Local Bookstore Looks to Escape Financial Woes

After an accelerating battle against the economy and national chain stores, 114th Street and Broadway’s Morningside Bookshop is turning to locals for help. The shop, located in a Columbia-owned building, has been granted multiple extensions on its rent and its owner hopes to sell a portion of the shop to neighborhood investors.

With its slightly musty, tinted windows and its chipped wooden boxes filled with half-price books, Morningside Bookshop has been a part of the local landscape for five years. It is the third consecutive bookstore to lease the space next to what used to be literary icon The West End—its predecessors, Papyrus Books and Taylor’s Bookstore, lasted 29 and 10 years, respectively.

Unlike Book Culture or the Barnes & Noble Columbia Bookstore, Morningside Bookshop sells more fiction and rare editions than textbooks. And although many passersby linger near the entrance fingering books, relatively few venture inside.

Owner Peter Soter said that the store’s financial problems arose from a decrease in demand for books rather than a rise in rent. Soter said that Columbia gave him a “reasonable price” for the rent and has granted him extensions since last January, when he owed Columbia $30,000. At a meeting in early August, Soter explained, Columbia officials were supportive, stating that they “did not want to lose Morningside Bookshop as a neighborhood bookstore.”

Soter blames other factors for his faltering income.

“Barnes & Noble has affected business, the Internet has affected business, and the economy has affected business,” he said. “Books are a luxury item—they’re not like clothes or insurance.”

Victoria Benitez, public affairs officer for Columbia, said that “Columbia has a long-standing practice of favoring long-standing businesses, rather than national chain stores,” but was unable to comment on specifics regarding Morningside Bookshop.

In July, Columbia’s Real Estate Department approved Soter’s plan to build a coffee bar in the store starting this December. In the meantime, he hopes to sell a portion of the bookstore to local investors to raise funds. He said he took the idea of common ownership from Brooklyn’s Community Bookstore, which faced and escaped from similar problems.

Apurlba Saha, a customer who was lingering outside the bookstore on Monday, swathed in a thick gray suit despite the heat, said it was “terrible, terrible, terrible” that the bookstore was potentially facing eviction.

“I come here every day,” Saha said. “They have wonderful collections. ... It’s one of the best bookstores I’ve ever seen.”

Chen Mu, CC ’11, on the other hand, said “I wouldn’t notice the difference,” when asked how he would feel if Morningside Bookshop were evicted.

Jacqui Brown, CC ’11, who occasionally scavenges for rare editions in Morningside Bookshop, was more sympathetic.

“If it went out of business, then we’ll only have Book Culture,” she said. “I feel like that’s not going to be enough for the University area.”

In contrast to Morningside Bookshop, Bank Street Bookstore, a neighboring independent bookstore at 112th Street and Broadway, boasts a long line of people at the counter. Manager Beth Puffer said her shop was lucky because it focuses on children’s books, which parents are willing to buy even in difficult circumstances. Puffer’s business leases property from a private family.

Despite his plans, Morningside Bookshop’s Soter remains unsettled.

“Columbia’s okayed me with the coffee, but they want their money. I’d say by the end of the month, they’ll want to know what I am doing,” he said. “I grew up in this neighborhood, I went to high school in the neighborhood. I really want to stay here.”

Morningside Bookshop will be hosting a community outreach event on Sept. 18, and Soter said he is hoping to hear business ideas from interested neighbors.

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