The new Borders bookstore Uptown at St. Charles and Louisiana officially opens Monday, but its soft opening is today at 1 p.m.
[Update:] I almost wrote about how Borders might or might not fit into the Uptown bookstore community and what it’s impact might be when I wrote that announcement, but decided against it. Then I saw Noah Bonaparte Pais’ post on the subject at Gambit‘s blog. Saturday is “New Orleans Unchained,” which he explains is
an extension of America Unchained, a national campaign aiming to steer consumers toward the Octavia Books of the world rather than, say, Borders, which just happens to be holding its soft opening in the Garden District on (you guessed it) Saturday, Nov. 22.
It’s a ‘buy local’ initiative and the sort of thing I normally support. But the marginalization of Starbucks in New Orleans is instructive. Starbucks didn’t make the same inroads in New Orleans that it made in other cities because of any self-conscious ‘buy local’ movement. Rather than confront Starbucks on their terms and make a similar edge-of-burnt cup of coffee, PJ’s, CC’s and countless independent coffee shops in town offered something different – something that people couldn’t get at Starbucks, something that they liked better, and the local coffee shops have done just fine.
The Uptown bookstores that try to offer the same thing as Borders are going to suffer; those that figure out how to offer an alternative will do fine. That sounds a little Darwinistic, but New Orleans has long needed a bookstore that is independent in sensibility as well as operation, and if this helps someone evolve in that direction, so much the better. There’s no place in town like Pages in Toronto or St. Mark’s Bookshop in New York City – stores that reflect an aesthetic and carry books that a Borders doesn’t shelve.
Before we all worry that the sky’s going to fall on Garden District Books and Octavia Books, it’s also useful to remember that there was a lot of hand-wringing before Walmart opened on Tchoupitoulas as people stewed about how it would kill Magazine Street. Even the places that compete with it most directly – the groceries and Harry’s Ace Hardware – seem to be doing okay, or as well as anybody’s doing these days. All things being equal, I prefer local to chains, but if the locals are giving me chain bookstore-lite, then I might as well have the chain bookstore.
