In 2012, R. J. Julia Booksellers owner Roxanne Coady decided to sell the store she’d founded and built into one of the New England’s most beloved and respected independent bookstores. The inevitable ups and downs of owning a small business were wearing her down. It was time to move on.
“I was turning 65,” Coady said in a recent interview. “I thought, ‘This is exhausting.’ As great as it’s been and as satisfying as it’s been, it was time to put it in someone else’s hands.”
Fast-forward five years. Coady not only still owns R. J. Julia’s flagship Madison store, but also manages two more stores, including one that opened in May in downtown Middletown. What brought about her change of heart? Worries, she said, that a new owner would lack the knowhow to run the store and the realization she could delegate duties she didn’t like to her staff. Her employees rose to the occasion, she said, freeing her to focus on what she loves, finances and business strategy.
“Then it was fun again,” Coady said.
Another factor that led Coady to keep the store: Business got better, a reflection of the dramatic reversal in the fortunes of independent bookstores over the last decade. In 2007, it looked as though independent booksellers were going the way of record and video stores, done in by e-commerce and big-box behemoths. But a funny thing happened on the way to oblivion, said Dan Cullen, senior strategist for the American Booksellers Association, a trade group for independent booksellers.
In 2008, after sliding for a decade and a half to about 1,400, the number of owners began to rebound, reaching more than 1,750 this year, Cullen said.
Why the turnaround? Waning e-book sales — CNN reported recently that they fell 18 percent in the first part of 2016 — and a growing buy-local movement, according to Cullen. Just as important has been the innovation of owners, who have done everything from opening cafes to harnessing technology to holding special events to draw in customers. No one has done that better than Coady and R.J. Julia, Cullen said.
“Roxanne is a stellar example of a really good bookseller,” he said.
Big-box threat
R. J. Julia, Coady said, wasn’t hit as hard as some by Amazon and the big boxes — in her worst years she estimates sales were off 3 to 5 percent compared to 20 at some outlets. But she knew her business had to change to survive. Around 2008, Coady took what she called a “sabbatical” to plot a new strategy. She interviewed everyone she could, including the CEOs of all the major New York publishing houses, the president of Apple’s retail operation, the heads of Barnes & Noble and the now-defunct Borders and the owners of numerous independent bookstores. Her conclusion: R.J. Julia needed to build strong personal bonds with customers and the community.
“Amazon is brilliant at getting what you want when you know you want it,” Coady said. “But they’re not good at helping you discover a book or experience the world of books in a way that a bricks-and-mortar store can. They’re not interested in a conversation with you. And readers want that.”
Coady set out to foster that conversation. She improved training for her staff and did more data analysis. But her most important innovation was a website called “Just the Right Book,” an online “personal shopper” for books. Her efforts paid off; sales rebounded and grew, Coady said.
“I describe what we do at Just the Right Book as a human algorithm, “she said. “What we want to read changes over time. How’s Amazon going to know that?”
Running a successful small business requires constant reinvestment and readjustment, Coady said, and R. J. Julia has done just that in recent years, expanding to manage the BookHampton bookstore in East Hampton, N.Y. and most recently Wesleyan R. J. Julia Bookstore in Middletown. Coady is effusive in her praise of Wesleyan University, saying they have been outstanding partners. The store, she said, is thriving.
For all Coady’s business and marketing acumen, it is and always has been all about books. Her love of reading is what led her at the age of 40 to abandon a successful and lucrative career with a major New York City tax accounting firm and found a bookstore, a business she admits she knew nothing about at the time.
“I have a kind of fundamental belief that books can change a life,” she said.
“You learn to be compassionate. You learn to live in other people’s shoes. You are educated.“
Retirement? Coady will think about it again when she turns 70. “The time I stop loving what I’m doing, I’ll retire,” she said. “Right now, I still find it fun and exciting.”
Christopher Hoffman can be reached at news@newhavenbiz.com
