Comments on: Berkeley’s Biggest Bookstore Bids Itself Goodbye, Bashes Wal-Mart: A Ringside-Seats Dispatch

By: british gas homecare

british gas homecare — Mon, 04 Oct 2010 14:41:01 +0000

Leon Litwak, “urged his listeners to browse at Barnes & Noble, to lounge in their comfortable chairs while handling the merchandise, but then to come back and buy the books at chairless indie stores.” Now that is cheeky, support your local bookstore but remember that you should be neutral as an author.

By: Pillow Pets Promo Code

Pillow Pets Promo Code — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 23:01:39 +0000

This totally reminds me of the movie when FOX bookstore killed the local bookstore. It happens. Unfortunetely, in reality it is the local people who either kill or keep the little guys around by where they spend their money.

By: Btscene torrents

Btscene torrents — Mon, 28 Jun 2010 09:42:40 +0000

But at the same time, we have to be realistic. You can’t blast Bed, Bath & Beyond then buy your cake at Safeway. You can’t call Barnes & Noble anti-community when every seat in the store is filled with neighborhood shoppers spending a Friday evening there. You also can’t lump all suburban areas like Walnut Creek, where I happen to live, into the enemy camp. After all, most independent bookstores across the country serve these same suburban areas (Walnut Creek has several independents as well as chains). Finally, you can’t put yourself on your own high horse of intellectualism (because I have also lived in Cambridge, and Berkeley: you’re no Cambridge).

By: Movie lover

Movie lover — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 12:41:23 +0000

Sad indeed.Anyway i think we have the power by our choises to keep what we want and what not..

By: Anna M. Bond

Anna M. Bond — Sun, 26 Jul 2009 11:55:07 +0000

I am very sorry that the shop was closed. But in our lives, there is a law “strong devour the weak.” Please accept my condolences.

By: Patty Cravitz

Patty Cravitz — Sun, 08 Feb 2009 15:17:26 +0000

It’s been a while but I’m guessing those two stores are still there? Big companies are driving out the little stores. It’s sickening.

By: Edward Champion’s Return of the Reluctant » East Bay Express Parrots Litblog for “Investigative” Piece?

Thu, 03 Aug 2006 18:32:53 +0000

[...] This week’s East Bay Express includes a lengthy piece by Anneli Rufus about Cody’s. The literary blog Dibs, of course, all over this last month (and Flares Into Darkness’s post is quoted as “one blogger” in Rufus’s article). But Rufus’s article doesn’t add much to the conversation that hasn’t been said already. There are some insinuations as to Andy Ross’s motivations about opening the San Francisco store (along with some quotes from Ross himself), along with some memories of what Cody’s used to be (or what people believed it to be). But for a purportedly investigative article, there’s little here to dwell on beyond conjecture. No efforts to obtain documents, no tough questions directed at Ross about his net worth and why he expanded when the banks continually turned down his loan. It’s almost as if Rufus stole Dibs’s angle, spent an afternoon wandering around Berkeley interviewing people and then banged out this piece for an easy payday. And they call blogs the leeches. [...]

By: lauowolf

lauowolf — Wed, 12 Jul 2006 03:17:15 +0000

Last year they were targetting the Fourth Street store for closure, but I guess Telegraph was just an easier decision.
All I know is that anytime I went to the Telegraph store, I had to wait in line.
Go to the Fourth street store and it’s like a morgue in there — the staff always outnumbers the customers, even pre-holiday.
Whole area down there rolls up the sidewalk about 6pm. Can’t sell books when you aren’t open.
I think the two new stores were over-expansion, and I think they’ve closed the wrong one.
Look for the the other two stores to fold soon.

By: phil bruno

phil bruno — Tue, 11 Jul 2006 13:46:38 +0000

Sadly the demise of Cody’s was due to many factors…large independent stores really hard to upkeep for one, except for Tattered Cover in Denver. But no matter what the reasons or the Safeway cake, it’s a sad situation in independent stores. There is a small chain, BooksINC, who’s taking over another icon in calif (clean well lighted bookstore), but when one looks at NYC and the “hub” of publishing, one sees very little in the independent spirit in bookstores. As a veteran of over 30 years in bookselling and publishing. i also see a turnaround with good business people owning bookshops-fewer but better. a “love for books” doesn’t cut it anymore. Obviously trying and critical times for brick and mortar, and for publishing industry in general.

By: renee

renee — Mon, 10 Jul 2006 18:38:38 +0000

Thank you for adding another point of view to this story. As the owner of an independent book business myself, I understand all too well the problems we booksellers face these days. I think this issue is always going to be more complicated than people on both sides wish it to be.

The bookselling industry is in trouble, there is no doubt. But it’s primarily a business problem, not a political one.