A couple articles:
TimBuk2 Store in Hayes Valley:
CUSTOM CANVAS
It's all in the bag for Timbuk2
- Heather Maddan, Chronicle Staff Writer
Sunday, May 7, 2006
Timbuk2's heavy-duty canvas bags were designed to be utilitarian necessities for San Francisco's bike messengers, but over the years they've gained a wider following from fans who appreciate the bag's form as much as its functionality.
Last month, the company opened a store on Hayes Street, where for $100 to $250, patrons can customize a shoulder bag with anything from old jeans to printed fabrics designed by local artist Thorina Rose. Creative, urban types can design one-of-a-kind messenger-style or laptop bags using a collection of Davina Melange wools and other durable upholstery fabrics from the Manhattan company Maharam, known for its elaborate textiles. The store offers funky color and pattern combinations not available on the company's Web site or at the sporting retailers that carry Timbuk2's regular product line, which sells for $50-$100.
"Ten years ago it (the company) was the fabric of the messenger community," said Peter Funk, owner of JetSet Couriers, a South of Market messenger service. "They held alley cat competitions, Fourth of July parties and donated their bags as prizes for messenger competitions, but those days are long over."
No longer a small, exclusive, underground company, Timbuk2 bags are sold in more than 2,000 stores worldwide and can be spotted on almost any downtown city block, bus or Muni train, toted by business executives, busboys and mothers.
It all began in 1989 when Rob Honeycutt, then a bike messenger, decided to stitch his own bag because he couldn't find one with a design he liked. He made some for friends, then friends of friends, and called his emerging business Scumbags -- but as their popularity grew, he changed the company's name to Timbuk2 in homage to a favorite band called Timbuk3.
In 2002, he sold the company to Mark Dwight, a Silicon Valley transplant and cycling enthusiast who became president and chief executive, and a team of investors who believed the bags could be even more popular if the line was expanded. Designers created more styles, including women's and computer bags, and in 2005 the company earned more than $15 million.
Standing in the Hayes Street store, with its white walls lined with colorful variations of the basic bag, Dwight said he himself owns 50 Timbuk2 bags, including one made from an old pair of his jeans. For customers like Regan Martin, a 28-year-old San Francisco designer, one bag is enough. "I built my bag online five years ago so I could customize everything," Martin said of his yellow messenger bag. "They are a total fashion item, but the quality is there to back up the hype."
Mounted glass boxes showcase canvas bags hand-painted by local artists that will be auctioned off for charity with proceeds benefiting At the Crossroads, a street youth support organization.
"This store is genuinely San Francisco -- San Francisco artist, San Francisco designers, San Francisco manufacturing, San Francisco charity, and Timbuk2 is a San Francisco icon," Dwight said.
The company also contracts with production factories in Vietnam and China, but all the bags sold in San Francisco are made at the Timbuk2 headquarters and factory at 16th and Alabama. There workers cut and prepare the fabric swatches, which are then run through industrial sewing machines that churn out a bag every 12 to 16 minutes.
Because the company's offices are also housed there, urban works of art and product prototypes hang from the walls, alongside a gumball machine.
Custom and corporate bags are strewn about, including one designed in collaboration with the San Francisco Giants and AT&T Park to announce the ballpark's name change and advertise the 2006 season.
"A lot of folks at the Giants had personally used Timbuk2 bags," said Giants spokeswoman Staci Slaughter of the decision to commission 10,000 of the special bags for team employees, season ticket holders and sponsors. "It's a great product and has become one of the signature bags around San Francisco."
E-mail Heather Maddan at
[email protected].
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URL:
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A Clean Well Light Place for Books is for sale!
SAN FRANCISCO
Well-Lighted dims
With declining business, haven for book lovers goes up for sale
- Heidi Benson, Chronicle Staff Writer
Friday, May 5, 2006
One of the most popular independent bookstores in San Francisco is up for sale.
A Clean Well-Lighted Place for Books, in Opera Plaza, has served as a cultural hub and a haven for book lovers for a generation.
Now, after years of declining sales, owner Neal Sofman hopes to pass the baton.
"My long-term partners want out, and I don't have the capital to buy them out," Sofman said Thursday.
"I'm talking to a couple of different interested parties."
Sofman founded the store in 1975 in Cupertino, opening a second store in Larkspur (now closed) in 1978.
The Opera Plaza location, which opened in 1982, has been called a blessing and a curse.
At 601 Van Ness, the store is near City Hall, Davies Symphony Hall, the War Memorial Opera House and Hayes Valley restaurants.
But foot traffic is sparse.
"Business has not been as robust as it once was," said Sofman. He cites exorbitant meters on Van Ness (6 minutes for a quarter) as one customer deterrent.
"It has been a special place for all of us," said Sydney Goldstein, founder and director of City Arts & Lectures, which has relied on A Clean Well-Lighted Place to sell books at Arts & Lectures events.
"They have been the book vendor for us -- from Stephen Colbert to John Updike to Joan Didion -- going back more than 20 years," said Goldstein.
Goldstein added that "Neal has people who have worked for him for 10, 17 and 22 years -- loyal people dedicated to books and to the kind of customers who care about books."
Last month, Sofman sold the store's domain name --
www.bookstore.com -- for an undisclosed sum. How the proceeds will be used remains to be seen.
A representative of the landlord had no official comment about the hoped-for sale.
"This has happened very quickly," said Kereen Stoll of Urban Pacific Properties, which manages the property for Opera Plaza Limited Partnership.
"My relationship with the landlord is good," Sofman said, "but it's time for me to move on."
Sofman is in the process of developing a new, smaller store -- called Bookstore West Portal (at 80 West Portal) -- which will open sometime this month.
"It's a small neighborhood store, totally different from A Clean Well-Lighted Place for Books," Sofman said Thursday.
"I raised the money with other investors as a separate proposition," he explained. "They are different companies. I'm the only common denominator."
Meanwhile, as Sofman seeks a buyer for A Clean Well-Lighted Place for Books, the lineup for author readings remains impressive.
"This is our busy season -- we have six writers a week," said events coordinator Wendy Sheanin.
"There are four local writers giving readings -- plus people like Gay Talese and Edmund White -- this week alone."
E-mail Heidi Benson at
[email protected].
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Cody's Flagship on Telegraph is Closing!
Now I'm *really* glad they have a location in Union Square. I can't imagine Telegraph Avenue without Cody's there.
Cody's Books on Telegraph Ave. in Berkeley to close its doors
- Steve Rubenstein and Henry K. Lee, Chronicle Staff Writers
Wednesday, May 10, 2006
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. "As a family business, we cannot continue to afford these ruinous losses.''
Ross said the store had been losing money for 15 years and that pressure from chain stores and the Internet had contributed to an "economic concentration in bookselling'' that was forcing out independent stores like Cody's.
"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's a terrible blow for us,'' Bates said. "Cody's is an institution. But they've been struggling for years. It's just part of the changing times we live in. With the Internet and all the other innovations, these (stores) have all taken a hit.''
Bates said he suspected that older book buyers felt more at ease shopping at Cody's store on trendy Fourth Street.
"It's more upscale and more comfortable,'' Bates said. "Telegraph Avenue is a great place, but some people don't want to go there.''
For decades, the store was a friendly retreat on tumultuous Telegraph Avenue, where extended browsing was encouraged and authors frequently dropped by to discuss and sign their latest works.
It was 50 years ago when Pat and Fred Cody opened a small bookstore on the north side of campus. In 1967, 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. In 1989, after a minor firebombing, the store announced that it would continue to sell Salman Rushdie's controversial "Satanic Verses'' -- a decision that Ross called "our finest hour.''
"Rushdie came to the store once, a surprise visit when he was still in hiding,'' Ross said. The author gave the bookstore 5-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. Someone scribbled 'Salman Rushdie memorial hole.' When Rushdie was here, he looked up and said, 'Some people get statues, others get holes.' "
Over the years, Cody's hosted appearances by Allen Ginsberg, Anais Nin and Lawrence Ferlinghetti. It also built a comprehensive section of computer and math books and a wide variety of new fiction, gay titles and academic critical studies.
Fred Cody died in 1983. Andy Ross bought the store from the Codys six years earlier.
"People in Berkeley are very conservative about some things," Ross said. "When I took over, they said, 'We don't want you to change a thing.' Of course, I have."
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.
Yetter said he feels for Ross.
"I understand, sort of, his dilemma," Yetter said. "After dark, nobody's here, nowhere."
Shawn Misaghi, who has operated a flower stand outside Cody's for 18 years, said the area can be unsafe and hard to find parking.
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.
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URL:
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