Steve's Sundry is closing at the end of the year

[dbacksfan 2.0]

I call BS on that. Most of the books in Steve's are local interest more than anything and can't be found any cheaper online. Nothing is stopping them from offering their inventory online either, whether through their own site (which looks to be designed by a 4 year old), on Amazon, or eBay. They would do well to expand their magazine selection and their eating area, both of which are cash cows. Heck - they could do a few magazine carts downtown and make a killing. It sounds more than anything that now Steve is gone they just don't want to run the business no matter what kind of money it makes. The "economic climate" and "internet" wah-wah excuses are crap - they could have just said "now that Steve is gone, the heart is too".

Well thank you Mr. Helper. Why don't you go down and tell them that their economic model is wrong, and that if they change it and expand, and invest in a web presence as well as newsstands downtown, that their risk of capital on a potential negative investment will work? Maybe it's true that their heart is not in it anymore, and the cost of expansion exceeds the initial return, and that with the market they are in is already crowded with web presence?

[Conan71]

Well thank you Mr. Helper. Why don't you go down and tell them that their economic model is wrong, and that if they change it and expand, and invest in a web presence as well as newsstands downtown, that their risk of capital on a potential negative investment will work? Maybe it's true that their heart is not in it anymore, and the cost of expansion exceeds the initial return, and that with the market they are in is already crowded with web presence?

Actually, tulsabug isn't far off the mark.  About 1/3 of the store space is taken up with novels and items you can get on line.  The rest is counter space, magazines, and the local interest book section really isn't a dominant part of the store.  It would have been easy with any sort of rudimentary inventory program to figure out what your slow turn items are and gradually phase them out.  Cull that stuff from the store, get rid of a bunch of bookshelves and put in some tables, expand lunch counter offerings, put in a coffee/espresso bar.  We overheard the owner the other day telling someone that the decline started eight years ago when Steve was still alive.  They had looked at different things they could do but "it just wouldn't make a difference".  In other words, instead of gradually changing and modifying their business model to stay relevant and profitable, they simply kept doing the same thing that was going to have this inevitable conclusion.

It's not like a change in business model was a foreign concept to them.  It had been essentially a convenience store with a working soda fountain and grill from the 1940's until the late 1970's when they made the change to more of a news stand and cut back on food offerings.  That made sense with the expansion of C-stores all over town as well as their advantage in selling gas about that time.  Certainly Quik Trip isn't operating on the same business model they were in 1979.  Successful businesses are constantly looking at deficiencies and strengths and making gradual changes to keep up with consumer demands and tastes.

[dbacksfan 2.0]

Sorry, it was late, had a Sam Kinison from "Back To School" moment. From reading your post it seems that even though they saw the change in the market place they chose the status quo, and you would think that they had some form of inventory control, and they just chose to ignore the facts. I personally don't like to see businesses close, and I spend as much money "local" as I can. It sounds like overall they just did not have their hearts in it anymore. Do you think placing "news stands" downtown would have helped? I think those type places, and I have noticed the same in airports, that they are getting killed by tablet/kindall/ipad, especially now that airlines are offering free wifi during flights. (No longer need to stick your hand in the cesspool pouch in the seatback in front of you)

[DTowner]

I don't know about the current owner's "heart," but I'm not sure tweaking the business model or making a sizeable capital investment to create a more "coffee house" vibe would've made of a difference.  Steve's does have a great selection of local interest materials, but the problem with that is the demand for such items is limited to, well, only the locals.  And more and more locals have migrated their book buying from paper to downloads for their Kindles, iPads and other tablets.  Steve's is hardly an isolated case - they are part of the sad and inescapable trend of the disappearing independent book store.  Blaming the owner for its closure seems harsh and ignores what a difficult retail environment it was facing.

[SXSW]

Tattered Cover in Denver survives and thrives in large part due to its cafe/coffee shop.  It's a place people can order coffee and food while reading books/magazines and getting work done on laptops through free wifi and plentiful tables/chairs.  They also lots of events throughout the week that draw customers.  While Denver is a much larger market I think something similar would work in Tulsa, especially with existing pedestrian traffic (like Utica Square).

[BKDotCom]

Steve's does have a great selection of local interest materials, but the problem with that is the demand for such items is limited to, well, only the locals.

Don't forget all the tourists!
But seriously, name a local store that sells to non-locals.
Does anyone from OKC drive to Tulsa to buy a book or drink a coffee??

[Conan71]

I don't know about the current owner's "heart," but I'm not sure tweaking the business model or making a sizeable capital investment to create a more "coffee house" vibe would've made of a difference.  Steve's does have a great selection of local interest materials, but the problem with that is the demand for such items is limited to, well, only the locals.  And more and more locals have migrated their book buying from paper to downloads for their Kindles, iPads and other tablets.  Steve's is hardly an isolated case - they are part of the sad and inescapable trend of the disappearing independent book store.  Blaming the owner for its closure seems harsh and ignores what a difficult retail environment it was facing.

"Excuses are what losers are making while winners are making plans". Conanism

Business owners can't control what consumers want, but they can make every attempt to pay attention to trends and supply what consumers do want. 

Aside from that, if you take a look at the Oklahoma-centric books which are sold at Steve's, most are pretty heavy with photos which gives them a certain quality you don't get with an e-book.  There's still a great market for coffee-table or display books for waiting rooms, or simply for gift-giving.  Many local interest books, regardless of state or city aren't published electronically either. 

Granted, I'm not the one behind the cash register or accounting ledger at this particular establishment.  I consider myself an "average" consumer and that's served me well for the last 30 years of my career in sales and marketing. 

[Hoss]

"Excuses are what losers are making while winners are making plans". Conanism

Business owners can't control what consumers want, but they can make every attempt to pay attention to trends and supply what consumers do want. 

Aside from that, if you take a look at the Oklahoma-centric books which are sold at Steve's, most are pretty heavy with photos which gives them a certain quality you don't get with an e-book.  There's still a great market for coffee-table or display books for waiting rooms, or simply for gift-giving.  Many local interest books, regardless of state or city aren't published electronically either. 

Granted, I'm not the one behind the cash register or accounting ledger at this particular establishment.  I consider myself an "average" consumer and that's served me well for the last 30 years of my career in sales and marketing. 

I will say this much.  At my current place of employment, the higher-ups do a lot of listening to the middle people and those people listen to the lower people to move in on trends.  For those of you who know where I currently work, you understand that this company was pretty much a print only publisher and in the last five years or so they latched on to digital media.  So much so now that the CEO has told those last 'hangers on' of the print media wave to either convert or get out.  Our revenue increase last year was pretty substantial, especially in the mobile market.

I do know that if you don't publish an electronic alternative to ANY print medium right now, you're losing out on a huge revenue base.

[tulsabug]

Wow! Didn't mean to get something going!

Again, this means less than nothing because obviously they don't want to stay in business, but if they did (and I am certainly echoing a lot of what has already been said in this thread):
1) Never try to sell bestsellers. I've run a Waldenbooks and even before the internets there was no money in them (we always sold them at cost - sometimes less). Plus, these are what people buy for the Kindles but...
2) Coffee-table books always have a market as they don't translate to the e-book form. They are high-profit and many times can be bought for cheap from the publishers when they aren't popular. At Walden's they would buy them for less than a dollar and sell them for $5-$10 each and people snatched them up like free beer.
3) Magazines are always high profit for one important reason - you only pay for what you sell. No inventory cost plus no tax on periodicals in Oklahoma makes for less paperwork. Paying someone $10 an hour to have a cart of the top 50 selling magazines near the BOK Tower will translate into lots of profit. Heck - if it rains and the magazines get soaked you can still return them for full credit! And since e-books aren't the best on the toilet - magazines and newspapers will always have a market of sorts. In our store right now, we carry one magazine (it's the only one left in our market). Steve's used to sell it too but they stopped. So our sales on them tripled. Sure - it's not crazy amounts, but 15 copies a month certainly pays for the little space they take up - sounds like Steve's accidentally cut some good sellers.
4) Food is also always high-profit. They already have a kitchen in place - easy to expand it. If they strayed away from it because of convenience stores, they should notice those stores are really pushing sandwiches and coffee more than ever. If QT is doing it, there has to be good money in it (plus they know they can't sell only gas forever but that's another story). Of course, they should rethink their menu. Two sizes of milk? Three sizes of pop all within 50 cents between them? "Canned Diet Drinks" for $1.95? And why are all the sandwiches 5.50 and 5.75 and 4.25? Make everything 5.95 and 4.95 - no one will notice and your profit jumps.
5) Steve's doesn't have to make any investment in a website - they can simply sell their stuff through Amazon. Cheap to do and the customers are already there. No to mention, Amazon really doesn't care about local interest stuff - when they do it's at full retail so it's not really competition. Honestly - they can set-up and have their whole local interest inventory online tomorrow.
6) Do they even have a computerized inventory program? I don't recall seeing one there but it has been a year since I've been in there. Chances are they don't have a clue whats selling or not - sounds like a seat-of-the-pants retail strategy.

Retail is never easy no matter what you sell, no matter what the economy is like. Blaming the economy or the internets is just a cop-out. Everyone else out there is in the same economy and everyone has the opportunity to sell online - it's a pretty level playing field, just don't compete against the big-boys directly and you'll be fine.

I'm sorry to see them go but it's tough to save someone from themselves.

[guido911]

Get to the leftovers.

http://www.tulsaworld.com/business/retail/steve-s-sundry-sells-last-merchandise-fixtures-as-iconic-tulsa/article_e9ca553a-700c-11e3-bde9-001a4bcf6878.html

[Conan71]

There was talk of someone stepping in to save the place, apparently that didn't materialize.  I really don't see it would have taken that much expense to have changed their business model to make it profitable again, they simply weren't open to a different paradigm.  Something along the lines of: "We've thought of ways to improve the business, but there aren't enough eggs to make all the egg salad sandwiches we'd need to make".

If they thought egg salad sandwiches were their best offering, it's no wonder they are closing.

[sauerkraut]

The store did have a nice old time feeling  about it inside. Time marches on I guess.

[heironymouspasparagus]

Don't forget all the tourists!
But seriously, name a local store that sells to non-locals.
Does anyone from OKC drive to Tulsa to buy a book or drink a coffee??

I drive to Norman on occasion to go to Hasting's book store.  But am in OKC when I do that....

Won't usually drive that far for bookstore, but will go almost that far for food/restaurant.  There's a little convenience store in Oologah that does a pretty good job of frying chicken gizzards!  Worth the drive!  Always like to get the "Bucket-of-Guts" dinner, when available!

[TheArtist]

Don't forget all the tourists!
But seriously, name a local store that sells to non-locals.
Does anyone from OKC drive to Tulsa to buy a book or drink a coffee??

We get a large number of tourists/visitors to the DECOPOLIS downtown and a lot of them love purchasing something art deco/ route 66/ Tulsa related for themselves or to take back to family and friends.  We get a lot of people in our shop who are staying at the local hotels and wandering around downtown looking for something to do, places to eat and shop.  Is one reason we are increasing our offerings of Tulsa books, cards, prints, magnets, etc. etc.