Santa Fe, N.M., Independent Bookstores Hold Their Own against Borders.

Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News

Jun. 12 -- Borders Books & Music, the corporate behemoth that opened in Santa Fe nine months ago, may have made a big splash in the small pond of Santa Fe's book-selling industry.

But Railyard Books, Collected Works, Garcia Street Books, the Travel Bug and Ark Books aren't washed-up just yet. In fact, none of those independent book stores have gone out of business since Borders opened. And, indeed, thanks to loyal customers, of all of them seem to be holding their own.

One frequent book store visitor, retired teacher Jim Bentley, said he shops at Borders because the parking is convenient and he also enjoys the store's espresso bar.

But when it comes to service, Borders seems to be lacking the experienced staff some of the independent stores have.

"They have a bunch of kids working at Borders," Bentley said. "They don't know the end of a book from another."

Eldorado resident Alan Ross said he "enjoys a good, big book store like Borders," but he also shops as the smaller, specialty stores that abound in Santa Fe.

"Hopefully, they all can co-exist," he said.

In the long run, Ross added, "I think Amazon.com will have more of an impact" on small book stores than Borders.

There's no denying the Internet has the best prices -- Amazon.com, Barnes and Noble.com and Borders.com all recently began selling New York Times best sellers at 50 percent off the list price. That price is below what small book-store owners can buy books wholesale.

Independent book-store owners did win one big battle recently recently when Barnes & Noble, under pressure from the Federal Trade Commission on anti-competitive grounds, withdrew its offer to acquire the Ingram Book Group, the nation's largest book wholesaler.

The American Booksellers Association, in a statement, said it was "extremely gratified" that the $600 million deal fell through.

The ABA and its members feared that if Barnes & Noble controlled Ingram, delivery of important books to independent book stores could have been delayed and Barnes & Noble would have gained access to the buying patterns of independent booksellers.

"There was a tremendous outcry" by independent book store owners, said Carol Parker, owner of Railyard Books, located on Read Street at Guadalupe. "And there was a well-organized response to the FTC about unfair trade practices."

But even though the small book stores came away victorious in that battle, the corporate book stores are taking their toll.

Parker said she expected her sales to drop when the Santa Fe Borders opened, based on predictions from industry sources. And her sales did drop -- about 10 percent.

"You would be putting your head in the sand to believe there would be no impact" from the opening of a store like Borders, she said.

"It has impacted all independents," said Jean Schaumberg, manager of Railyard Books and former owner of Collected Works Bookstore. "But we're still a strong store."

To compete, not only with Borders but with Internet book sellers, "You kind of have to reinvent yourself constantly," she added. "Retail as we know it is going away."

One move Railyard Books made was to establish its own web site, railyardbooks.com, that allows customers to do on-line searches for books and also to order books on line.

Railyard, and other local book stores, can also order books from distributors and have them delivered in 24 hours, but some times that's not fast enough.

"This is a society interested in immediate gratification," Parker said.

At Collected Works Bookstore on West San Francisco Street, owner Dorothy Massey said her store "is doing just fine. We had a dip in sales when they (Borders) opened. I assume a lot of people went to Borders out of curiosity."

But her store, Massey said, had an "enormous Christmas" and sales are now about even with where they were last year, "which was the best year we ever had."

Massey also said she is "considering" a web site but has not yet decided to go ahead with one.

Overall, "I'm co-existing very peaceably with Borders," Massey said. "Borders calls us when they don't have something. We have a perfectly cordial relationship with them."

Greg Ohlsen, owner of Garcia Street Books, on Garcia Street at Acequia Madre, and The Travel Bug, on Montezuma Avenue in the Guadalupe Station shopping center, wouldn't characterize his business relationship with Borders as cordial.

"They haven't helped us," he said. "They've hurt sales of everybody that sells the same product. But nobody has folded up and gone away. ... We try to focus on things they don't have."

At his Garcia Street store, "There aren't many changes we could make," he said. "We try to treat our customers better than they do."

The Travel Bug is specializing in United States Geological Survey maps and has created a web site, mapsofnewmexico.com, to facilitate the sale of the maps.

Eventually, "You'll be able to get all the USGS maps for New Mexico," Ohlsen said.

The store also has USGS aerial photographs dating back to the 1940s of various sites in the United States, including Santa Fe, Ohlsen said.

At Ark Books, one of the owners, Arielle, said the store, which is located on Romero Street, off Agua Fria, "is doing fine. We have the greatest customers in the world."

Even the Internet hasn't had much impact on the Ark's sales, she added.

"We've had people call from all over the world and say, `We know we can get it on the Internet, but we would rather get it through you guys.' That's pretty amazing, and we're very grateful."

The Ark's patrons, she added, are people "who want to support independent businesses and are not that thrilled about the trend in corporate take overs."

(c) 1999, The Santa Fe New Mexican. Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.