Before I go into the dynamics of why it is shutting its doors, I want to tell you what Barnett’s means to me. Midge Gray and her former husband Tommy Easterling bought Barnett’s in 1972. Around that same time, they hired my dad as their accountant, so I’ve grown up around the place. I can remember stopping by and walking around on Saturday mornings before or after having breakfast with my dad at the Grill. As a boy, the place was a pantheon of information. I would always gravitate to the middle aisle and pick up a Sports Illustrated and read of the exploits of my hero, Mike Schmidt or read the Georgia Football media guide. Behind me was a world of paperback books, some crisp and new while others had the yellowed pages from years of shelf life. Up at the front, dad would be talking to Midge while I perused the candy aisle and wondered what was behind that wall of cigars that was “Adults Only.”By the time I was in high school, Barnett’s became a place of employment. My job was a simple, four-part process:
- Empty the 20 or so crates of new magazines
- Place them on the rack
- Remove the old issue from the shelf
- Count the old issues and put them back in the crate
This happened twice a week, once on Monday for the weekly publications and again on Thursday for the others. That is when I got to know Carl Smith. Carl was a unique man. My first day there, I got my education on the “Adults Only” section. It was simple. “Bryan, we do not judge people based on what they buy,” he said” “As long as they are old enough to purchase it, everything is for sale. Just don’t let people linger back there too long…” That’s what I liked about Carl, he didn’t judge people by what they bought, one man’s money was just as good as the next. I chuckle when I think of all the guys that would come up with a Barely Legal sandwiched between a Newsweek and GQ, like we wouldn’t notice. Carl didn’t care though; he’d just take their cash, say a nice word and slip their bounty into a paper bag. Barnett’s may close on May 18, but it lost its soul two years ago when Carl died.
Once I moved up to work behind the counter, I saw the richness of downtown Athens. Monday mornings would bring in the businesspeople of Athens, buying their Banner-Herald, AJC, New York Times or Wall Street Journal. As the day wore on, we’d get students trickling in (always leaving their bag at the door, just as the sign said) buying the now obsolete blue-books or a Coke. Throughout the day, people would come and go, lingering, browsing, reading and sometimes buying. As the evening approached, we’d start to get the townies buying cigarettes and the music mags. It was never a dull place.
As Elrod Sims said in the Banner-Herald the other day, “The day of the newsstand is a bygone era, and it's a part of Americana that is going to be gone here once Barnett's is closed. I feel like Barnett's was a social place ... where you could go in and (find out) what was going on in downtown."
Which brings me to the closing of the doors. Some will point to a declining economy as the reason Barnett’s is leaving us, but that’s not the case. There are four main reasons:
- Magazines/Newspapers –Newsstands on the whole are becoming as obsolete as the eight-track. You see, magazines are sold on consignment, which is why I had to collect the old ones and send them back. Most consumer goods have a mark-up of around 100 percent, which is why retailers can have a 50 percent off sale and still break even or make a little profit. Magazines and newspapers are sold with much less mark-up, and much less risk for the retailer. Typically the markup on a $4 magazine is 20 percent. You have to sell a lot of magazines to make money, but you’re not going to lose a lot since you can send the old ones back. Add to that the fact that the newspapers are now giving their content away for free online and you have a recipe for mediocrity.
- Books – When I worked at Barnett’s, we sold the hottest bestsellers the day they came out. Now, Barnes & Noble can sell the latest Grisham book for approximately what Midge pays for it. It’s a sad but true fact; Midge will do as well leasing her space as she does working the counter every morning.
- Tobacco – The item with one of the largest profit margins in the store is cigarettes. In the 70’s and 80’s, smoking in public was more common and accepted. Now, Americans are more health conscious and cigarettes are not part of the agenda. Add to that the new local laws outlawing smoking in restaurants and bars and you have an equation for healthier populous but bad for the bottom-line.
- Downtown – Downtown Athens is a place you go to eat, drink or shop for clothing and accessories. It’s no longer the central business district where all transactions take place. Even though Clarke County is the smallest in Georgia, the community is split up into areas of town. Some people never step foot downtown for long periods of time, much less drop by the newsstand to pick up a magazine and a pack of gum.
So what do we do? Do we mourn the fact that an Athens tradition is closing or do we celebrate what we had for the last 60-years? I opt for the latter. Let’s make the last couple weeks of Barnett’s the best in its history. Take a moment and drop by. Buy a book for the full cover price. Grab a newspaper (plus tax) and a Coke. Pick up a cigar and take in all the history of an Athens institution, there aren’t many more around.
As for me, I’m going to take my 10-month old son to Barnett’s and walk around. Not because he’ll remember it, but because I will. I want to stroll him through the aisles I walked as a child. I think I’ll invite my dad to join us and we’ll grab some breakfast at the Grill and talk about what used to be…
No comments:
Post a Comment