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| 5/17 |
| 2006/5/12-17 [Politics/Domestic/California] UID:43033 Activity:nil |
5/11 Cody's on Telegraph to close:
http://csua.org/u/fu2
\_ "Down the block at equally venerated Moe's Books, bookseller Dave
Yetter said sales have been down throughout the area. He blamed
Berkeley city officials for neglecting Telegraph and instead
focusing their efforts on other shopping corridors such as
Shattuck Avenue in the downtown area."
-- Wow, so downtown Shattuck is what happens when the city
council tries to improve an area? What a bunch of losers.
If you ask the cops and business owners in Berkeley, they
all *hate* the city council. Even more liberal business
owners who are more interested in quality goods and services
than profits hate them.
\_ Vote. Get others to vote.
\_ What it comes down to is that I can buy a text for $32 (including
shipping) on the Internet or for $51 at Cody's. Yes,
brick-and-mortar bookstores are great for browsing, but as
a student with an assigned (required) text I don't need to
browse. I just want my book for cheap. I imagine the main
reason Cody's is closing isn't lack of demand, but a refusal
to be competitive with Border's/B&N let alone the Internet.
\_ yeah, if they just sold their books for $19 less each,
they'd be in much better shape! -tom
\_ Imagine how well off they'd be if they'd just charged
$100 more for each book!
\_ Maybe they would? The main thing when I was there was
the B&M shops deal in used books. You already get
screwed on taxes with B&M, if they can't even compete
on the base price then they deserve to be gone.
\_ Retail stores will never be able to compete on
price with national mail-order. The world will
be a poorer place if places like Cody's all go
away. -tom
\_ Which is why I have a simple rule. If I use
a B&M store to browse and discover what thing
I want to buy (salespeople's recs/looking at what
is available/etc) I buy that item at the B&M store.
Amazon is one of the few internet stores out there
that has done a good job at fullfilling those needs.
Hell there are things I research on Amazon that I
end up buying offline (cause I need it that day or
whatever.)
\_ if you are also the previous poster, you
have an internally inconsistent world view. -tom
\_ nope not pp
\_ They serve three purposes as far as I can see.
1) stock for when you need it "now"
2) being able to browse
3) convenient used market (although, I guess this
too is now done on amazon and ebay, but you can't
really examine those items etc.)
Cody's was right next to another store anyway and
IIRC wasn't usually cheapest. Maybe if they had one
larger store with a cafe inside etc. they could
stay in business. Anyway, for browsing, libraries
are good things. Maybe there should be more budget
for that. In any case I don't feel obligated to
do charity work for struggling bookstores.
\_ and you think the world is a better place
without Cody's?
\_ Personally, I don't care whether it exists or
not. Give me a reason to care. Maybe something
else will occupy its space that is better
overall? Maybe you think we should pay taxes
to support Cody's? Or what?
\_ A reason to care is that it was a place
with a good selection of books, arranged
for browsing, with a knowledgeable staff
and a pleasant environment. Telegraph
Ave. is lesser for its loss. It's another
example of how the "free" market often
has undesirable end effects. -tom
\_ You know, I think I've been thinking
Cody's was actually another store. I
think I may never have even gone into
Cody's. The problem with Telegraph was
how it became a trashy hobo zone. My
folks told me they used to go there from
the south bay decades ago. When I was at
Cal I didn't really enjoy Telegraph.
Roaches were crawling on the walls in
that Blue Nile restaurant and there were
always bums accosting you. And you
couldn't park, and the parking meters got
sawed off, and the store windows were
getting broken overnight, and somebody
got murdered around Dwight or something.
Whatever.
\_ Oh my god. THANK you for articulating
this so well. A lot of my friends
who went to Berkeley said they loved
it because its suckiness built
character and made them tough. They
loved the bums and the trash and the
the murders. My take has always been
that the whole city was a total
waste of tax payer's money. The best
public school in the world should
not have to be placed in such a
trashy town. As for the people who
think I'm a traitor or just hate
me because I have nothing good to say
about Berkeley-- I don't need to
conform with anyone's opinion and
you can go fuck yourself. WHATEVER.
\- the authors that would come on tour
and gives talks/readings at codys
was the main benefit i think. and a
good example of the free mkt. otherwise
i dont think this is really much of an
evidence of mkt failure. --psb
\_ I'm sorry but you're WRONG. Free market
and less government improves people's
lifestyle. Case in point, it allows
people to work less while giving more
freedom to many others:
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/story?id=1955256&page=1
Go Free Market! -Reagan's #1 fan
\_ I have never seen the price discrepancy so large (but,
disclaimer: I usually shop on amazon and never buy used or
third-world paperback editions online.) Usually, the price
difference is 5-10 bucks on expensive items before shipping and
quite often it's worth it for me to just pick the book at the
store instead of waiting for days for it to be delivered. Of
course, the presure of the online competition is still
undeniable. I buy most books online now.
\_ Well, that was a real world example for a book I bought.
I realize Cody's cannot compete on price, but to be
honest such a large subsidy isn't worth it. I like the
idea someone suggested about adding a cafe or something.
It's like the gas stations adding mini-marts. The
problem is that Berkeley is saturated with cafes. I will
miss Cody's, but I still wouldn't buy a book there for
$50 when I can get it (new) for $30.
\_ I hope all you Amazon shoppers and shareholders are happy... |
| 5/17 |
|
| csua.org/u/fu2 -> sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2006/05/10/MNGAQIOVET1.DTL Email This Article Cody's Books, the venerable independent bookstore that has served generations of UC Berkeley students, has announced that it will close its flagship store on the south side of campus because of declining sales and competition from chain stores and the Internet. The store, on Telegraph Avenue, will close its doors on July 10 after 43 years. "We have lost over $1 million attempting to keep the store open,'' said owner Andy Ross. "We leave Telegraph with great sadness but with a sense of honor that we have served our customers and community with distinction,'' Ross said. Cody's two other, smaller stores -- on Fourth Street in Berkeley and on Stockton Street in San Francisco -- will remain open. Berkeley Mayor Tom Bates said he was "saddened but not surprised'' by the closure. It was 50 years ago when Pat and Fred Cody opened a small bookstore on the north side of campus. In the early '60s, the store moved to its much larger, current location at Telegraph Avenue and Haste Street. The next year, it served as a first-aid station when anti-war protesters were teargassed and clubbed just outside its doors. The author gave the bookstore five minutes' notice to announce that he was in the store and would sign books. "There's a hole above the information desk from the bombing. It also built a comprehensive section of computer and math books and a wide variety of new fiction, gay titles and academic critical studies. Andy Ross bought the store from the Codys six years earlier. "People in Berkeley are very conservative about some things," Ross said. Ten years ago, when the store was honored with Cody's Day by the city of Berkeley for 40 years of service, Ross expressed fears about being squeezed by large chain stores. "Many of our customers found other sources for their books -- particularly the scholarly and academic titles that have always been our specialty," Ross said. At Cody's on Tuesday evening, the store appeared to be sparsely populated, and customers said they were saddened by the news. Isaac Israel, who was sitting on a bench perusing physics books, said he was "very unhappy." Israel received his doctorate from UC Berkeley in 1994 and said he had bought about a quarter of his 2,500 books from the store. He said he stops by the store five times a week to browse. Down the block at equally venerated Moe's Books, bookseller Dave Yetter said sales have been down throughout the area. He blamed Berkeley city officials for neglecting Telegraph and instead focusing their efforts on other shopping corridors such as Shattuck Avenue in the downtown area. "The Berkeley City Council left Telegraph to go to seed with a lack of upkeep and lack of interest," Yetter said. Shawn Misaghi, who has operated a flower stand outside Cody's for 18 years, said the area can be unsafe and parking can be hard to find. The Cody's announcement came a week after another large independent bookstore -- A Clean Well-Lighted Place for Books on Van Ness Avenue in San Francisco -- went up for sale. |
| abcnews.go.com/Politics/story?id=1955256&page=1 May 12, 2006 -- Members of Congress know the Washington-area airports very well. Most members use them twice a week, arriving for work late Tuesday and scurrying back to their home states on Thursday. Congress is on schedule to meet fewer days this year than any Congress since 1948 -- the year President Harry Truman campaigned against what he called the "do-nothing Congress." "That means you get here Tuesday night, you have a few easy votes, you vote on Wednesday and then you go back home Thursday afternoon. And that, believe it or not, is considered a work week in Washington." Rank-and-file members of Congress earn $165,200 a year, and this year for the first time they took off for a St. Gene Green, D-Texas, said voters wonder why he spends so much time in Houston instead of Washington. "I've been hearing from people saying they see me more than they do their city council member," Green said. He said that is one reason Congress is held in low esteem, adding, "poll numbers for Congress are dismally low, in fact lower than the president's." A recent Associated Press poll found that only 25 percent of the country approves of the job Congress is doing. "What first caught my attention was seeing that the House was going to take the entire month of January off and then be here basically three days in February," Congress-watcher Norm Ornstein from the American Enterprise Institute said. He added, "It's stunning to see how much time off there is, how little time is being spent in Washington doing any of the people's business." Even members from Hawaii jet home for long weekends, unthinkable not so long ago. Under both Democratic and Republican leadership, the work schedule has gradually decreased: In the '60s and '70s, Congress met on average 162 days a year; "For those who really believe in limited government, then there's virtue in being away from Washington," said Rep. A lot of what we do and a lot of the disdain people have for Washington is because we do too much, not too little." Flake broke into a hearty laugh when he said, "I still believe that if people understood exactly what we do here, they'd probably demand we take more time off." But even the conservative Flake said Congress has failed to spend the time needed for oversight of federal agencies. He worries that in the rush to get out of town each week, Congress does not pay enough attention to how the government spends the taxpayers' money. |