I worked at the UWS Shakespeare & Co in the mid-90’s - right after the B&N moved in two blocks away. I was told by the manager that despite the “rivalry”, our sales actually went up when the big boys came in; when a customer wanted specialized service and became frustrated with the lack thereof at the B&N, they’d come to us. Many people in the neighborhood were fiercely loyal and may have even bought more books to spite the conglomerate. If anything, she said, we were more in danger from the landlord raising the rent. I left for 6 months and when I came back to New York, Shakespeare & Co was gone, replaced by yet another drug store. I went to work at the B&N and found lots of nice, knowledgeable co-workers and the same grumpy customers who accused the booksellers at S&Co of being “snobs” now came a griped that all of us at B&N were ignorant, blaming the peon with the nametag for “forcing Shakespeare & Co out of business”. People are funny.
It’s a shame books are such low-margin sellers, and it’s also a shame that a great cultural city like NYC can’t seem to figure out how to keep culture around.
