Jeff Curtis, owner of Sherman's Books and Stationery stores in Maine, will open his fifth location April 1 at 43 Exchange St. in Portland. In an interview with the Press Herald, Curtis said he expects annual sales of about $5.5 million once the Portland store opens. Some highlights from the interview:
The natural question everyone has is: How does a small, independent bookstore chain survive competing with the likes of Amazon?
Everybody was very concerned in the beginning with Amazon, and more recently with the advent of digital books. But I remember back to the early '60s when we got our first color TV, everybody thought no one would read books any more, but that didn't happen.
Why would customers opt for a bookstore versus going online?
We offer an experience that you can't get online. You can't touch and feel the book and get recommendations from a reader you knew before and trust. In my darker moments, I realize we would have grown more without the Internet and Amazon, but you can't go there. I had a mentor who once gave me some great advice: "Never look at someone else's plate, just figure out if you're still hungry."
