When Ruebén Martinez set up his bookshop (Libreria Martinez Books and Art Gallery) in an old Santa Ana (CA) furniture store a decade ago, he bargained the landlord down to half-price rent, saying he sold books, not diamonds.
But despite its renown as one of the nation’s largest Latino-themed bookstores, Librería Martinez, owned by the barber-turned-MacArthur Foundation “genius grant” winner, may be forced to close by year’s end. LA Times reports.
No online store??
I visited their website; I was a little shocked they don’t have an online store where it’s possible to order books from them. If they had a stronger online presence, they could do some marketing out-of-state, like in Texas, Florida, or other places with large & growing Hispanic populations. I don’t necessarily think Amazon does all that great of a job in marketing to Spanish language readers, for example. Libraries probably wouldn’t need to buy from Mr. Martinez, as they’d go to the same publishers directly that he uses to supply his store. But I think he could make a good return on investment with an online store and lure in out-of-state money beyond California’s borders. He may not have the financial reserves to do that, or might have to go deep into debt, but that’s the best way I see that he could turn things around, maybe. Good luck to him in any case.