By: Martha on 1/3/09
Oh, No! I love River City Books! Great selection and very helpful staff. This is just too sad:((((

By: northfieldseniors123 on 1/5/09
Not much of a loss. Just like Carleton itself -- the bookstore offered the point of view of hate-filled people like Franken. I guess soaking families for over $140,000 for four years isn't enough money?

By: northfielder on 1/5/09
northfieldseniors123, did someone at Carleton once steal your lollipop or something? It is amazing how many misconceptions you can show in two lines. Do you have any clue how many students at Carleton receive aid? How much their earning potential is increased by their education? Name me three hate-filled books in the bookstore. And whatever else the bookstore was, it was never meant to earn tons of money;'; i think carleton just hoped it would do better than break even it was clearly a gesture of connection with the community. Hatefilled: look in the mirror.

By: curious on 1/8/09
I will miss River City as well. Thanks to Carleton College for some good years! The other really sad thing about this is that now the entire building will be an unrented, vacant hole with boards on the windows in the middle of downtown. Based on the track record of getting the other side rented since Bagel Bros left (was that 4 years ago?) , both these spaces are likley to go empty for some time. Probably Forever? It would be interesting to see a breakdown of what downtown properties have gone unrented for how long over the last decade. Has the NDDC or the EDA ever undertaken such a project to try to help out our downtown business owners. Maybe building owners could figure out why their properties don't rent. Is it all location? Appearance? Usability inside? Rent? Personalities? Other? Is it that the owners aren't spending enough time or effort recruiting or looking for businesses? Why is it that nobody wants to rent these 2 beautiful, prime, downtown spaces when other spaces seem to be occupied most of the time? Any ideas?

By: Martha on 1/8/09
Curious,

I agree with you. THanks to Carlton and a great staff, it was a wonderful bookstore. I also am very sad that the entire building will be empty. I remember back in my childhood when that building housed The Dahl House (I think). It was 'the' place to shop, back then. It eventually closed and the building was boarded up. Hate to see that happen again. Too bad a bagel shop didn't survive their because that would be a good compliment to GBM across the street. Very sad.

By: curious on 1/8/09
Martha: Why do you think it's so hard to keep this space rented consistently, it seems like a good location?

By: tch on 1/8/09
Martha/Curious - Bagel Brothers, as a corporation, closed all operations several years ago. It's a shame that happened as I liked going in there for a bagel in the morning. Even more so since none of the other bagel companies have chosen to expand in to Northfield.

Yeah, seeing a building bo=arded up, especially downtown, is sad to see. There can be many factors why this happens, rent being one of them, property taxes on the building owner (which, in part, drives rent prices) is another.

I had not been in the River City Bookstore in several years, mainly because I could rarely find anything that I wanted to buy.

Book stores have a difficult time these days, especially when Amazon and other online book retailers can provide a much wider selection at better prices. Small retailers have to go the extra mile to stand out against goliath competition. And that is very challenging. Especially during economically tough times like we have now.

By: AnneBretts on 1/8/09
The hard reality is that rising costs require higher traffic volumes to produce the same profits. In a town as small as Northfield, opportunities to drive up traffic and build business are limited. Specialty foods, like bagels and waffles, have an even tougher time because their market is just a slice of the whole restaurant customer base.
Advertising is tough because the costs are high and there's no single venue that can reach everyone. The downtown is even more hampered by the lack of a cohesive web presence like malls have, promoting all stores and letting customers browse and explore new options without leaving their desk.
Online shopping can be competition, but Jerry Bilek has used online business as part of his overall plan. Even with his aggressive approach, it's tough to be a small retailer, small farmer, small web designer, small anything.
Of course, in this awful economy, big is no guarantee of success, either. It's just that the small businesses are our neighbors and we take it more personally.