The Cupertino Courier
News
A bookstore does grow in Cupertino
By Crystal Lu
During the recent city council campaign, one of the issues candidates brought up was "to bring bookstores to Cupertino."
While there are no large chain bookstores such as Borders or Barnes & Noble in Cupertino, the city does have two Chinese-language bookstores and a new mainstream bookstore on Homestead Road near De Anza Boulevard.
Crown Books opened Sept. 9 in the old location of Michael's after the craft store moved to a bigger space in the same strip mall. Since then the bookstore has been drawing shoppers who didn't know it existed until seeing it on their way to PW Market.
"We don't do a lot of advertising because of the cost," says Jean Dolan, supervisor of Crown Books' Cupertino store. "This is a discount bookstore."
All the children's books are half-priced and many books are under $5 at Crown Books, which buys remainders and overstock in bulk from publishers at largely reduced prices and passes on bargains to customers.
With low pricing, Crown Books believes it has found its niche in the book market.
"We'll still continue to do the same things we're doing if [the big chains] ever come to Cupertino," says Dolan.
"Our books are cheaper than their coffee," says Ward Albright, owner of the Crown Books chain, which has 11 stores in California.
According to Albright, the original Crown Books chain, which was once popular, went bankrupt and sold its name to Andy Wiest, owner of ANS Bargain Stores, in 2001. Then in 2005, Albright purchased the right to share the name with Wiest, who still uses it to run another chain of four discount bookstores in Southern California.
According to Jason Goldstein, salesclerk at Crown Books in Cupertino, half-priced calendars are among the best selling items at the store.
Crown Books doesn't get new releases or best sellers until six or seven months after they hit the market. However, it offers certain items other bookstores don't carry, such as older books and old-style flash cards for children to learn adding and subtraction. The special items and low prices attract customers from outside of Cupertino.
Susie Waits, a Sunnyvale resident, is a regular customer who buys books for her 6-year-old grandson Eoin.
Eoin loved We Look, a beginning reader's book Waits found at Crown Books. The youngster brought the 18-page picture book to school and read it to his classmates.
"He was so excited about being able to read the whole book," says Waits, who is looking for other books in the series.
Crown Books doesn't have a computer system to search stock for customers.
"This is a place for browsing," says Dolan. "It's like a treasure hunt to look for books here."
Freddy Garcia, a Santa Clara resident who often drops by before going to the adjacent PW Market, says he doesn't really like the "warehouse look" of the bookstore "but prices are good."
In contrast, Roland Dow, a Los Altos resident, enjoys the old-fashioned atmosphere of Crown Books.
"There are too few bookstores, too few independents. It seems only big businesses can make it now," says Dow. "We need more mom-and-pop stores that have roots in the community and give you a sense of attachment."
For more information about Crown Books, call 408.446.0958.
