As seen in the Washington Square News.
Through the slim front door corral, into an ominous glass elevator, up three nondescript floors crammed with overflowing bookshelves, behind a sand-colored steel fire escape door with a sign proclaiming “Do Not Enter,” past a small army of twentysomethings poring over new additions and down a long, fluorescent-lit hallway to the last door on the left lies Strand Bookstore’s new nerve central β the office of co-owner Nancy Bass.
“A lot of customers like the hunt for books,” Bass joked.
With 210 full-time, literature-loving employees, the family-owned Greenwich Village landmark fits a whole lot more than books into its main location on Broadway and 12th Street. But it’s hard to believe that β in the same store that houses 18 miles of parallel bookshelves stuffed with new, used, rare and out-of-print books β a complete turnaround is in full swing. Since Bass took over partial ownership from her 77-year-old father, Fred, only a few years ago β who ran it since 1956 β the store has a lot more going on behind the stacks than customers know.
With both co-owners’ approval, Strand underwent a major facelift, including the replacement of the old linoleum and concrete floors with hardwood, adding an 11,000-square-foot floor to house stock books. Armed with an MBA and experience at ExxonMobil Corporation, Nancy has given the old store a fresh coat of paint, literally and figuratively, to spruce up its image and business β starting with its nightmarish front entrance, Fred said.
“There was such a jam-up there that people were waiting in line outside,” Fred said. “It was a bad scene.”
The store has even reorganized its layout for easier access, Nancy said.
“We tried to make sense of things,” she said. “For example, we have all the wars arranged chronologically.”
Refusing to let Strand be judged by its cover, daughter Nancy instituted a series of literary, art and political discussions by today’s prominent writers β including stars from David Sedaris to Joyce Carol Oates. Stressing that visiting writers discuss their work with customers, Bass said she requests every visiting speaker to have a question and answer session following their normal lecture.
“It’s really fun,” she said. “It’s been a success with the numbers and it’s been a success with the discussion.”
She also expanded the store’s involvement in motion pictures, creating rent-by-the-foot bookshelves for everyone, T.V. shows and movies such as “Sex and the City” and the upcoming “The Devil Wears Prada.”
“We just rented out 60 feet of cookbooks. Nothing but cookbooks, and they had to be good ones,” Fred said. “The people we deal with love that we do this. We take a burden off their shoulders.”
Nancy also creates private libraries for customers at their request, Bass said.
“One woman wanted a library of only books starting with the letter ‘P,’ ” he said. “Most people who want a library set up want a good, solid library. They want things that are standard β not just to show off.”
But sometimes showing off is part of the job. At the front of the store is a new section littered with brightly colored merchandise β from bottles to mugs to T-shirts and the enduring tote bags β all stamped with Strand’s red oval logo. Fred said that although his merchandising manager spearheaded the store’s new visibility, it is really customer demand that warrants the product explosion.
“We have demand for it,” he said. “It’s a New York item.”
With increased visibility and its new look, it may look like competition is heating up between the store and other locals. Fred said their close proximity really just helps his daily business.
“I’ll tell you something about competition: When the Barnes and Noble on Astor Place opened up β a fairly large store at 25,000 square feet β our sales went up. When they opened up their other big store nearby, our sales went up,” he said. “I asked them to open up another store near me.”
Bass said his across-the-board discount on new books helps to fight the “less-than-discounted” prices of his competitors.
“I wanna stay in business and the only way I can do that is to keep customers coming to me,” he said. “I’m not afraid of competition.”
Overall, Nancy said the changes have been well-received by customers, especially the 60-and-up crowd that still tries to check their bags where the information desk now stands.
“People first told us, ‘Don’t change a thing,’ ” she said. “I think customers have been really pleased with [renovations] and were surprised. They were happy we did it.”
Yet with all that is new in his store, Fred said there is one part of the store that will never change β there is one “crummy old” grey column, next to the side entrance, that was left unpainted.
“It’s history,” he said. “It’s the way it was. People come in and say, ‘Where’s the old store?’ and I say, ‘It’s right there.’ “