San Francisco Chronicle LogoHearst Newspapers Logo

Le Video survives thanks to partnership with Green Apple Books

By Updated
Maya Falkenberg looks for a film to rent on the second floor of LeVideo in San Francisco on April 12th 2014.
Maya Falkenberg looks for a film to rent on the second floor of LeVideo in San Francisco on April 12th 2014.Sam Wolson/Special to the Chronicle

A month ago Le Video, the 34-year-old Sunset District institution with 100,000 titles, was preparing to close, joining nearly every other San Francisco video store in the death-by-digital graveyard.

But it has a new lease on life in its current Ninth Avenue location, The Chronicle has learned, thanks to a partnership with Green Apple Books - another longtime San Francisco business that has survived in an industry disrupted by technology.

On Aug. 1, Green Apple will open on the lower floor of the building owned by Le Video. The video store will move upstairs, into a space roughly a quarter the size of its longtime location.

Advertisement

Article continues below this ad

For Le Video, the deal is a lifeline. But it's an expansion for Green Apple, which, like many local bookstores, has managed to weather the digital storm by tapping into the tastes and sensibilities of a sophisticated city that prizes locally owned businesses.

Compared with video stores, the independent booksellers that survived the rise and fall of the big box bookstores have done a better job leveraging consumers' visceral connection to their product and weaving themselves into their local communities.

That's one reason that while video stores are nearly extinct in San Francisco, there are nearly three dozen independent booksellers and no national chain bookstores.

"The narrative that all bookstores are not doing well is not true," said Pete Mulvihill, one of Green Apple's three co-owners. Last month, the industry trade Publishers Weekly named the 47-year-old Richmond District bookseller Bookstore of the Year.

Advertisement

Article continues below this ad

Loving books

Even as e-book usage grows, most "e-readers are first and foremost readers - and most love books as physical objects, whether it be reading to children or sharing them with others," said Kathryn Zickuhr, a research associate with the Pew Research Center who has studied hardcover and e-book usage.

While more than half of Americans have a handheld device for reading e-content, print readership remains stable, according to a January Pew study. Among adults who read at least one book in the past year, just 5 percent said they read only an e-book.

And sales at Bay Area bookstores have actually increased. Hardcover book sales at San Francisco's independent bookstores increased by 8 percent in 2013 after an identical bump the year before, said Hut Landon, executive director of the Northern California Independent Booksellers Association.

But the same isn't true in the video world. Netflix and Hulu are dominant, and more TVs now come equipped with built-in online streaming capabilities to pipe their content into living rooms. Plus, additional content is available through devices like Apple TV or Roku. Hundreds of Blockbuster stores have closed over the past year.

Advertisement

Article continues below this ad

Making matters worse, consumers haven't expressed nostalgia for VHS, DVD or even Blu-ray the way they do for books.

Fortunately for video fans in San Francisco, a marriage of cultural brothers will help both stores.

Despite moving to a smaller space, Le Video founder Catherine Tchen said her shop doesn't plan to dump any of its inventory, which includes roughly 20,000 titles that have yet to be digitized.

"Never, no," she said, "but it will be a challenge."

Le Video won't just benefit from Green Apple's rent payments - it could get customers too, as the shops will be connected.

Advertisement

Article continues below this ad

Le Video averages about 120 customers on weekdays, while Green Apple draws 500 a day at its Richmond District flagship store. Its new space on Ninth Avenue will be about 2,400 square feet, or about one-third the size of its main location.

For 4 1/2 years, Tchen has poured more than $1 million of her own money into Le Video to keep it afloat as its finances remained in the red.

But in March, when she almost didn't make payroll for the third time, she posted a note on Facebook that unless something happened, she would close the store by May.

"I have not taken a salary in 14 years," Tchen said from her home just outside of Portland, Ore., where she moved 14 years ago to have more space for her many cats and other animals. But since then, she had spent what was intended to be her retirement on keeping the store afloat "and I needed to be able to meet my mortgage, my health benefits."

An Indiegogo campaign for Le Video hit its $35,000 goal, thanks to a recent $10,000 donation from Daniel Handler, the author of the "Lemony Snicket" books. But that was a stopgap and the business needed more revenue. She anticipates that she will need to raise an additional $30,000 to $60,000 simply to prep the new space and make the move.

Advertisement

Article continues below this ad

The new model for independent booksellers in San Francisco is simple: a 2,000- to 5,000-square-foot store in a neighborhood that gets a lot of foot traffic, said Landon.

"And it can't work in a shopping mall," he said.

Landon, who is also executive director of the San Francisco Locally Owned Merchants Alliance, anticipates the new Ninth Avenue location has the foot traffic to sustain both shops.

Shopping local

Over the past few years, Bay Area booksellers have led "shop local" campaigns that have brought more attention to local businesses, said Landon. Green Apple has done unique partnerships, like one with the dating site OkCupid, which used the bookstore as a meeting spot for events a couple of times over the past few months.

As they've survived the last recession, they've come to rely on an economic camaraderie. On May 3, for the first time, all independent bookstores in Northern California will host a day full of promotions and special events and sale items.

"The reason we can do that," Landon said, "is because we can."

Joe Garofoli is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. E-mail: jgarofoli@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @joegarofoli

|Updated

Joe Garofoli is the San Francisco Chronicle’s senior political writer, covering national and state politics. He has worked at The Chronicle since 2000 and in Bay Area journalism since 1992, when he left the Milwaukee Journal. He is the host of “It’s All Political,” The Chronicle’s political podcast. Catch it here: bit.ly/2LSAUjA

He has won numerous awards and covered everything from fashion to the Jeffrey Dahmer serial killings to two Olympic Games to his own vasectomy — which he discussed on NPR’s “Talk of the Nation” after being told he couldn’t say the word “balls” on the air. He regularly appears on Bay Area radio and TV talking politics and is available to entertain at bar mitzvahs and First Communions. He is a graduate of Northwestern University and a proud native of Pittsburgh. Go Steelers!

He can be reached at jgarofoli@sfchronicle.com.