Jane Estes, co-owner of Lark & Owl Booksellers in Georgetown, Tex., reported that the store has done a lot more consignment with local artists and artisans in the past year. While Lark & Owl still carries its other retail sidelines, the store has been having success with things like hand-painted earrings, crocheted stuffed animals, handmade bookmarks, journal covers, and stickers made by local artists and craftpeople.
Touching on stickers, Estes noted that they are the store's "number one seller every week" by unit, and Lark & Owl has benefited from a "lovely partnership" with a woman who makes stickers. She'll bring in packs of stickers for the store to sell and make custom stickers for book clubs and special events.
Seasonal candles, whether Halloween-, Thanksgiving-, or generally autumn-themed, are doing very well at the moment; Estes said Faire has been a great source for those items, along with crocheted tote bags that "always sell."
"No matter where you live, I think you can find some vendors and artisans you can highlight," remarked Estes, adding that two of the three people who make crochet stuffed animals work at the hair salon next to the bookstore. "There are talented people everywhere."
Asked about tariffs, Estes said they have not had a noticeable impact, but "people keep bringing it up," with some vendors being particularly concerned. She pointed out that even if something is made locally, "one little, tiny item will come from overseas, whether it's screws or glue or whatever."
Relying more on consignment for gifts and non-book items has not been the only change that Lark & Owl has made with its buying. In the face of economic uncertainty, "people's buying habits have changed," leading the store to buy on more of a weekly or bi-weekly basis rather than a monthly or seasonal basis. Estes called it a "huge pivot for us," but the approach has worked, and she thinks it will continue. At the same time, the store has "skewed lower" in prices when it comes to non-book items.
At Pages, a bookstore in Manhattan Beach, Calif., some perennial favorite sidelines include puzzles, cards, and plush, said general manager Jeff Resnik. Since the beginning, the store has carried Mighty Bright booklights, and for a long time the store has done quite well with store-branded bags made by a company called Apolis. Resnik called it a "fantastic quality bag" that can hold an "unbelievable amount of books" along with a laptop.
A relatively recent nonbook addition has been Blackwing pencils, which the store "went deep" on. They created a display that gives customers the chance to try one of the pencils out on a notepad, and that has been very successful.
Pages also brought in chocolates within the last year or so, with Resnik remarking that he "tried a heck of a lot of chocolate" before deciding what to carry. The team went with Deux Cranes, a company based in California, due to the combination of the chocolate's quality and the story behind the chocolatier. The "guiding principles" for the store's sidelines, Resnik added, are a product's quality and its story.
Asked about other locally or regionally sourced items, Resnik pointed to a line of wooden postcards made by a company in San Pedro, Calif. He called them "really cool," noting that they are heavy enough that they need an additional stamp when mailed; Pages keeps a supply of extra stamps for customers who buy them.
On the subject of tariffs, Resnik said that when he was first bringing in chocolates, he found another supplier based in Canada that he was "really excited about." About a month later, the tariffs started coming down, and though there was a brief window where he could buy more without the tariffs affecting the cost, "that window has closed."
And in Cambridge, Mass., holiday scented candles are "flying off the shelf" at Lovestruck Books, said head gift buyer Rae Diep. Keyboard fidget keychains are a recent addition that have been huge hits with both customers and Lovestruck staff.
When it comes to locally and regionally made sidelines, Diep said the Lovestruck team are "big believers in working with our local community," and the store partners with several local and regional artists and vendors. As examples, Diep pointed to One More Chapter Candle Co., which creates custom Lovestruck Candles, and anyang.art, a local artist making postcards, prints, keychains, and more.
Asked about perennial favorites, Diep said stickers were the biggest favorite and theorized that they are so popular because they "show off so much of our personality in just one small item." Customers love the perfumes and potions from TokyoMilk, which can be "a bit tough to keep in stock," as well as many of the store-branded sidelines, such as "surprise favorite" tumblers that are co-branded with George Howell Coffee.
Tariffs, Diep continued, have made the team "rethink how we shop for holidays a bit," with filtering through vendors that may have import duties or tariff costs being the biggest change. Fortunately, there are "so many vendors" that ship within the U.S., and Lovestruck's sales reps have been "extremely helpful" in letting the store know whether to expect price increases. The team is also "staying mindful of wholesale vs. retail pricing" so that holiday shopping stays affordable. And though Lovestruck has seen some price increases from vendors related to tariff costs, "they have been largely minimal." --Alex Mutter
If you are interested in having your store appear in a future Sidelines Snapshot article, please e-mail alex@shelf-awareness.com.