Local independent booksellers know that keeping pace with the prices offered online and at bigger bookstores is a tough task.
But Robyn Ringler offers customers free drinks and dounts at Eastline Books in Clifton Park.
Susan Novotny promises shoppers will be greeted with a smile at The Bookhouse in Stuyvesant Plaza.
Janet Hutchison touts the connection with the community she’s built at Open Door Bookstore in Schenectady.
In short, they say, shopping at an area bookstore offers an intimate experience that simply pointing and clicking or visiting the mall can’t duplicate.
“In a small business, what you get is passion,” Ringler said. “I just love my products.”
Ringler opened Eastline Books in 2008 on Route 9. It’s a cozy space with chairs and benches, a game room for kids and frequent creative writing classes. Ringler amps up the welcoming atmosphere for the holidays, giving away coffee, tea and apple cider along with pastries. She said her store is a “haven from the bustle and craziness of the mall.”
For her first few years in business, Ringler focused on selling solely books, but this year she’s introduced games, too. She and her family have always loved playing board games, so she decided to offer some of their favorites, as well as other highly rated games. Many are tied in with writing, making them educational as well as fun, she said.
There’s Word on the Street, in which teams try to guess words that fit a category while opposing teams try to distract them. Story Cubes are dice with pictures on them that players throw; they then have to try to make up a story from the pictures that are showing. There’s a game based on the popular Mo Willems book “Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus,” and one about Scooby-Do, as Scooby-Do books are among the shop’s biggest sellers.
There are several journals and doodle books available, too, like “Wreck This Journal” and “Dude Diary,” a personalized book for boys.
On the off chance Ringler doesn’t have a book in stock that shoppers are looking for, she’s happy to track it down. She said she has the expertise to know which sellers are reputable, unlike when a book is out of print and Amazon points shoppers to unknown sites that have old editions in stock.
“You might end up with an awful, terrible, smelly copy and not be happy,” she said.
Ringler, on the other hand, is committed to making people happy. She said the books she carries are selected with “passion and love,” and she hopes people will stop by this season to check out her offerings. For her most devoted customers, she even recently introduced Eastline Books T-shirts and bags.
At the Bookhouse, Novotny said shoppers will find a “wonderfully experienced staff that offers a personal touch that’s absent from Internet shopping. If someone is looking for a book to buy as a gift, her employees can offer suggestions. In addition to national best-sellers, The Book House offers a wide range of books of local interest. Novotny said that stocking local authors’ works is a “very natural and obvious relationship” since she’s a local bookstore.
She pointed out that money spent at The Bookstore helps the local economy, a point Hutchison echoed about shopping at Open Door. Both women are active in the community beyond just selling books; a couple of years ago, Novotny launched Staff Picks Press LLC, an independent publisher that draws on her employees’ years of reading and recommending books. Hutchison said she is frequently asked to donate to local charities and says yes more often than not.
“I feel it’s important to give back to the community,” she said.
Hutchison announced earlier this year that she’s retiring and looking for someone to buy Open Door. She’s headed the store for 20 years, and she’s certainly seen shopping habits change as the Internet has exploded. As she gears up for what could be her last holiday season, she encouraged people to shop local and enjoy the “whole different picture” they’ll find at independent bookstores.