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To: Lizzie Tudor who wrote (40492)	2/16/1999 9:18:00 PM
From: Glenn D. Rudolph	Respond to of 164684

Calif. Bookstore Seeking Help .c The Associated Press By JORDAN LITE SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- Independent bookseller Patrice Wynne knew it was going to take a lot more than meditation to save her spiritually oriented bookstore when sales dipped for the first time in its 12 years. So Ms. Wynne is asking her customers to help save her Berkeley bookstore by making an investment that offers no material return. ''We do not want the books sold in Berkeley to be mediated by corporate chains, Barnes & Noble and Amazon.com,'' Ms. Wynne said. ''We're saying, 'You're a Main Street investor that has a social and cultural return on your investment by making a donation. It's a model of reciprocity.'' Using just $2,000, Ms. Wynne, who comes from a family of small-business owners, launched GAIA bookstore with her husband in 1987 and immediately began turning a profit. With its sunny, comfortable interior, GAIA eventually become one of the nation's largest spiritual bookstores with 250 author events annually, and took in a $63,000 profit in 1997. But GAIA, which the city of Berkeley has officially designated a cultural institution, will have to close at the end of March if Ms. Wynne can't raise the $300,000 needed to get out of debt, plus an additional $100,000 to keep running. Though she would not provide detailed figures, sales were down $200,000 in 1998 and she expects a significant loss. It started last year, as she watched her customers gravitate to the Internet. Each month sales were down 20 percent from the same time the year before. The red ink crested in November, with a 37 percent drop. She announced in December that she was shutting down, but within days an anonymous, longtime Berkeley resident stepped forward. The person offered to match up to $200,000 donated by other patrons. Ms. Wynne passed the word and the calls started coming in. As of Friday, GAIA had pulled in $45,000 in donations from as far away as New York and Ben & Jerry's Homemade Inc. in Vermont. About 10 writers have volunteered to match proceeds brought in by their readings at GAIA. ''We were just deluged with customers saying, 'What can we do to help keep you open?''' Ms. Wynne said recently while taking a break at an American Booksellers Association meeting in San Francisco. Avin Mark Domnitz, the chief executive of the ABA, said the only similar case he could think of was that of an anonymous donor who gave $1 million to a struggling South Carolina bookstore. And unlike other companies that looked to investors for help, Ms. Wynee isn't selling shares in GAIA. ''I think that this kind of expression of support from a community you may see more and more of as customers see the independent bookstore is threatened by outside bookstores,'' Domnitz said. ''The threats keep coming.'' Of the so-called ''bricks and mortar'' bookstores that captured about 50 percent of the market in the second quarter of 1998, more than half of sales were generated in four chain stores. Warehouse clubs like Costco and Kmart, which also offer big discounts, took another 49 percent, according to the ABA. And although online sellers currently have only a tiny 1 1/2 percent of the $12.3 billion retail book market, independent store owners believe they're making a significant dent. Even GAIA, part of which functions as a nonprofit community center, is developing a Web site that will allow its techno-savvy customers to buy online. Not everyone in the industry expects independent stores to stay alive by running a capital campaign. ''I think this is pretty much a one-of-a-kind occurrence. I can't see it happening very often,'' said Kevin Howell, an editor at trade magazine Publisher's Weekly. ''Maybe those customers are a little more loyal. It's very much a niche store as opposed to if it were just a general (interest).'' Wellington's, an independent bookstore in the technology-saturated Research Triangle Park area of North Carolina, was sold two years ago to 18 ''techies,'' stay-at-home moms and retirees concerned about the 40,000 square-foot Barnes & Noble against which the owner felt it would eventually become impossible to compete. Her prediction ultimately came true. With Borders and Bookstar stores also in an area populated by a wealth of online 25- to 34-year-olds, Wellington's closed its doors in Cary on Feb. 5. AP-NY-02-15-99 1637EST