewhere.
The store has alsofound a viable means of addressing the pressing need to increase sales andrevenue.
“We decided the mostsurefire way of doing that was to get exclusive agreements with instructionalstaff at UW-Milwaukee to order their textbooks through us,” says Rothgery, whoattributes the idea to Rainbow Books Cooperative in
Branching Out
“There is a sense ofurgency in
Thus, one of theco-op's goals is to return the support it has received from both the communityand other enterprises such as the Riverwest Cooperative (which, according toDraeger, is the first local co-op to which People's Books Cooperative turnedfor advice and help). The store gives back to the community by hosting readingsand movie nights and allowing local groups such as
It also forges linkswith other independent bookstores through events such as the “IndependentBookstore Potluck” it hosted last week. Mike Gonzales, who's in charge ofcoordinating events, cites this as one of the defining principles of thecooperative model: to create sustainable communities. Like many other people,he's concerned about economic trends that make it harder and harder for smallindependent bookstores to compete against corporate behemoths.
“We want to workwith other bookstores and anyone else who is concerned about this trend, tostand in solidarity with each other,” says Gonzales. “In many ways independentbookstores operate as a labor of love despite continued loss of revenue andmounting debts. We don't believe that we should face these problems alone.”
Let's hope People'sBooks Cooperativea small and local alternative to the crushing corporatestructureis around for many years to come.
For information on howyou can become a member or volunteer, for information on events or for a copyof the store's monthly newsletter, go to www.peoplesbookscoop.org or call (414)962-0575.
