Paperback Dreams

Drew Goodman of University of Utah Bookstore

An Interview with Drew Goodman
University of Utah Bookstore
Salt Lake City, Utah

What’s the story of your bookstore. How did it start, how did you get involved, why do you keep doing it?
Currently, I work for the University Campus Store at the University of Utah. In its modern incarnation it has been around since about 1952. The Trade Books department started around 30 years ago with a meager selection of books, designed to offer supplemental material to students for classes. About 15-18 years ago, general reading materials were added (fiction, sports, gardening, etc.). It has grown to just about 4,000 square feet since then. I have been in the book business for about 15 years, starting at a what was small regional chain, then I moved on to work for the large chain stores. I have been at the University Campus Store for just over 5 years. I love books and I love sharing books with others. I am committed to continually evolving the book department to the needs of the students, staff, faculty and surrounding community.

How has bookstore culture in Salt Lake changed over the years? How have the interests of your readers changed? What has that meant for your stores?
I’ve grown up in Salt Lake and when I was younger, I remember my parents taking me to bookstores (they were both teachers). We would go to Sam Weller’s or other small independents around town, or to Deseret Book (a chain owned by the LDS Church). For a time, Deseret Book and Sam Weller’s were the only two bookstores I was really familiar with, or thought existed. In the early 90’s is when the chain stores started moving into the area. I remember Bookstar moving into the Sugarhouse area. But I also remember when Bookstar was taken over by Barnes and Nobles and then watching the steady decline of the small, independent bookstores. Salt Lake, in many places of the valley, has become homogenized- the same with the bookstore culture. Shopping centers dot the landscape now and Barnes and Noble or Borders seem to be popping up in all these major shopping centers.

Since I’ve been in the book business, I’ve seen my customers habits and reading interests change or decline. When I started, it was still relatively easy to sell classical literature, great children’s books that no one knew about, fiction that hadn’t yet hit the bestsellers lists. Now, many customers don’t take the time to browse the shelves. They come to the store with a very specific idea of what they want. I’ve seen some with a printout from an Internet bookseller in hand, looking for a book that they want right NOW. If they can’t find it, the go back to the Internet rather than wait for us to order it. They go after the bestsellers and don’t browse the other sections to see if there is anything other than the latest Stephen King or John Grisham to read. At our store, I noticed a disturbing trend. Outside of the semester opening time periods, very few of our customers are students- it is mostly the faculty and staff. Someone said that it is because they are poor and don’t have money to spend, yet they will drop several hundred dollars for the newest iPod or Apple computer. They will spend $60 for the latest Under Armor t-shirt. They have more credit cards in their pockets than I’ve had in my entire life, but they don’t spend money on books. It has made it more difficult to achieve sales budgets, to make ends meet (yes, even in a University store- we don’t get funding from the school or the state). I have had to bring in more and more sidelines items to try to make up the difference, which has helped, but doesn’t fill the gap completely. We’ve had to become pickier about what books we do order, thin out our inventory more than we’d like to, and special order more (when people are willing to order from us rather than Amazon).

Talk about free speech and bookselling. Talk about experiences where you’ve faced free speech issues in your stores.
Normally, as a University Store, I probably have had less complaints about books we carry that other stores I’ve worked in. In fact, I probably get more flack about what I choose to carry from my own bookstore administration than I do from customers. I remember when I first brought in “Porn for Women,” I thought the Bookstore director and an associate director were going to have a stroke — until I opened the book and showed them what it was all about. But, having said that, I have fielded a few complaints. I have had an older gentleman, who, if I understand the story correctly, had a gay son who killed himself. About once a year he would come to the store and lodge a complaint about our gay/lesbian/transgender section, claiming that we needed more books about living a heterosexual lifestyle, and giving us a recommended list of books to order. On the flip side of that same coin, I had someone who chewed me out about carrying a book in our psychology section called “Curing Homesexuality,” and how dare I carry such an offensive book. I try to be understanding, but I also explain that as a bookstore, and particularly as a University bookstore, we offer a lot of books on many different subjects and try to offer books with many different points of view. The one fight I did lose, was with the Politically Incorrect Guide series of books. The Politically Incorrect Guides (which use the acronym, P.I.G.) put out a book on Islam (as one of their many titles). I had brought in a copy of the book with an assortment of many other Politically Incorrect Guide titles. A couple of Muslim students saw this book and were offended, from what I understood, primarily by the title “The P.I.G. Guide to Islam.” They complained to the bookstore administration and, I believe, to a vice-president who asked that the book be removed from the shelf. When I protested that as a University Bookstore we shouldn’t be censoring books, and that this book in particular didn’t was far less offensive than some other things we had on the shelves, I was told in no uncertain terms that the book was to be taken off the shelves and returned. But, other than that, I’ve never taken a book off the shelf due to a censoring issue.

Talk about your triumphs. What have been your proudest accomplishments as a bookseller?
I started as a part-time bookseller when I was going to college. I quickly moved my way up to manage stores, I like to think this was because of the way I work with customers and can hand sell books more than just my business savvy. This has allowed me to put my own unique stamp on the stores I’ve managed. I’m a people person and I love to talk with people about books. I think my proudest accomplishment is when I realized that people were coming to my stores, seeking me out and asking my recommendations for books. And to top that off, these customers were sending people to my stores to find me, saying that, ‘So and so told me to ask you about a good book to read.’ When people seek me out, wanting to know what it is I think they should read, I feel like I’ve hit the pinnacle of what a bookseller is all about.

Talk about your challenges. What makes it hard to keep doing what you do?
It’s hard to watch the decline of the importance of books in people’s lives, especially the younger generation. Not only does it not help the business, but it saddens me to think that these young people are missing out on something special- on gaining life changing experiences from reading.

I’ve said to several people lately, “I love what I do, yet I hate my job.” Let me put that into context. As the General Book Sales Manager, I manage the trade book department. But, I am only one of several departments in the bookstore, and I am the department that brings in the least amount of money in the entire store. I can’t compete with the sale of textbooks, computer or clothing. My employers want my department to be successful (i.e. make more money), but don’t always understand the complexities and difficulties of the book business- that the challenges I face are far different than the challenges faced by the computer or insignia clothing departments. I think they often see a book as no different than a sweatshirt, a notebook, or an iPod. The intense pressure to increase sales in a challenging retail business, while being compared to other sales departments that do extraordinarily well in sales increases, sometimes makes it hard to get out of bed in the morning. But I do, because I love what I do. Talk about fighting an inner emotional war!

Remind us why it matters. What is it that independent bookstores bring to the cultural landscape that is unique and that merits support?
I’ve seen this firsthand from both sides of the aisle. While working in the chains, I saw the homogenization. The same displays, the same endcaps, the same promotions, the same advertising, no matter where you went. They gave us a small section or two to bring in local books, books about the state or city where the store was located, maybe a little local history, but beyond that, everything was ordered by and shipped from the central offices and warehouses. The cultural landscape of Salt Lake City, Utah is different than New York or Atlanta or Los Angeles. Our thoughts, ideas and values, our lifestyles are different and our independent bookstores reflect those differences. Even within a city or state, our communities and neighborhoods are different. One neighborhood bookstore may be more cutting edge, reflecting the tastes of the residents surrounding that store, where just a few miles away, another bookstore may be more conservative, reflecting the tastes of its community. My neighborhood in Taylorsville is different than a neighborhood in the Avenues. Sure, there are many of the same books that we all carry in our stores, but it is the differences, sometimes major, sometimes minor that distinguish us and out bookstores.

Talk about the importance of locally owned businesses. What sets them apart from the chains?
I once sat in a training in Ann Arbor, Michigan, while I was working for Borders, and a vice-president of the company came and gave us a presentation, telling us why a copy of “David Copperfield” published by Penguin, and available in most bookstores, was “different” and “better” when purchased from Borders, not because of the book itself, but because of the “value-added experience” you got from shopping for that book at Borders.

I’ve thought a lot about that conversation over the last 9 or 10 years. While I think that it was an interesting concept, a way to get managers and employees to be cheerleaders for the company, I think the value-added experience that she spoke of doesn’t apply much to the chains anymore, if it really ever did, but more than ever it applies to the independent bookstore.

When I go into a chain store these days, no one talks to me — NO ONE. I went into a chain just last night to verify this once again, and again no one talked to me, no one welcomed me to their store, no one asked if I needed any help, no one suggested anything to read. Now, for me, that isn’t such a bad thing- I probably know more about books than 99% of people in that store, but I thought “How sad.” This chain is a destination store and they get foot traffic that most independents could only dream of, yet, the “value-added experience” of engaging the customer is nearly extinct.

In my store, we greet everyone who comes in. We know many of our customers, if not by name, by face. We know what our best customers like, what they buy, what they might be interested in. When we receive new shipments of particular books, we give them a call (yes, we have their phone numbers!). We talk about books with them, find out what they are reading or what they like and we make suggestions. Are they looking for a birthday present and don’t know what to get, for a parent? A child? A Friend? We can help, and we do.
We’ve talked about books with others of our customers who may have recommended a book — and we pass on those recommendations. Are our customers looking for a book we don’t carry in stock? We can react quickly and bring it in for them and for others.

We adjust our selections to what is popular, not just according to the New York Times Bestsellers list, but to what the kids at the local elementary schools want to read, or what has suddenly caught some attention in OUR community, not in Chicago or San Francisco.

We add value by individually valuing our customers.

We are part of our communities and we succeed when they do.