Literary brouhaha in Elk Grove: Is there room for Barnes & Noble and this independent bookstore?
The setting on a recent Saturday was the community under a roof that owners Emily and Ryan Autenreith envisioned when they opened their Elk Grove bookstore, A Seat at the Table, nearly two years ago.
The independent bookseller tucked into an Elk Grove retail center on Laguna Springs Drive was a mix of adults and children browsing through the volumes and new entries; gathering in small groups at a couple of the store’s meeting tables, waiting for snacks and the coffee steaming from whirring machines behind the counter. Titles from LGBTQ, Black and Latino authors speak to the store’s mission of inclusivity.
“We didn’t do it for profit, but to create a community space,” Ryan Autenreith, the store’s co-owner with wife, Emily, said, sitting down to a table by the storefront’s window on Saturday. Indeed, small pop-up business owners share space at the store to sell their wares. On a recent weekend, the space hosted a children’s music recital. Several small business owners spoke in support of the bookstore at a recent city council meeting.
The Autenreiths have built a devoted following and have attracted attention and accolades from Elk Grove and business groups. Both Elk Grove and Cosumnes Community Services District named A Seat at the Table a 2022 Rookie Business of the Year.
The couple says that momentum and their independent bookstore’s livelihood will be threatened if rumored plans for a Barnes & Noble Booksellers materialize a few miles to the west at The Ridge shopping center on Elk Grove Boulevard and Bruceville Road.
Retailers across the city, Costco, Target, Dollar Tree, sell new and recent titles. Beloved used bookstore Almost Perfect on Elk Grove Boulevard in east Elk Grove closed its doors in the last couple of years.
Barnes & Noble, however, would be the first big-name bookstore in years to come to Elk Grove. Borders Books & Music, defunct for more than a decade, was the city’s last corporate bookseller, replaced at Laguna Crossroads shopping center by a Designer Shoe Warehouse.
No deal for Barnes & Noble in Elk Grove
But if the battle is being framed as Big Book vs. little guy, Pappas Investments, property manager of The Ridge, maintains it’s news to them, calling the speculation unconfirmed and its ensuing flood of emails a “frenzy.”
“We have been receiving multiple emails a day from citizens for and against a Barnes & Noble,” said Kelly Rule, a Pappas senior vice president, via email. “It is interesting how this idea has spread without confirmation and is causing a frenzy. We do not have a signed lease with Barnes & Noble nor are we in negotiations with them at The Ridge currently.”
Barnes & Noble recently closed its Natomas location, but does remains interested in Sacramento’s market including in Elk Grove, Janine Flanigan, the company’s director of store planning and design, said in late February
“We do not at this time have any (sites) confirmed, but we are actively looking in the greater Sacramento area,” Flanigan said. “We have looked in Elk Grove and we’re absolutely looking in the Sacramento area.”
Barnes & Noble is a behemoth in the bookselling world, having gobbled up erstwhile competitors B. Dalton, Borders and Waldenbooks along the way: 600 bookstores in 50 states; more than 190 million physical books sold between store shelves and online; the nation’s largest magazine retailer. Its store cafes even bake 5.4 million cookies each year.
Proactive to some, ‘bullying tactics’ to others
In contrast, independent booksellers like the Autenreiths are a rare breed. Independent booksellers had 2,023 locations across the U.S. in 2022, though their number have increased by some 300 in the last couple of years.
The bookstore’s owners and their acolytes say they are being proactive — some may say preemptive — sending emails and, as in February, getting in front of city officials to plead their case.
“Elk Grove won’t lose anything substantial without a Barnes & Noble, but if A Seat at the Table closed, it would negatively impact our community and especially its marginalized residents in a big way,” Emily Autenreith told Elk Grove City Council members in early February. “We’re not just a business, we’re an Elk Grove family that has put everything we have into this business: our savings, our time, our children’s memories, everything. If Barnes & Noble are in town, it won’t be a question of if we fail, but when.”
But some like Randy Bekker of Elk Grove frown at the strategy, calling it “bullying tactics” against a business that may or may not come to Elk Grove. He is active in the bookstore debate on NextDoor and other neighborhood social media platforms. The hot topic: whether Elk Grove, at nearly 180,000 people, will continue to support a local mom-and-pop and shop at a newer, bigger competitor.
“No small business (in a city) the size of Elk Grove can serve a community our size with no other options to go to. This is why citizens are going to other bookstores outside the area or buying online,” Bekker said. “I can tell you citizens on many community posts have overwhelming support for (Barnes & Noble) to come to Elk Grove but also a large number of citizens would support both bookstores,” Bekker continued.
The Autenreiths say they are still working to make their young business sustainable.
“We’re only at the start of our second year in business as a brick-and-mortar,” Autenreith said. “The deeper message is about supporting local (businesses). We hope Elk Grove over the years shows that small businesses can survive and thrive.”
This story was originally published March 8, 2023 at 5:00 AM.
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