One year after an emergency meeting of the owners and board of directors led to a decision to keep financially challenged Buffalo Street Books in Ithaca, N.Y., open, "the bookstore's sales have increased and they've had successful events, but they are still struggling," the Ithaca Voice reported.
"I'm both optimistic and pessimistic at the same time. It's hopeful and discouraging," said board president Rob Vanderlan, adding that the optimism comes from the bookstore making smart decisions over the past year, having a great manager, a great staff, growing sales and a sound relationship with publishers so it can order books. The pessimism, however, derives from the fact that it continues to lose money overall. "Though sales grow, we're not breaking even. We're not close to breaking even."
Vanderlan said the store has three main options: close the reading room; control expenses, including payroll; and do consistent fundraising. It has opted to close the reading room and consolidate, which will ultimately save about $15,000 per year, the Voice noted.
"This has been the reality the store has lived with and probably not faced up to since it became a co-op seven years ago," Vanderlan said. "For the foreseeable future, if there's going to be an independent bookstore in Ithaca... it's going to have to be subsidized. And that subsidy is going to come in the form of owner contributions." In addition to a sustaining owner program, which has raised about $10,000 thus far, the bookstore also hosted a gala during the summer to kick off its Ithaca Is Books campaign.
"Ithaca's such a great reading and writing community and there are so many authors and we do so many events with them where they're able to share their work with friends and family and neighbors in the community. It would just be a devastating loss if that wasn't possible," Vanderlan said, adding that he is confident the store will remain open because so many people have worked so hard to make it successful.