Mayor Mary Marvin. Photo by A. Warner

By Mary Marvin, Mayor of Bronxville

June 28, 2023: Our treasured bookstore, Womrath Bookshop, has just set up a Go Fund Me page with the hopes of generating revenue in order to continue initiatives that will keep the bookstore going and growing.

So far, your generosity, just on a person-to-person appeal basis, has generated $50,000 towards a goal of $150,000. To donate click here to be directed to their Go Fund Me page.

The changes anticipated with this funding infusion include launching an in-store café already in the works; revitalizing the space by removing the drop ceiling to reveal the original pressed tin ceiling and skylight 10 feet above; replacing worn carpet with durable hardwood, installing better lighting and most importantly, promoting in-store events, community partnerships and customer loyalty programs to ensure sustainability.

Events anticipated include more author visits, children’s activities, a nexus for book groups, introduction of monthly new titles and expanding online access and purchase.

The comprehensive business plan calls for an increase in annual revenue of 15% based on similar sized stores with cafés. The café alone should conservatively generate a 5% growth, leaving 10% to be developed through the enhanced programs.

As you may recall, twenty-year Village residents, Barbara and Morin Bishop, purchased the 85-year-old bookstore just six months before the pandemic struck, virtually eliminating the opportunity for any in-store programs, let alone in store customer purchasing and they have been struggling to recover from this grievous blow ever since.

Let’s be honest, no one gets into book selling to make millions so independent booksellers like the Bishops sell books because they enjoy doing so as they are passionate readers with a deep faith in the value of the written word. As a point of interest, both of the Bishops worked at Sports Illustrated magazine for many years.

Currently, the landscape is bleak for the small independent bookstore as the behemoths completely invade the space. More than one independent bookstore has closed each week since the pandemic and currently 20% of independent bookstores across the country are in danger of closing. But we need not worry about Amazon as it has doubled its net profit year after year to $5.2 billion compared to $2.6 billion at this time in 2019. Amazon’s Q4 revenue is also projected to exceed $100 billion for the first time making it one of the very few American companies ever to achieve that alongside only Walmart and Exxon.

So why is it worth it when it seems so much more convenient to order a book at midnight that someone told you about on your way home from work instead of waiting to call Womraths the next morning? On the very well documented financial front and just reaffirmed by the firms Civic Economics, using the Andersonville neighborhood of Chicago as a template, trading independent retailers for big box chains unequivocally weakens the local economy.

This occurs because while local stores recycle a much larger share of their sales revenue back into the local economy, most of the dollars spent at chain stores immediately leave the community, sending profits back to corporate headquarters or to distant suppliers.

In contrast to national chains, local businesses conduct all management functions on site, spend a higher percentage of their revenue on local labor, spend more than two times as much purchasing goods and services from other local businesses, use local banks, locally hired accountants, attorneys, designers, and advertise in local media.

Approximate 28% of all independent bookstore revenue immediately re-circulates in the local economy compared to that of Amazon, which research documents a recirculating rate of 4%. Or as someone said buy books from people who want to sell books and help your town, not colonize the moon. 

Bookstores pay into state and local taxes that support our public infrastructure programs. Just a perusal of the Village budget would most certainly attest to that. A book may seem like a small purchase, but whenever you buy locally, you are sustaining your community.

Buying local also means less packaging, less transportation and a smaller carbon footprint and there is no need for two-day shipping in cartons when you can pick up your book directly from the bookstore by walking there. Very important to our community in particular, on average charitable giving by local businesses is five times that of chain stores. As you can clearly notice when we have wonderful fundraisers at the schools and churches, the donations are never courtesy of Amazon or even Barnes and Noble.

The hope is that informed people like Village residents will realize the cost and consequences of “convenience “shopping before it’s too late.

Equally important is the non-economic benefits to a community like ours. A revitalized bookstore can be a beacon of the core values of our community: creativity, convening with neighbors, civility and just interpersonal contact as we browse the shelves together in search of something, perhaps not yet known, and enjoying the delights of accidental learning and discovery.

A bookstore presents a logical location for community interaction and perhaps making a reader friend in a meaningful face-to-face way. Bookstores are also never a sad place for a community. Part of the new philosophy of bookstores is to become what is now called a “third place”, not home or work or school, but a critical area for relationship building, exchanging ideas, or just relaxing and perhaps becoming a hub for book clubs, story times, author talks, writing workshops or just sometimes a nice quiet place to be alongside the book you are loving.

Neighborhood bookstores also highlight the work of regional and even very local authors and small presses and will also be a window for display of local events.

We know the pride we all take in all good deeds; as example, our new composting program, doing more recycling, planting trees, reducing our carbon footprint, donating to a charity that needs us or even limiting our tech time. I think the same warm feeling could apply to shopping locally.

As you can gather, I feel quite passionate about retaining our local character and ethos via the bookstore. As I said in a recent column, “The Village has many stores, all part of the fabric of our unique small downtown, but some represent more than just a business, an edifice, and represent what a community wants to be.

Personally, I cannot imagine our special home without our bookstore. It says something about what we value and hold dear. Our bookstore at 85 years old is iconic, a wonderful throwback, but in so many ways so is our one square mile and perhaps why we treasure it so.”