Business Profile: Sandmeyer's Bookstore

By Greg Borzo

Anchoring Printers Row for 27 Years

Ulrich Sandmeyer has a penchant for storytelling and a nose for the punch line.

This summer his bookstore handled the sales for a meeting of the Historical Novel Society where some 300 authors talked about and signed their books. Sandmeyer likes historical fiction but really didn't know what he was getting into with this event. Turns out the group is heavily into romance and pabulum. "I never thought I'd make a living selling bodice rippers," Sandmeyer said.

Back to the 1990s, water and chemicals spilled into his store several times from a darkroom on the floor above. "The photographer had to buy my science fiction collection a couple of times," is how Sandmeyer summed up the story.

Ulrich and Ellen Sandmeyer opened their store at its present location in the historic landmark Rowe Building (714 S. Dearborn) in 1982 when Printer's Row was very rundown. The first time they saw the space it was being used to sell books and posters from Judy Chicago's "The Dinner Party," on display next door. "She was courageously bussing in groups of suburban women to see her show-accompanied by armed guards," Sandmeyer said.

Despite the blight, Ulrich & Ellen saw great potential in the neighborhood and loved its architecture. Both were librarians and voracious readers with a dream of running a bookstore. More concretely, Ulrich had a master's in urban planning, which helped him evaluate the area's demographics. "They were all going in the right direction-it just took longer to get there than we thought," he said.

The bookstore's prospects improved with the neighborhood's. Although rarely crowded, the store has turned a profit in all but three of its 27 years. That's because the Sandmeyers, the store's only fulltime employees, run many off-site events and fill bulk orders from nonprofits, libraries, charter schools and the like. "You have to go out and find the business," Sandmeyer said.

It helps to be closely affiliated with the Printers Row Lit Fest, which Sandmeyer describes as a "second Christmas." It helps, too, that the Sandmeyers own their location, having purchased it early in the shop's history. "In today's market, an independent bookstore that doesn't own its space is in trouble," Sandmeyer said.

The Sandmeyers, who have not turned their bookstore into a coffee shop, get enough walk-in business to confirm that they're on the right track. "We have hundreds of longtime customers who like what we've done, who like the fact that we're here," Sandmeyer said. "We even have a second generation of loyal customers.

"We love what we're doing, have survived a few recessions and have no plans to move. In fact, I think that one day they'll carry me out of this place."

Note: Sandmeyer's Bookstore is an SLN Business Parnter; when SLN members show their membership card, the bookstore will issue one of its own discount cards, good for a 10% discount for a year (card normally sells for $10 but is free to SLN members).