Bestsellers set to
begin another chapter
Its second bookstore will debut
By Peter Wagner
next month at Waikiki's Hilton
Star-BulletinBestsellers, an independent bookstore that bucked bigger dealers by opening a store downtown last year, plans to open a second store at the Hilton Hawaiian Village Hotel next month.
The new store, to open Oct. 15 in an existing 1,400-square-foot shop, hopes to capitalize on a tourist market now confined to hotel newsstands.
"Right now if a tourist wants a bookstore he has to get into a car and drive," said Brian Melzack, owner of the store. "We'll be the only bookshop in Waikiki."
Melzack said he plans to hire eight to 10 employees for the new store.
Like the downtown store, the new Bestsellers will focus on Hawaiiana and best-selling books. The two-level store also will carry Japanese-language books and newspapers, he said.
Melzack sees the hotel -- a complex of four hotel towers with a fifth under construction -- as a captive market, one he can tap seven days a week. "We have 200 business days a year downtown," said Melzack, noting the area draws foot traffic only in daylight hours, Monday through Friday. "We'll have 365 business days a year in Waikiki.
The Waikiki store also will be able to keep its doors open late into the night, he said.
Melzack, a 40-year veteran of the book business, opened Bestsellers last August at Bishop Square, in space vacated by Honolulu Book Shops.
The Honolulu-based chain was unable to compete with mainland giants Borders Books & Music and Barnes & Noble, whose larger inventories absorbed much of the market. But Bestsellers has found a toehold with a small, tightly focused inventory meant to move quickly, Melzack said.
Bestsellers will occupy space vacated in July by Lancel, a French handbag company that found a disappointing market at the Hilton.
Store manager Nicole Magann said books may be a better fit at the hotel than her mid-range merchandise, better suited for a shopping center or mall.
Currently operating at the Royal Hawaiian Shopping Center in Waikiki, Lancel is considering a second location at Ala Moana Center, she said.
