'Curious Persistence' of Poetry Bookshops

Shelf Awareness

Berl's Brooklyn Poetry Shop "is among a crop of poetry stores in U.S. cities with robust literary communities, including Boulder, Cambridge, Milwaukee, and Seattle," the New Yorker reported, noting that their presence "would seem, at first glance, to defy the ongoing concerns among brick-and-mortar retailers.... But the theory now goes that stores that do one thing well or create an experience--niche retail, as it's sometimes called--can thrive."

Jared White, owner of Berl's, "was inspired to develop a business plan for a storefront after seeing the balance sheet that the independent Greenlight Bookstore, an institution in nearby Fort Greene, had posted online," the New Yorker wrote. "Their numbers were amazing," he said.

He doesn't consider Berl's "to be niche retail, per se," the New Yorker noted, adding that White "is also aware that 'waves of gentrification,' as he put it, have helped to keep the store afloat. The countercultural appeal of poetry, like that of art, makes it a relatively easy sell to a population willing to shop for things that they don't necessarily need but might covet as a form of self-expression. That niche is centuries old, and enduring."