Saving Broadway Books

Tweet

Meanwhile, the deepening snow and ice prevented trucks from delivering packages from Amazon and other online booksellers. Driving was impossible or at best a hassle, and yet Christmas still loomed, and cabin fever was building. So why not do the righteous thing, many Portlanders decided, and travel on their own power down to the neighborhood bookshop that had been transformed into a location for a Frank Capra film?

As all this transpired, Aaron Durand, the wizard who had unwittingly conjured the magic, followed developments in his cubicle down in sunny California. "I was stunned," he says. "I just thought a few friends would read my blog, maybe a couple of them would buy some books, and when I came up to Portland in January, we'd have an excuse to get together and eat Mexican food. I had no idea I was capable of reaching all these people."

December sales at Broadway Books finished up 7 percent from December 2007, which had been the store's previous best month ever. Other retailers in the neighborhood were down 12 percent to 20 percent. "It made our year," says Dyer. "I paid every single bill, and we had a cushion going into the new year."

All that remained was for Aaron to make good on the deal he had struck with the blogosphere and stand an unknown number of people to a burrito at Cha Cha Cha, his favorite taqueria in Portland. The details that he had divulged on his blog were accurate; he had only about a thousand dollars of room on his lone credit card, and he assumed that that would disappear on January 16, the night of his thank-you party. A crew from a local TV station came out to chronicle the big night.

Aaron and his mother paid for 80 burritos, and the taqueria prepared 40 in advance. The turnout was small but enthusiastic, consisting mostly of friends of Aaron and his parents. He gave out 25 burritos and donated the remainder to the Portland Rescue Mission. Most of the guests declined the freebies, so his credit card was spared. The TV crew got its feel-good story for that night's newscast. The scene formed the grist for another posting on everydaydude.

Failure? Aaron wrote about the evening. Not a damn chance! As it turns out, no one went shopping for the burrito at the end of the economy's siesta!

After his vacation, Aaron returned to California, to his apartment in San Francisco's Western Addition, to skimming Frisbees on the Marx Meadow of Golden Gate Park, to the renovated airplane hangar that formed the headquarters of Birkenstock USA in Novato, and to his cubicle facing a wall-size window. On his first morning back at work, the company's CEO summoned Aaron to his office.

"I thought he was going to fire me because I'd spent so much company time on the Broadway Books project," Aaron says. "But instead, he told me how impressed he was by my innovative use of online social networking. He gave me a raise and promoted me into the company's marketing department."

One morning early last February, a few weeks after my first 2009 visit and more than a month after the events of last December, I stopped by Broadway Books shortly after Dyer had opened for the day. It was quiet. A middle-aged couple lingered to gossip and inspect the table of new arrivals but left without making a purchase. A few minutes later, a man came in to ask about a title he had read about in The New York Times Book Review. Dyer said the book hadn't been shipped yet, but she would be happy to reserve a copy for him. The man said no thanks and departed.

"That's the way the mornings often go," Dyer said. "Business will pick up this afternoon and over the weekend. Sunday is our busiest day."

She fell silent for a moment, watching the traffic pulse by on Broadway. "Of course, what happened in December didn't save us long term," she said. "Aaron's blog and the public's response formed a once-in-a-lifetime thing, and it only worked because it wasn't forced or premeditated. Lightning's not about to strike again, but once was enough. It reminded people about the importance of the independent neighborhood business. It drove home the fact that where you shop matters."

Then the phone rang. As Dyer handled the call, it occurred to me that the Broadway Books story might fall short of a miracle after all. Had the store not offered a product of value and been well managed over a long period of time, Aaron's inspired bolt of guerrilla marketing wouldn't have saved it. Had his relationship with his mother been less affectionate and respectful, he never would have generated that bolt.

Dyer finished the call, and another lull descended. She asked me what book I was reading. I confessed that, since the previous September, I hadn't read much of anything more challenging than the sports page. Paradoxically, the more I needed the solace and company of a good book, the less able I felt to read one. My attention span was shot. I burned time by staring at the computer or TV. I had surrendered to the scourge.

The bookseller gave an empathetic but unforgiving nod. "Follow me," Dyer said, leading me toward a table of staff picks. "I think I've got something you'll like."

John Brant is a Portlander and the author of Duel in the Sun, about the 1982 Boston Marathon.

 PREV  1 | 2 | 3