Wednesday, February 20th 2008
Cody’s Books is back near campus
The East Bay Express has the story from today:
Cody’s Books is moving late next month to downtown Berkeley, where it will occupy the Shattuck Avenue/Allston Way corner formerly occupied by the Eddie Bauer store.
One wonders, what business changes will they be making?
“We are going to divest ourselves of the things that aren’t doing that great in the retail book world these days — computer books, for one. The something-for-everyone model is dead and gone,” she says. So the staff will, instead, “curate the sections that we feel the strongest about: history, politics, current affairs, and literature.” Cody’s will continue to carry children’s books, young adult literature, travel books, cookbooks, reference titles, and more, along with a new “Green World, Green Living” section.
The green world and green living section has to be a success. However the business climate in Berkeley has been brutal to Cody’s in the last few years. They closed their flagship store on Telegraph in 2006 and are being pushed out of their established Fourth Street location by higher rents. Combined with the recent closure of their short lived San Francisco store, things are not looking good for Cody’s.
There was a Barnes and Noble several blocks down Shattuck that closed last summer. While they were not as close to downtown as Cody’s will be, they had parking which is quite scarce. It would be nice if Cody’s could be prosperous, but I am not very optimistic.
