Recent reports on the closure of the Barnes & Noble Bookstore in Kahala Mall paint it as a sad but inevitable sign of the times. This is misleading.
The popular store will close, but not because it isn’t doing a good business. It is. True, the parent corporation plans to close 30 percent of its stores across the country over the next decade, but the Kahala store was not one designated for early closure.
No, the store is leaving once its lease is up in January because the Kahala Mall management plans to put a Ross in its place.
There are currently 10 Ross stores on Oahu, six of which are in urban Honolulu, and three of them within five miles of the Kahala Mall.
The substitution by this 11th Ross store for Barnes & Noble will leave Hono-lulu, a city of more than 900,000 people, with only one real general bookstore, Barnes & Noble Ala Moana.
Honolulu will be poorer for this. People come to the Barnes & Noble Kahala Mall store from all over the island. It has become a true community center for book lovers, and has been a generous supporter of local educators, authors and publishers. Many schools have earned needed funds through events and book fairs at the store.
Even beyond disappointing regular users of the store, this loss of a major outlet for books will hurt Hawaii’s unique local book industry, as publishers will have to think about reducing the number of titles they publish and/or reducing their print runs.
Honolulu needs an entrepreneur to open a good-sized independent book- store, especially now. pundits who repeatedly lament the inevitable extinction of bookstores as a species need to get out in the country more. True, some wonderful old bookstores have failed, but many are thriving and new ones are starting up, especially when chain stores close. There is a demand.
Of course, people like the convenience of electronic devices and the cheap prices available when ordering online, but many (even some of the same people) also like to browse, handle and read real books, bought locally from real people. There will likely always be a mix of electronic and physical books, Internet and brick-and-mortar.
The independent bookstores that do thrive around the country understand and serve their communities.
A good example of this in Hawaii is Bookends in Kailua, a community gem. Remember how everyone thought it was curtains for that wonderful small store when Borders opened a Windward branch? Where is Borders now?
And what about Talk Story Bookstore, "the Westernmost Bookstore in the United States," nestled into the small town of Hanapepe on Kauai? It has a stock of 80,000 books, is the place to go on Friday nights, and continues to do well. Both of these stores carry a mix of new and used books, and that formula would probably also work well for a bigger store in Honolulu.
We need that store. It can be done. Is anyone game?
