Cody's in Berkeley has always been a flagship store for the independent bookselling movement. And like many independents it has fallen on difficult times in recent years.

I stumbled today on the news they're moving again -- by my count, for the fourth time in ten years. Next month Cody's will close their store on Fourth Street in Berkeley due to "skyrocketing rents" and move back downtown.

Who cares, you yawn? We care because Cody's move reflects what's happening in bookselling. It's also symbolic, and therefore even more important to those of us who love books and reading.

Cody's was founded in 1956 by Pat and Fred Cody, in a small storefront funded by a $5,000 investment. It grew into the grandest and most beloved bookstore in Berkeley, one of the best anywhere.

Ten years ago Cody's added the ultra-modern store on fashionable Fourth Street. It eventually became the only Cody's. Two years ago they closed the historic store on Telegraph Avenue, and attempted a store in downtown San Francisco that closed after 18 months. The culprits: poor location, slow sales.

During this time owner Andy Ross, who had purchased Cody's from the Codys, sold his interest to a Japanese entrepreneur, then retired to become an agent for writers.

How many times can a store move, change and survive? Good question. Will Cody's succeed? Another good one.

Then I came across this startling quote in an online newspaper. Cody's manager Melissa Mytinger said, "The days of the large, general bookstore that offers both depth and breadth is not a functional model anymore"

Wow. That one floored me. Accurate quote or not, questionable syntax or not, it's also dead wrong.

Surprisingly, she happily contradicted herself in a letter to customers: "(In the new store) we intend to offer you an engaging choice of literature, criticism, history, politics, philosophy, and science and technology. We'll continue to carry and feature well-chosen children's books, young adult literature, travel books and essays, cookbooks, and reference titles. We will also feature a new 'Green World, Green Living' section... cards, postcards, maps, gifts, newspapers and magazines will augment our books. Cody's... author events will continue in the store and throughout the community."

People still love shopping and browsing in great bookstores, and I know this from personal experience dating to right now.

Last year 115 new stores joined the American Booksellers Association, and more than 100 new stores have opened each of the past three years. Recently, sales of books were slightly up, children's books way up.

Of course, the number of stores is way down, from a high of almost 5,000 independent bookstores nationwide to the current 1900. The surviving booksellers are intrepid and tough. They know how to stay in business.

Think of Powell's in Portland, the Tattered Cover in Denver, Book Passage in Corte Madera, Kepler's down the peninsula, the Harvard Bookstore, and many others. Great bookstores, all.

The old story continues. Cody's isn't going out of business, they're returning to where they started, downtown Berkeley.

We wish Cody's only the very best of luck. We need more stores like this in our lives.

Aired Sunday February 24, 2008 at 10:55 am and Wednesday February 27, 2008 at 1:00 pm

NOTES:

Kristen Bender's article on Cody's: http://www.insidebayarea.com/ci_8323236?source=rss

Don't write off independents yet... online essay by Bob Hoover, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/08050/858486-42.stm

Cody's information page (at this writing, lacking the latest news): http://www.codysbooks.com/infodesk.jsp

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Our Listeners and Readers Respond:

Melissa Mytinger writes:

Here's the thing: it's been abundantly clear that the bookstore as we knew it, with some few exceptions (Tattered Cover, Books & Books, perhaps), isn't what it was. At Cody's, for a variety of reasons, we kept on keeping on with the be-everything-to-everyone model. How crazy is that in this century? With a forced, so to speak, move, not only did we find the right space for Cody's, but we're forced to implement what we've known: to offer and present the most excellent choices in our, and our community's, strengths. History, politics, current affairs, literature, in our case.

And to then to begin to deeply curate smaller offerings in areas we feel and our customers feel strongly about: philosophy, religion, psychology, middle grade and young adult fiction, etc. This is a huge opportunity to completely refine, and essentially remake, the type of store we are. Concomitant is our (events) programming -- always strong, but with this downtown location, I'm able to pitch to and accept far more eclectic and edgy writers, in and among the literati and usual suspects.

The bottom line is that I have to create a store that meets or exceeds sales goals, in order to provide anything to anyone. We are very, very late in being able to fine-tune our inventory and outlook to do so. But the adventure is still there, you know? We're gonna take this chance and challenge to do things right. The book isn't dead, after all; just the methods of distribution.

I think that's what I mean. At least as a beginning.

M

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