strong midlist books. “I try to throw a
few curve balls in there to show we’re a
literary bookstore,” he said. “I’ll stack up
Tin House or Melville House. I buy for
my transportation stores like they were
three independent bookstores.”
Books Inc., which has nine neighbor-
hood stores in the Bay Area, will also
operate two Compass Rose bookstores in
Terminal 2 at the San Francisco airport
and a kiosk in Terminal 3, until its new
2,500-sq.-ft. store opens there in
November. “We have always prided our-
selves on being a bookstore at the airport
rather than an airport bookstore,” said
president Michael Tucker. “We realized
early on that the reason people weren’t
buying Stegner at the airport was because
it wasn’t there.”
Books such as The Martian, The Girl on
the Train, and Go Set a Watchman top
Books Inc.’s bestsellers lists for its airport
stores, just like at its other locations. But
backlist titles such as Ian McEwen’s The
Innocent, Pierro Ferrucci’s The Power of
Kindness, and Kurt Vonnegut’s Galapagos
had been in operation for 15 years—
others are coming back. Barbara’s
Bestsellers closed its 417-sq.-ft. store in
Boston’s South Station in April 2013 to
make way for a Starbucks. But
Barbara’s—which has five airport stores
in Chicago in partnership with Hudson,
along with several Chicagoland neigh-
borhood stores—reopened at the train
station earlier this summer. “They called
us because they were getting so many
inquiries,” explained president Don
Barliant. He credited the decision to
reopen to Barbara’s loyal customer base.
Barliant also said that book sales at
airports have been “very robust.” He
added: “Year-to-year book sales are up a
substantial percentage. I attribute it to
the misfortune of other booksellers,
including the national chains.”
Piloting Sales
That’s not to say that Barbara’s, or any
other transportation bookseller, is
simply waiting around for loyal customers to walk in. Each has its own way
of creating a compelling display and
backlist selection. Ron Rice, book manager at Faber, Coe & Gregg (which has
44 stores that carry books, including
three dedicated bookstores), likes to
experiment with regional titles and
News
(L.) A Simply Books store, operated by the
World Duty Free Group, at the Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport; (r.) a
display of Go Set a Watchman at Hudson
Booksellers’Albuquerque International
Sunport location.
Airport Book Sales Begin to Climb
Despite interference from e-books and online discounting, physical books are gaining
traction with travelers
Like their Main Street bricks- and-mortar counterparts, bookstores at airports and train stations are benefitting from a
print revival. Sales have been running
ahead of projections, particularly during
the busy summer travel season, as more
passengers opt for physical books and
transportation bookstores craft successful strategies for competing with
online discounters.
“Book sales are strong and growing,”
said Sara Hinckley, v-p of book purchasing and promotions at Hudson
Group, which has 445 stores that carry
books, including 50 bookstores in the
U.S. And she’s not the only one to notice
the trend. Sales are also up at Paradies,
which has 350 retail locations in the U.S.
that carry books, including 25 bookstores, under multiple brands. “Although
there were some unexpected hurdles in
2014, we surpassed our sales plan for
books and continue to do so in 2015,”
said Shelley Trotter, who handles publications in the merchandise division.
Tanesha Taylor-Nurse, buyer for
books, stationery, and media at World
Duty Free Group, North America (which
operates 19 stand-alone bookstores in
the U.S. under the names Simply Books,
Authors Bookstores, and Riverbend
Books), noted that e-books are much less
of a factor than they were two years ago.
“The demand for physical books is back,”
she said. “People continue to buy at the
airport and sales have rallied.”
Although two transportation stores in
New York City were forced to close over
the past year—53-year-old Penn
Concessions in Penn Station and Posman
Books’ Grand Central location, which
