Independent Bookstores Still Standing–and Expanding
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Is the neighborhood bookstore out of the woods? The giant national chains and the deep discounters invaded Chicago with a vengeance during the 1980s, intending to transform the bookselling business. But Waldenbooks and B. Dalton and Crown did not succeed in killing off the local independent bookseller. “We were really afraid in the early 1980s,” admits Pat Peterson, co-owner of Barbara’s Bookstores, “but we had tenacity and waited it out.” And now, judging from the just-completed expansion of Barbara’s, independent bookstores are prospering. After moving into a glistening new flagship store at 1350 N. Wells in the summer of 1989, Barbara’s last spring opened a new store in Oak Park, expanding their floor space there by nearly two and a half times. Then late last month Barbara’s quietly moved into a new store on Broadway, again expanding floor space from 2,700 square feet at the old address (2907 N. Broadway) to 4,200 square feet at 3130 N. Broadway. Finally, in what Peterson calls “the wild card” of the expansion program, Barbara’s has opened a new 4,000-square-foot store in the 1800 N. Clybourn mall, which also houses Remains Theatre and a number of other niche retailers. Though the Clybourn mall has been slow to find its market, Peterson believes the crowds eventually will discover it. “The big calling card at 1800 N. Clybourn is access,” she says, in reference to its parking lot and location near the Kennedy Expressway.
The 1991 Civic Center for Performing Arts Spring Festival of Dance will go on as promised, but more of the companies appearing in next years event will be self-sponsored or presented under the aegis of an organization other than the Civic Center, which no longer wants to bear all the cost of any shortfall in ticket sales. American Ballet Theatre will self-present, as will the Alvin Ailey Dance Theatre. The Joffrey Ballet will return to the Civic Opera House as part of the spring festival, but the Auditorium Theatre will act as producer. The Civic Center itself will present the return of the popular ISO and the Bobs, along with the Joseph Holmes Chicago Dance Theatre and the Hubbard Street Dance Company. (The spring 1991 dates will be Hubbard Street’s first in Chicago since the 1990 spring festival. The troupe had planned to play Ravinia last summer but was dumped to make room for the Chicago-area premiere of the Miami Ballet.) Civic Center execs are experimenting this year with a starker, more straightforward ticket brochure, scheduled to go into the mail in mid-November. Brochures for previous festivals tended to confuse would-be ticket buyers with busy layouts and complex charts of ticket options.
Art accompanying story in printed newspaper (not available in this archive): photo/Paul Merideth.
