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Uploaded: Tuesday, September 18, 2012, 9:13 AM
Kepler's finds key to future in its past
Iconic bookstore unveils new 'old' look
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by Sandy Brundage
Almanac Staff
Photos
 
| Kepler's Books and Magazines has a new look -- and that look may awaken memories of its radical roots. The store, which struggled to survive during recent years, may have found new life by turning to its past.
"We're bringing Roy (Kepler) back, bringing back a sense of radical integrity," said manager Amanda Hall as she kept an eye on the work in progress, conversation punctuated by construction noise. "We want people to walk in and feel like they've come home."
The Almanac dropped by for a tour on Sept. 14 to see what's changed since Kepler's temporarily closed two months earlier for renovation.
Staff working to redesign the store discovered a treasure trove of emblematic textures, fonts and colors stored since the early days, said Christin Evans, who is now in charge of store operations.
"We wanted to bring back the feel of those days," she said.
Reaching under a portable bookshelf, she tugged out a piece of old vinyl used for flooring at one point in the store's past -- black with streaks of white -- then described how painters will mimic the look for the new floor.
Evans pointed out multicolored bricks bearing words such as "cooking" in old-school fonts scattered around the shelves. Like many other features of the store -- chairs, magazine racks, tables -- the bricks are portable. The flexibility of furniture allows staff to change the store layout on the fly, making it easier to host intimate book club events or marquee events, Evans explained, or create new subject sections, if, say, books about zombies suddenly get big.
The new has a place alongside the old. Audiobooks and e-books offered in different formats will have dedicated sections, although they may not be fully ready when the store reopens by the end of September.
The impact of the Future Search event held in July was clear.
"It gave us permission to put more of Roy Kepler into the store," Evans said.
Over time, the radicalism of early Kepler's gave way to the "docile decades," according to those attending Future Search, and now the trend may be reversed.
The changes are more than skin deep. The new Kepler's, while staying at 1010 El Camino Real, is smaller: 6,440 square feet now, down from 10,000 square feet. And somehow the smaller store is going to accommodate more books.
"We're trying to figure out if we have space for them all," Praveen Madan said, laughing. The idea is more books in better displays to encourage browsing as a "physical experience."
He described the budget as "shoestring." A community fundraising campaign brought in approximately $760,000, with about half of that spent on preparing the store to get back into the bookselling business. While he expects the number of employees to remain about the same, their duties will have changed. Staff will be cross-trained to work in any area of the store, ensuring that they all get time to talk to customers, rather than being cloistered by job.
"It's a lean model that we fine-tuned at Booksmith," Madan said, referring to the independent bookstore he and his wife own in San Francisco.
As wife Christin focuses on store operations, Madan will take over the nonprofit events portion of the business, which for the time being will remain on site.
"We're not ready to take on a large lease obligation yet," he said.
Running a nonprofit within the bookstore has "a lot of do's and don'ts" per IRS regulations, but Kepler's is looking to the Silicon Valley Community Foundation for guidance.
Speaking of events: Most will now be free. Charging dilutes the utility of exposing the public to new authors and results in smaller audience, according to Madan.
"We felt it was doing a disservice," he said.
But for blockbuster events such as the upcoming Sept. 25 conversation between Salman Rushdie and Tobias Wolff -- "We can charge a little bit for that."
Menlo Park can't wait for the store to reopen, judging by the amount of work contributed by volunteers as Kepler's prepares for the changes -- some spent hours helping to take inventory; others, like audiobook expert Lee Moncton, are contributing knowledge.
Visitors keep dropping by to take a look at the renovation in progress. Even Clark Kepler has been spotted.
"He said, 'Get better chairs!" Madan recalled, and grinned.Are you receiving Express, our free daily e-mail edition? See a sample and sign-up for Express.
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| Comments
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Posted by VV, a resident of the Downtown North neighborhood, on Sep 18, 2012 at 10:09 am If there were Fillmore posters and peace buttons we'd really know we were in the Old Kepler's
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Posted by downtowner, a resident of Menlo Park, on Sep 18, 2012 at 11:00 am Yes, along with old painted wooden chairs in corners where smokers could sit. Prevalent odors were weed & B.O.
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Posted by george , a resident of the Charleston Gardens neighborhood, on Sep 18, 2012 at 11:08 am What a wonderful opening to look forward to. There's hope for the community after all.
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Posted by longtimeresident, a resident of the Old Palo Alto neighborhood, on Sep 18, 2012 at 11:13 am I have fond memories of the old Keplers. I loved meandering down the aisles, discovering new things each time. Once, a book fell down in front of me, so I had to buy it. It was "My Secret Garden" by Nancy Friday, which was an "interesting" find!
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Posted by Lorin Krogh, a resident of the Downtown North neighborhood, on Sep 18, 2012 at 11:26 am As a person of a very low income, I miss the free readings at Kepplers'. I empathized and understand that for financial reasons, that many current, independent booksellers face but $10 a shot is a little too expensive for me. How about a $5.00 charge?
-Lorin Krogh, Palo Alto
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Posted by Donald, a resident of the Downtown North neighborhood, on Sep 18, 2012 at 1:16 pm It's hard to find the successful formula for an independent bookstore these days. I'm not sure that "retro" is the formula. Amazon is hard to compete with. "Buy local" has never gotten much traction. Holding events at the store is the best thing I can think of. A cooking class to promote cookbooks. Poetry readings. Art and photo exhibitions tied to matching books. Sell posters. A section devoted to local authors. Hold club meetings there. Etc, etc, etc, etc. Good luck!
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Posted by Julie B, a resident of Menlo Park, on Sep 18, 2012 at 2:42 pm Now that amazon has to charge sales tax, it will help even the playing field a bit. I will be interested to see how they will sell eBooks, but that should help as well. Will one download them from a Keplers website? If so, they'll need free wifi.
I like the idea of chairs.
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Posted by Kevin, a resident of the Midtown neighborhood, on Sep 18, 2012 at 3:25 pm Kepler's is a lost cause, becasue its socialist ideology is dead.
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Posted by neighbor, a resident of another community, on Sep 18, 2012 at 6:33 pm Kevin....have you lost your mind? Seems so. See any conspiracies under rocks these days?
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Posted by stretch, a resident of another community, on Sep 18, 2012 at 6:52 pm How about Ira Sandperl and a guy meditating on one of the counters?
I live in a different state, and still go to Kepler's to buy books when I go down to visit friends and my mother. It will survive as long as people support it, and I intend to continue doing just that.
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Posted by daniel, a resident of the Embarcadero Oaks/Leland neighborhood, on Sep 19, 2012 at 7:19 am Kevin..speaking like a true teabagger.
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Posted by Participant, a resident of the South of Midtown neighborhood, on Sep 19, 2012 at 4:13 pm I wish Kepler's the best, but I was hoping they'd come up with a new, more sustainable idea going forward. That's a huge space, surrounded by an educated, diverse population, many of whom have time and money. If they made it into an open air marketplace with a more concentrated book area, along with a bakery, wine bar, cheese/chocolate shop, cafe seating, and brought in musicians, poetry readings, and other engaging events, they could draw in a huge crowd who would stop in regularly to see what's going on. Once you have them there, you have to make enticing books very visible and available, and you need a cashier on hand. The recent Kepler's model was an echoing empty scape of hand made greeting cards and book bags. Most books you picked up were badly written since much of what is published these days is just a rehash of the latest fad. If you decided to buy something, you had to hike around searching for a cashier. Retro might be fun, but what really drew people in back then was the feeling of current, vibrant culture, and lively people, and that something might happen!
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Posted by m, a resident of the Adobe-Meadows neighborhood, on Sep 19, 2012 at 6:27 pm Amazon charging sales tax hardly starts to even the playing field. Most books that I buy are still 32-50% off at Amazon which means I get more books for the same amount of money. Sorry, I love bookstores, too, but I'm not willing to pay more hard earned money or buy fewer books to keep them afloat.
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Posted by Adams, a resident of another community, on Sep 19, 2012 at 10:27 pm It's over for Kepler's and bookstores as we know it. Time to turn the page, embrace change, and not cling to the past. That approach would truly be consistent with Kepler's radical past. There's no where near enough aging hippies to keep it going.
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Posted by Martin, a resident of the Downtown North neighborhood, on Sep 20, 2012 at 8:42 am Please keep a healthy stack of current computer books. They are getting harder to find in our area, and 'no', online and/or electronic, are not always the best option.
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