Collected Works Bookstore Runs Newsstand in Alley
Beckie Hammer has proof positive that it is the cover that sells a magazine. Hammer is the attendant at the Burro Alley newsstand four days a week.
A few weeks back, the little blonde cuties of the TV quasi-reality show “The Hills” were featured on the cover of Rolling Stone magazine. Then, she said, the next issue came out with the Eagles band on its cover.
“Even though it was a week older, buyers were still reaching past the Eagles to get the one with the blondes,” Hammer said, shaking her head. “That’s when I realized: People don’t buy magazines. They buy covers.”
You can get a little philosophical tending an outdoor newsstand six hours a day. “I love it, absolutely,” Hammer said. “Everyone comes by. This newsstand becomes like a meeting place for the people who work around here. And people’s reactions are so great when they see the stand here.”
That’s exactly what Dorothy Massey wanted when she first dreamed up the newsstand. Massey is co-owner, with her daughter Mary, of Collected Works Bookstore, directly across West San Francisco Street from the opening into Burro Alley.
“I used to stand here at the front window and think there should be something more to look at. There was not much going on,” Massey said. So, in the interest of “bringing a little buzz to the alley,” in 2007 she started the lengthy process of getting permits, leasing the Burro Alley spot from the city and getting the permission of her commercial neighbors. Oh, yes, and getting pictures of Parisian wooden newsstands so her woodworker Kurt Miller could copy them.
The dark-green, self-contained, wooden stands have wheels so they can be rolled out of the way and fold-over tops so they can be closed and locked easily at the end of the day (or when it rains).
“Looking French, they fit in, and add a little ambience to what Cafe Paris has created farther down the alley,” Massey said. “I wanted them to be authentic, to have that Parisian flair.”
Inside the stands are local newspapers and a wide assortment of magazines. “Tourists often ask for their local papers, but I have to tell them we don’t get the Galveston or Peoria papers,” Hammer said. The visitors also have definite choices for magazines, she said, favoring “anything Southwestern — especially the Santa Fean, New Mexico Magazine and Trend — as well as Dwell and Desert Living.” Locals pick up the hometown news or grab a mag to read over lunch — depending, of course, on who’s on the cover.
The newsstand was never intended to be a big moneymaker, which is a good thing, Massey said.
“Let’s put it this way: by the end of my three-year lease (which began last summer) I should have the cost of building it paid off,” she said with a wry grin. “But it’s been fun and added a little to the community.”
Not that Collected Works is ever opposed to making a profit. The bookstore has been in its current location for 30 years and Massey, who’s been owner for 10, is its third owner.
Her own journey to Santa Fe began when she was living in Connecticut, working in an office and enjoying the empty nest left when her last two kids left for college. Then in 1990 her husband died suddenly.
In the natural reassessment following that tragedy, Massey made a decision. “I realized I’d been working for other people since 1958 and I wanted to work for myself.”
She was attracted to the idea of a bookstore. In 1998, she bought Collected Works in Santa Fe, partly because she could acquire it reasonably and partly because she already knew the town, having visited over the years. “I thought this would be a wonderful place to live, and it has been,” Massey said. Her daughter Mary came into co-ownership full time last year.
For the first nine years, she ran the store alone. “It helps to have good and loyal colleagues,” Dorothy Massey said of her employees. The store has a reputation for carrying basic literature, best-sellers and Southwestern literature and nonfiction, as well as for community action.
“We pride ourselves on presenting local authors and on being deeply involved in the community,” Massey said. “We’re bringing 31 people to sign their books at the Spanish Colonial Arts Society Tent at Spanish Market, and 75 percent of the sales will go to the Society. We work with the Rotary Club school book program, and with (not-forprofit organizations) all over the city.”
In a sense, she added, the Burro Alley newsstand is just another community service. She’s already held, with the city’s permission, some children’s books activities out there and plans to keep the stand open a few hours in evenings to attract Lensic Center patrons.
Collected Works Burro Alley Newsstand
WHERE: Burro Alley at West San Francisco
HOURS: 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. daily (may close earlier when it rains)
RUN BY: Collected Works Bookstore, 208 B West San Francisco
CALL: 988-4226
ONLINE: www.collectedworksbookstore.com
