For Sarah Hairston and Theon Lee, finding a spot to relax at a local bookstore has been part of their year-plus-long relationship.
The two sat on a pair of cushioned chairs at Dream Palace Books & Coffee on a recent Wednesday afternoon, sipping coffee drinks from the cafe with a mix of pop and alternative rock music streaming from the store’s speakers.
They’re both excited to see a wave of independent bookstores opening in Indianapolis, with another still to come early next year. But they also have their doubts about whether the new bookstores — at least five in total — will be able to sustain themselves.
“I already know that probably about four of them are gonna close,” said Lee, 33.
That’s not an indictment of the bookstores or their ownership, Lee said, but it’s the trend he sees in Indianapolis with other indie ventures like venues and restaurants. That includes what Lee considered to be the best local vegan spot, Three Carrots, which closed in October.
When Dream Palace opened at the corner of 16th and Pennsylvania streets in early October, it became the third independent bookstore to enter Indianapolis this year, joining Tomorrow Bookstore and Loudmouth Books. It was a sudden leap for a city that hadn’t seen much change in the volume or variety of bookstores recently.
A fourth shop, Golden Hour Books, opened in mid-October. And a fifth, The Whispering Shelf, could open in March 2024, depending on permitting.
The owners are optimistic about their endurance. They point to the variety in their offerings and the fact that Indianapolis, a city of about 880,000 people, arguably hasn’t had a significant non-corporate bookstore presence beyond Indy Reads — the Fountain Square nonprofit that also runs literacy programs — and shops such as Irvington Vinyl & Books.
“I think that we were kind of dying of thirst before,” said Julia Breakey, who along with her husband owns Tomorrow Bookstore on Mass Ave. “And now it’s like here we can actually breathe again.”
Breakey and her husband, Jake Budler, sell mainly general interest titles in their bookstore in the Bottleworks District, but also carry works with global stories. The two are South African and came to Indianapolis in 2018.
Curious about the bookstore possibilities found in comparable cities, Breakey said they traveled to Cincinnati and discovered five stores in a 2 1/2-mile area downtown.
[New bookstores are giving Indianapolis readers a variety of selections. Here’s where to find them.]
Breakey also cited a 2020 working paper from Harvard Business School that, using data from the American Booksellers Association, found a 49% national growth in the number of independent booksellers from 2009-18.
“Bookstores are doing well nationally,” Breakey said, “and Indy was well behind that.”
Sara Gelston Somers, who co-owns Golden Hour Books with her husband, Max Somers, said independent bookstore owners don’t tend to be competitive anyway.
Their two-room store, located in the Meridian-Kessler neighborhood on College Avenue, has a general interest selection displayed on shelves that line the walls and display tables in the center. The children’s section also contains a fun seating area in the corner and a mural on the wall.
So far, the emergence of numerous indie bookstores hasn’t slowed sales volume for Golden Hour, but maybe that’s because the shop is still in its honeymoon phase, Max Somers said.
Since opening in October, the store’s daily sales have quadrupled the owners’ goal.
Taylor Lewandowski, who co-owns Dream Palace with his father and grandfather, said it was a coincidence that the bookstores opened around the same time but thinks each store found a niche to avoid too much overlap.
“I think we’re all doing something different,” said Lewandowski, who also teaches freshman English at Herron High School across the street from the store. “If we’re all smart about it, it should build off of each other rather than it being a competition.”
Also working in Dream Palace’s favor is the cafe that doubles as an event space.
That’s the kind of thing that could draw Sampson Getachew to more bookstores.
Getachew, a 42-year-old business intelligence analyst, said he visits libraries but didn’t realize new bookstores were opening.
“I always relate bookstores to college days,” he said as he worked at his laptop in Dream Palace’s cafe.
That location is what sociologists call a third space, or a place separate from home and work where people can enjoy themselves and build relationships.
Giving people a third space is one of the reasons Lena Burt is opening The Whispering Shelf next year in Lockerbie Square.
“I just think we deserve that,” Burt said. “We deserve human interaction. We’re social.”
The Whispering Shelf will be a general interest shop with new and used books, Burt said, and it will have a children’s section. A rendering also shows plants and outdoor seating.
The real competition, Burt said, doesn’t come from other independent bookstores, but rather the convenience offered in abundance by big online sellers such as Amazon.
“My hope,” she said, “is that we all can meet our bottom lines and we can continue to exist.”
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