Nowhere to turn — the page: Grand Forks left without brand-name bookstore

Talk about it

Now that the B. Dalton store has closed at Columbia Mall, what are the chances that Grand Forks will attract another full-service, brand-name bookstore? Let’s put it this way: You won’t be using your Barnes & Noble Reader’s Advantage card in Grand Forks anytime soon.

Barnes & Noble, the owner of the B. Dalton chain, closed all B. Dalton stores at the end of 2009 — all but the one in Grand Forks. It stayed open another year because it still had a year left on its lease, said David Deacon, vice president of real estate and development for Barnes & Noble Inc.

Since B. Dalton closed, city and business officials haven’t heard of any other bookstores interested in opening here. And they don’t have the juice that some people apparently think they have to encourage new businesses.

“Sometimes there’s the perception that the mayor can call up Barnes & Noble and they’ll open a new store here,” said Pete Haga, community/government relations officer for the office of the mayor of Grand Forks.

Nor is Barnes & Noble interested in opening a retail store here.

“Right now, we’re not being overly aggressive anywhere in the country as far as opening new stores,” Deacon said. “It’s difficult to project what a new store’s sales are going to be in what I would describe as a very weakened economy.”

Of North Dakota’s four largest cities, Grand Forks is the only one that doesn’t have a Barnes & Noble retail bookstore. Barnes & Noble opened its first store in North Dakota in Fargo in November 1994, followed by stores in Bismarck (May 1997) and Minot (March 2008).

“Just before the calamity that overcame the economy, we had begun to consider a space in the mall (in Grand Forks),” Deacon said. “It was about the time we opened in Minot and the store there was doing quite well.”

At the time, Barnes & Noble already had a foothold in the Grand Forks market. The company was in the final years of a 10-year contract to run the bookstore at UND. But by March 2009, it had lost its UND lease to Follett Higher Education Group.

What to do?

How does the closing of B. Dalton affect book customers? If you want to browse for books or buy a copy of a just-released novel by your favorite author, your options just got a lot more limited. But there are still at least two bookstores in Grand Forks, the UND Bookstore and Ferguson Books & Media.

The UND Bookstore devotes perhaps one-third of its retail space to the latest releases, bestsellers, fiction, nonfiction, regional authors and children’s books. Its hours are limited. The store closes at 5 p.m. on Saturdays and Sundays.

Ferguson Books & Media, an independent store owned and operated by Dane and Elizabeth Ferguson, is at 3750 32nd Ave. S. with a kiosk store in Columbia Mall. It’s open until 10 p.m. on Friday and Saturday and 8 p.m. on Sunday and carries about 25,000 mostly second-hand books. Its selection of new releases is limited. The chains can afford to stock a lot of new titles because they take books on consignment and don’t have to pay for them until they sell them, Dane Ferguson said.

“Every new book we have in stock has to be bought and paid for in the hope that I will sell it, not when I sell it,” he explained.

The UND Bookstore and Ferguson’s also can order books for customers. However, if you have a computer and access to Amazon.com, you can order books for yourself.

Not the same

But an online order can’t fulfill the desire to browse a well-stocked bookstore, or supply you with a new book you want to purchase and start reading right now.

“Sometimes, I find the best things by just wandering the aisles,” said Crystal Alberts, UND assistant English professor and co-director of the UND Writers Conference. “I go looking for one thing and end up with another, something I really enjoy.”

Alberts has ordered books online but believes supporting local bookstores and libraries and having a thriving bookstore community is “incredibly important.” The UND Writer’s Conference, for instance, partners with bookstores to host book discussion groups (called Writers Conference 101) before the Writer’s Conference begins and to stock and supply books by the authors who are guests at the annual event. The UND Writer’s Conference from March 29 to April 2, now in its 42nd year, is one of the most prestigious in the country.

Ordering books online and reading books on electric devices like Nook and Kindle are changing the bookselling market, but not as much as many seem to believe.

“There are a lot of things going on in the electronic book arena, but overall, it’s still a very tiny part of the market,” Barnes & Noble’s Deacon said. Nor are bookstores obsolete, he said.

“I wouldn’t suggest what the world will look like 50 years from now,” he said. “But I can tell you we still operate a very successful business of more than 700 Barnes & Noble stores and 600 university stores.”

There will be consolidation over the next decade, he said. Numbers of bookstores will decline, but so will numbers of department stores, sporting goods stores and all the rest.

City and business leaders currently are awaiting results of a study being done by Buxton Inc. that is analyzing the local retail market, down to what kind of diapers people in Grand Forks buy and what kind of wine coolers they drink.

“The purpose is to look at how we can maximize our retail capture and how can we minimize the number of people who are purchasing goods and services outside of our trade area,” said Barry Wilfahrt, president/CEO of The Chamber of Grand Forks and East Grand Forks.

Businesses make their own decisions for a whole bunch of different reasons, Wilfahrt said, but the Buxton Co. data could show regional and national retailers that there is a place in Grand Forks for another bookstore.

Nor has Barnes & Nobles written off a future in Grand Forks.

“We certainly still consider Grand Forks a very viable opportunity,” Deacon said. “Truthfully, when things solidify and when the consumer economy picks up, we’re going to have a retooled, revamped business.

“Once we begin (the opening of new stores) Grand Forks will be a place that won’t be hamstrung by an old store,” he said.

Reach Tobin at (701) 780-1134; (800) 477-6572, ext. 134; or send e-mail to ptobin@gfherald.com.

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