lillanna Be

alk into Media Play
in Southfield. Pick
up a classic reggae
CD, the latest New
York Times best-sell-
er and the newest ver-
sion of your favorite
accounting software.
Don't forget to pick up a Hootie
and the Blowfish T-shirt and a
copy of Toy Story on the way out.
Diversity is a given here, eclec-
ticism the rule. That's the basic,
one-stop shopping philosophy of
today's entertainment super-
stores.
And this trend by no means
stops with giants like Media Play.
Chain booksellers like Barnes
& Noble, Borders and Crown
have "upsized," offering cafe latte
along with books, CDs, videos
and software.
So, how much can the market
sustain? Apparently much more.
Retail feasibility consultant
Jeff Green of the Green Group in
Birmingham said superstores —
those which sell books and mu-
sic and are at least 20,000 square
feet in size — account for only 20
percent of the "potential" market. r
"Which means it's an incred-
ible market still untapped," he

Superstores
continue to
multiply, offering
customers much
more than a place
to shop.

FRANK PROVENZANO

SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH NEWS

said. Superstores count on "cre-
ated potential," meaning a cus-
tomer is likely to buy more than
he intended when he walks into
one of them, Mr. Green said.
In metro Detroit, Media Play
superstores usually take up at
least 20,000 square feet and offer
more than just a place to shop or
browse. Replete with cafes, a
wide inventory of books, CDs,
videos, novelty apparel and
plenty of room to move, these up-
scale superstores offer a place for
the intellectually trendy and cul-
turally tuned-in to stop by and
hang out.
By the turn of the century,
there will be plenty more of them.
Media Play has seven locations
in Michigan and is planning an-
other in Livonia in the fall.
Borders Group Vice Chairman
George Mrkonic predicts that the
U.S. market can accommodate
1,000 to 15,000 superstores. He
has announced plans for Borders
to open 40 new superstores each
year over the next five years. Cur-
rently, Borders has 126 super-
stores nationwide.

Superstores, also referred to
as chain stores in the bookselling
industry, continue to gain mar-
ket share. In a three-year period
beginning in 1991, chain stores
increased their market share by
45.5 percent, while independent
booksellers recorded a 13.4-per-
cent loss, according to a 1994
study on book buying by the
American Booksellers Asso-
ciation (ABA).
In good economic times,
however, all booksellers prof-
it. While the number of titles
published today has declined
slightly from a peak of 60,000
several years back, the
53,000 titles published last
year were widely available
at more outlets. Book clubs,
food and drug stores, along
with independent and chain
stores, provide the primary
outlets. With the recent
availability of books on the
Internet, many booksellers
are conducting transactions
through home pages and
Web sites.
In the first quarter of this

year, retail bookstore sales were
up 1.5 percent, compared to a 6.8-
percent gain for the entire retail
sector, according to the trade pub-
lication Publishers Weekly. Mean-
while, first-quarter sales for the
nation's top four bookstore chains
rose nearly 20 percent. Sales from
Barnes & Noble, Borders Group,
Crown Books and Books-A-Mil-
lion totaled $1.03 billion, com-
pared to $860.6 million in the first
quarter of last year, Publishers
Weekly said.
But the emergence of super-
stores has not occurred without
casualties.
"We contend that superstores
sustain themselves because pub-
lishers give them preferential
sales," said Len Vlahos, spokes-
person for the ABA.
The ABA, on behalf of many of
its independent bookseller mem-
bers, filed an antitrust lawsuit
against Random House Inc. ear-
lier this year. The organization
is seeking to force the publisher
to offer the same wholesale price
and promotional allowance terms
to independents as it allegedly
provides to a few major national
retail chains.

Above:
Dori Weiner: Promo events are
necessary.

Left:
Cary Loren: Specialization is the
key.

Two years ago, the ABA
filed a similar suit in feder-
al court against five other
publishers. Two of the five
defendants, Houghton Mif-
flin and Penguin USA,
reached a settlement with
the organization, while the
remaining three are prepar-
ing for trial.
Local independent book-
sellers have watched their
revenue decline steadily

since the late 1980s, when chain
stores began to make inroads in
the local market, said Cary
Loren, owner of the Book Beat in
Oak Park.
"Specialization is the key to
survival against these giant
stores," said Mr. Loren, who un-
abashedly cites his favorite
bumper sticker: "Friends don't al-
low friends to shop at super-
stores."
Unlike many other less fortu-
nate booksellers, the Book Beat
has built a solid reputation as a
place for the independent-mind-
ed book buyer. Its diverse and
well-stocked entries in art and
children's books offer a wide se-
lection in these categories.
Customers know they're apt to
stumble on hard-to-find and ul-
tra-hip magazines at Paperbacks
Unlimited in Ferndale, and that
has helped sustain the store as
superstores cast a long shadow
over independents, said owner
Fred Hughes.
Mr. Hughes acknowledged
that revenues are down, most
likely as a result of the emergence
of these behemoths. But he
doesn't expect his store, which

features 30,000 titles, to go out of
business any time soon.
Paperbacks Unlimited has the
good fortune to be in the midst of
a demographic shift that has
brought in a new crop of singles
and young families. "There's
more street traffic, and we're ac-
quiring new customers as the
neighborhood changes," he noted.
If independent booksellers
need to appeal to more special-
ized tastes, superstores need to
do just the opposite. Mr. Loren of
the Book Beat believes super-
stores suffer from the blandness
that comes from trying to please
everybody.
"The (superstores) are corpo-

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