By Ben Joravsky
As successful as she’s been, Rubin’s not sure there’s still a place in today’s market for a woman like her, who spent most of her 20s and 30s raising her four children. She got her start in the 1970s, when she took a part-time job at a bookstore in Glencoe. By 1982 she owned her own store. “I’m not saying it was easy. It’s always been a fragile existence with stores going in and out of business, but the market was fairer when I started,” she says. “I didn’t know much about the business, but I loved books and I knew the community. When I look back, it seems like another era. It was almost quaint. God forbid you should be open on Sunday. Bookstore owners worked gentlemanly hours. In our case we were a carriage-trade bookstore, meaning we catered to lifestyle books, cookbooks, travel books, and lots of hardcover fiction. That was our niche.”
Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites »
According to Rubin, the big chains can steer authors away from book signings at her store. And the chains have other advantages. “I had an arrangement with [north suburban public libraries] to sell books at their literary events featuring big-name authors. But this year I didn’t get a call. Finally I called the director of the series and said, ‘What’s happening?’ The director said, ‘I have to tell you, Roberta, Barnes & Noble came in and gave us a chunk of money, gave us 50 percent off the books.’ Now there’s no way Barnes can make money on that deal, but they’re making a statement–‘We’re taking over.’”
Nonetheless, not all book buyers are sympathetic to Rubin’s concerns. “I have never understood why I’m supposed to feel so sorry for the small independents,” says Freddy Kay, one of several Chicagoans interviewed for this article. “I used to get fund-raising letters from the Guild [a former bookstore on Lincoln Avenue]. What? If you can’t attract customers to stay in business, should you be in business?
Art accompanying story in printed newspaper (not available in this archive): Roberta Rubin photo by Bruce Powell.
