How independent
bookstores are braving competition
AUSTIN, Texas — Two Weimaraners sniff
rows of Ayn Rand political fiction and thick conspiracy theory novels. Between
wooden shelves that frame the perimeter of the train-car sized bookstore, a man
in a black turtleneck and slacks chats with the owner. His outfit is
unassuming. It’s his skin, painted a deep indigo that stops other customers in
their tracks.
“I like seeing people’s eyes when they look at you,” Harlan Dietrich, the owner of Brave New Books, quipped of Randall Peterson.
Despite spending most of his day pretending to be a Blue Man Group performer for a YouTube web series, Peterson stopped into the bookstore he’s frequented since 2006, knowing that there would be someone to chat with regardless of his brief identity change. Although he buys books from chain bookstores like Barnes & Noble and Half Price Books, it’s not the products that keep bringing him back; it is the community.
“I was looking for answers and I think I got a lot of answers I was looking for that I couldn’t find elsewhere,” Peterson said. “The first week I came here I realized that this was a place to share similar ideas.”
Brave New Books is one of the dozen or so independent bookstores that call Austin home. But in order to keep a small business afloat, it requires a lot of creative marketing and business strategies, according to Dietrich. He said that Brave New Books is an accurate reflection of what makes independent bookstores across the country successful: they offer a community meeting space that corporate chains like Barnes & Noble and online retailers such as Amazon lack.
“We definitely have an editorial slant to us and political philosophy,” Dietrich said. “Which is good because it’s targeting a certain audience, but it also eliminates a lot of people that could otherwise support us.”
Freelance journalist Valerie Peterson’s experience working as both an author and a book publisher has shown her a few things about working in the world of books. She agrees that the greatest driving force behind a successful bookstore is its connection to the community.
“A lot of it is that (these bookstores) establish themselves as a community force,” she said. “They are a reflection of the community, and they are entrenched in the community.”
The push-pull balance between attracting new customers and creating a very specific community that caters to loyal customers is something of a daily struggle for smaller booksellers. Dietrich offers up a community space in the rear of the basement bookstore to small theater groups, lecturers and massage therapists.
Experts argue that this specialization combined with an efficient, small-market business model is what is allowing independent bookstores to not only survive but to thrive.
Giana LaMorte, the head sales manager for UT’s official publisher, University of Texas Press, agreed that successful booksellers spend frugally, target their marketing strategies to a desired audience, and most importantly, sell good product.
“These people are pretty successful at what they do because it’s not this grand scheme,” LaMorte said. “They’re not overpaying. They have a definite marketing publicity plan. They can pick really good books and focus all their energy on selling that book.”
Finding products sold at Brave New Books on sites like Amazon is easy to do, but Dietrich said that there are not many brick-and-mortar establishments that sell rare books. Dietrich said he used an online bookstore for years but sales weren’t high enough to justify the amount of work it took to keep the site running.
“(The online store) didn’t really go anywhere, and Amazon really just kills you,” Dietrich said. “It’s really hard to run an independent bookstore online so we went back to our roots.”
Amazon may be killing Brave New Books, but it is UT Press’ biggest customer. Sophisticated databases make working with Amazon very publisher-friendly, LaMorte said. She can see how many copies of any book sold last week compare to this week. Amazon also provides sellers a projection of sales over the next few weeks that is important for UT Press’s gage.
“It’s important for me to get books to Amazon because people want to buy our books there,” LaMorte said. “Having said that, we love independent bookstores, and that’s a really big priority for us to make sure we have books they want that they can sell”
Other bookstore owners have tried their luck with alternative online-marketing strategies. Roxanne Coady, owner of RJ Julia Independent Booksellers in Connecticut, sent out an email newsletter to her customers on Nov. 28 urging them to show their support for Small Business Saturday. She warned readers that no percentage of the money they spend online goes back into their community, contrary to the return on investment when they spend in local businesses.
“As you decide how to spend your hard-earned money, please go to your local hardware store, local jeweler, local pharmacy, local sports shop and your local bookstore,” Coady wrote.
But initiatives like Small Business Saturday seem to be paying off. According to a survey by Institute for Local Self-Reliance, an organization focused on researching community development issues, in partnership with the Advocates for Independent Business, revenue growth for local small businesses like Brave New Books have seen a 5.3 percent increase and a 1.4 percent increase in sales on in-store holiday purchases.
It takes more than stocked shelves of books and a user-friendly website to run a profitable bookstore, according to Valerie Peterson. She remembered a business-savvy bookstore owner she worked with years ago that started selling a regional line of alphabet jewelry charms.
“She was saying the most profitable square foot in her entire store were these little letters,” Valerie Peterson said. “It wasn’t books. It wasn’t T-shirts or greeting cards. It was this little jewelry thing. But they knew that. They knew exactly what profit that square foot had."
Knick-knacks, niche items like these are often what keep these independent bookstores competitive with chain retailers, Valerie Peterson said. What has Brave New Books done to make every square-inch profitable? Sell mud-based toothpaste.
While the indigo figure walked the perimeter of the basement browsing but not buying, another older man walked in. Dietrich perked up.
“Hey George, how are you doing?” he asked.
“I just caught your ad again about the toothpaste that’s made out of mud,” the customer said before Dietrich interjected.
“Magic Mud!”
“Yah magic mud! I need to get some of that," the customer said.
“All right! You came to the right place,” Dietrich said through a smile.
“Come to the bookstore to get toothpaste. Never thought about it, huh?"
World-class golf course proposed for East Austin
AUSTIN, Texas — East Austin could soon be
home to a world-class golf course that includes a waterfront clubhouse,
high-end restaurant and driving range with the help of UT alumnus and PGA
golfer Ben Crenshaw.
Decker Lake Golf LLC, co-owned by retired PGA tour player Joe Ogilvie, is looking to develop the first of two professional-grade courses that would use 735 acres of the city-owned Walter E. Long Park by 2017. Crenshaw is said to be designing the first course in an environmentally responsible way.
“We're going to let Mother Nature dictate the way the golf course looks, especially from the rough areas,” Ogilvie said. “We want this to be a showcase of what golf could be in the southwest.
As of now, Walter E. Long Park is partially enclosed by barbed-wire fences and the occasional discarded couch. The ranch-style homes that surround the park have “fixer-uppers” in driveways, overgrown weeds overtaking sidewalks and abandoned playsets littering backyards. It is hard to imagine an $18 to 25 million resort-style golf course in the Northeast Austin neighborhood. During a recent Austin City Council meeting, council members and a number of residents expressed concern about the environmental cost and economic exclusivity of the sport.
The fees to play would range from $150 to $200 for visitors staying in Austin and $75 to $90 for Austin residents. Dylan Lemke, the head golf professional for Bluebonnet Hill Golf Club — a course that sits across the road from the park — was concerned about the cost
associated with a “resort-style” golf club.
“In this day and age when your entertainment businesses are being shrunk and people are cutting spending, not a lot of people are going to want to play a $150 golf course because the difference between a $150 golf course and a $50 (one) isn’t going to be a whole lot,” Lemke said.
Lemke does not think he will have to compete for clientele because the fee to play a round of golf will be much less expensive at Bluebonnet Hill. Instead, his biggest concern was water usage.
“With the drought in Central Texas I can’t believe the city approved that they’re gonna put in another golf course that’s gonna suck up a lot of water, which is kind of frightening,” Lemke said.
The only action taken by City Council on Oct. 23 was a motion to move negotiations forward and a request for the developers to conduct one more public engagement meeting. Council members hoped that additional fieldwork would help determine if the proposed golf course would be a well-received addition to the neighborhood. Council member Kathie Tovo also brought up the issue that the developers had not submitted an official business plan.
“I always feel more comfortable before approving execution of an agreement if we actually have an opportunity to review it,” Tovo said. “I'll make that really clear.”
Richard Subtle, a developer for Decker Lake Golf LLC, acknowledged that lack of a blueprint but turned the council’s focus to the time-sensitivity of the topic. A recently elected council will come into office in January, requiring the private-development firm to propose the plan from the beginning, according to Subtle.
“This project could start all over again, and I can just tell you it's time does not bode well when you are trying to move something forward along this magnitude,” Subtle said.
According to Ogilvie, the PGA tour and United States Golf association have expressed an interest in bringing a larger event to Austin by 2018. He hopes an event of this caliber will rival the turnout of an event like Formula One or Austin City Limits.
The Director of Austin’s Parks and Recreation Department, Sarah Hensley, approved of the 50-year operation and management license agreement because she foresees a considerable amount of positive land development happening as a result.
“A golf course of this nature that has an Audubon certified component, that looks at reclaimed water, that looks at giving back to the community to the tune of possibly $9 million a year in charity and nonprofit donations if a PGA tournament occurs, to me, is the best thing I could do for a park and for the people that live in that area,” Hensley said.
Developers have promised to give eight to 11 percent of their profits back to the city’s Parks and Recreation department. Community members are excited about the development of the four thousand acre park, saying that the proposal would bring a much needed economic boost. Larry Beard, an East Austin resident and proponent, said he has to drive nine miles to reach the closest HEB.
“You'd better believe I'm enthusiastic about something coming our way besides a sewer plant or a landfill or a prison,” Beard said. “Seems like all three of those are located on the east side of Travis County, in Austin.”
If the developers altruistic ideas are in fact translated onto paper and passed by City Council, the golf course will use reclaimed water mainly from Decker Lake.
“I think we will use amongst the least amount of water of any golf course in the area,” Ogilvie said.
“In the area, did you say?” Tovo said.
After Oglvie responded affirmatively, Tovo quickly added another comment.
“I was hoping you were going to say in the country,” Tovo said.
“I don't know their golf uses as well as but we will be a model,” Ogilvie said.
Warren Hayes, one of the developers, has spent the last 25 years living and working in East Austin as an entrepreneur. Not long after he and his wife bought a house for their young family, a state prison was built in his backyard.
“I've seen all the negative development that happened,” Hayes said. “Then I find out we're in a desired development zone, that the city of Austin has chosen us as the future of Austin. So I'm here speaking not as developer but passionate for East Austin.”
The City of Austin charter prohibits the sale of municipal parkland but the developers have requested a release of the restriction from the parks and recreation department. Hensley met with the private firm approved the development. Hensley believes Decker Lake Golf is the best option for the park.
“You've heard the speakers, most of them today, talk about the lack of attention to this area, and it will continue unless I get dollars to do anything,” Hensley said. “I'm not selling parkland. I will never sell parkland. What I'm trying to do is create something that will help bridge this future for us.”
Emergency call box placement across Campus
AUSTIN, Texas — Most people on campus
have never had to use the worn, yellow and blue emergency call boxes located
strategically across campus. If they do, the calls are usually suspicious
activity reports or prank calls. But Officer William Pieper, crime prevention
specialist for the University of Texas Police Department, knows that is not
always the case.
“I have seen the gamut of them,” Pieper said. “I even had one call where the guy used the box to say that he was wanted.”
During a night shift in the dispatch room, Pieper and the other officers received an alarm from an emergency call box located by the baseball fields. A man wanted to turn himself in. After searching his name in the system to confirm his claim, an officer found a warrant was out for his arrest.
“Works for me,” Pieper said. “Good as any reason to use the call box.”
Regardless of the types of calls made, Pieper said that call boxes are an absolute necessity on campus. With a push of button, sometimes small and metal, other times an inviting red, the call will connect the user to the UTPD’s dispatch center. The purpose of call boxes are to give students, teachers and visitors a direct and foolproof way to contact the police department but where the call boxes are installed is much more complex.
Pieper is currently in charge of recommending where to place all the necessary call boxes for UT’s Dell Medical Center based on an area’s “creep factor” or level of foot traffic. The center is projected to open in the spring of 2016. According to Pieper, using gut instincts goes a long way when determining call box placement but it takes a considerable knowledge of an area’s geography to accurately identify areas susceptible to crime.
“I don’t know how to say it properly and I don’t want to say creep factor,” Pieper said. “But when we are looking at blueprints and see there are a lot of trees and this might be a spooky place, we put a call box there.”
Other parts of campus that have this high level of spookiness? Parking garages. Pieper said that the dark and isolated nature of parking garages make them ideal locations for crime. Call boxes are installed inside the garages as a preventative measure during the construction with little or no debate.
There are 177 emergency call boxes currently on campus property that cost $40,000 to $50,000 to maintain and operate according to William Green, director of networking and technology for ITS. ITS works alongside both the police department and the construction companies to finalize box installment. Green said campus construction has a considerable influence on when and where boxes are installed.
“Generally, call boxes are determined as part of renovation or new building planning processes and are incorporated into the construction project after consultation.” Green said. “ITS provides technical specifications for the call boxes to the building project.”
Regardless of geographical placement, Pieper said that it is almost always more economical to install a box during construction. Pieper said he would place a call box every five feet if he could but concedes that would exhaust university funds.
“If you put it into a construction program, I cannot stress how much cheaper it is to do then because then you’re just essentially paying for the device,” Pieper said. “I have yet to have a construction program say ‘we're not gonna pay for that.'”
Pieper not only considers campus construction when determining geographical call box placement, he also takes into account the amount of foot traffic a particular area will get. Pieper said the perfect example is the call box located outside the International Office on 24th and Nueces Streets.
The International Office call box was pressed more than any other campus box during the 2013-2014 academic year, according to Roxanne Hall, UTPD’s police records administrator. The 24th Street box led in the number of uses by 20 calls.
“There is a lot of foot traffic,” Pieper said. “It is a great location for security, but it’s also a great location for people just who want to ‘bleep’ the button. You know that’s fine if they are intoxicated because then that puts a cop in the area who can help.”
Seven years ago, Katie Naranjo, now a UT alumna, spearheaded Orange Jacket’s Push for Emergency Call Box Initiative. The initiative took over a year of planning and in the fall of 2006, six call boxes were placed across West Campus.
The initiative did not come without obstacles. Naranjo spent months down at city hall ironing out logistics and getting funding for the project. When the day finally came for her and her team to present the freshly installed call boxes during a press conference, they walked around West Campus only to find that one had been stolen.
“Within I guess 12 or 18 hours of the boxes being installed, one was stolen and we were like, ‘well this is a good example of crime in West Campus,’" Naranjo said.
While Naranjo has never used a call box herself to report a crime, she distinctly remembers the satisfaction she felt when APD ran a report on the calls made over the first year using the boxes. What they found was that over 30 cases of sexual assault, underage drinking and drug use were filed through the West Campus boxes.
"It was such a sense of accomplishment because literally there were students and our peers who we were helping in situations where they needed somebody,” Naranjo said. “Just by putting that infrastructure there for them, we were able to be there for them."
Elizabeth Stokes, a sophomore transfer student from UT San Antonio, does not remember noticing the emergency call boxes on UTSA’s campus. She said she generally feels safer on UT’s campus because the call boxes have greater visibility and prominence. Despite not knowing what the process entails once a box is pressed, she realizes their importance.
“I’m always the ‘better safe than sorry’ kind of person,” Stokes said. “They might as well be there. I don’t really know how people use them but I figure if one person does, it’s probably useful.”
Pieper acknowledges that more often than not, calls made with the boxes are “unknowns” or calls that can’t be traced, but that doesn’t deter him from recommending boxes be placed because he knows their importance.
“I have experienced call box calls that have led to the apprehension of bad guys,” Pieper said. “I have experienced call box calls that helped to protect victims and I have experienced call box calls where we can provide assistance to the public. All I need for them to be effective is for one of those to happen and I’ve experienced them all, so yes, I say they are effective.”
As the class of 2018 arrives on the 40 Acres, the dorms are being flooded with anxious freshmen waiting for the moment they get to meet their new roommates and determine who gets the bed next to the window. But while campus maintains a fluid ecosystem of students entering and leaving UT, the city of Austin does not have an admissions office to keep population in check.
Ranked “America’s Fastest-Growing City” by Forbes, Austin is in a state of growth unparalleled by the average metropolis. It turns out that the city that “keeps it weird” is no longer known solely for churning out live music and Longhorn graduates. Traffic is quickly becoming another staple of the city, making public transportation a necessity.
Here are The Daily Texan’s best pieces of advice for being public transportation-savvy this year:
Shuttle systems
Austin’s primary public transportation system is the Capital Metro bus service, which includes UT shuttle buses. CapMetro is free to all students with a UT ID and has stops on almost every corner of campus. There are blue and white CapMetro buses distinguished by a number and a street name. For example, one might see “7 Duval” in a banner above the driver’s seat. In addition to the CapMetro buses running through campus, there are also burnt orange UT shuttles. CapMetro’s newest additions to the shuttle system are the new MetroRapid buses, which are longer gray and red buses that make fewer stops and arrive more frequently. At each MetroRapid stop, a digital sign indicates the exact amount of time before the next bus arrives.
UT shuttles will have a location, such as “West Campus” or “Lake Austin,” displayed on the bus’ banner. UT shuttles have shorter routes, usually taking UT students and staff around campus and the immediate surrounding areas, whereas regular CapMetro buses travel farther distances. Both are free for those with UT ID, and their routes often overlap.
Applications
If you have a smart phone, the quickest, most accurate way to become familiar with the bus system is to download a bus schedule app. The CapMetro app is free and offers access to the schedules for “favorited” stops. You can view maps by service or route number. The application has a particularly useful feature called “Trip Planner.” Enter the desired destination, and a number of route options will queue up.
Another route planning application is “Transit Trip Planner.” The app requires the user to type in the destination — the starting location is automatically entered — and then multiple routes and times are shown to the user. The app is user-friendly and shows the selected route on a map.
Routes
Most bus routes that are based on campus are built for students and the locations they frequent most. For students who live in San Jacinto Residence Hall and have a class in the northern part of campus, the West Campus bus is ideal. For late-night rides to Sixth Street every Thursday, it’s the E-Bus. Below are some of the most useful, popular bus routes.
40 Acres — Travels clockwise around campus on San Jacinto Boulevard, 21st Street, Guadalupe Street, Dean Keeton Street, Robert Dedman Drive and 23rd Street. It helps with getting to class on time.
E-Bus — The E-Bus is a late night service that picks up passengers from UT, West Campus and Riverside and provides a safe alternative to driving to and from Austin’s entertainment district during weekend evenings (Thursday-Saturday from 8:30 p.m.–3 a.m.).
Lake Austin — Serves University housing at the Brackenridge, Gateway and Colorado apartments,
Lake Austin Boulevard, and Fifth and
Sixth streets, west of Lamar Boulevard. It stops on campus at
21st/San Jacinto, 21st/Speedway and 21st/Whitis Avenue. It’s perfect for going to Whole Foods or the trail around Lady Bird Lake.
West Campus — Circulates counterclockwise, stopping at San Jacinto/23rd, Dean Keeton/Speedway, 27th/Whitis, 26th, San Gabriel Street, 22nd Street and 21st Street.
100 Metro/Airport Flyer — Picks up on San Jacinto and 23rd. Bus 100-MetroAirport takes students from campus to Austin-Bergstrom International Airport in approximately 35 minutes.
MetroRapid — Runs every 12-15 minutes along two routes: the 801 along North Lamar Boulevard to South Congress, and the 803 along Burnet Road to South Lamar Boulevard.
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