The lovely St. Mark's Bookshop is hoping for a $5000 reduction each month in their $20,000 monthly rent—and they expect to perhaps hear from their landlord, Cooper Union, today.
A reduction of $5000 a month! Why, that's all of 250 purchases at a (very low) estimated average purchase price per customer of $20. (That would be eight customers a day.) I would describe that as a harrowing view into the store's finances and costs.
The St. Mark's Bookshop has been the beneficiary of a much-Twittered petition to its landlord this last week. Just a little over two years ago, the bookstore signed a new ten-year lease for $20,000 a month. ($240,000 a year; that's 9,234 full-price hardback copies of The Art of Fielding, or, 36% of Chad Harbach's advance for The Art of Fielding.) That lease expires in a bit under eight years. Now the owners say it's onerous (so what were they thinking!?) and they have a meeting with their landlord, Cooper Union, this week. (Their last meeting was ineffectual, the owners said; since, a City Councilmember and [...]
From our Brooklyn Bookstore Correspondent Emily Gould comes this photo. It was taken in Word, the lovely independent bookstore in Greenpoint. Go on over, and support your local bookstore! Oh and while you're there, please steal this hilarious sign. Emily points out: "It's like if instead of 'FICTION' at Barnes and Noble there was a sign that said 'Twilight and other novels.'"
