Unmatched coverage
The Springfield News-Sun will continue to provide unmatched coverage of retail in Clark and Champaign Counties. The paper has covered numerous stories about business at the Upper Valley Mall, and will continue to report on area retailers at the mall and how they respond to changing habits from consumers.
A locally owned bookstore at the Upper Valley Mall is expanding in February, even as the mall has faced the loss of several national retailers in recent weeks.
Raven Books is located near the mall’s entrance now, but is moving to a roughly 3,000 square-foot storefront next to Hot Topic on Feb. 6, said Melissa Clancy. Her husband, David, also operates the Village Coffee Cafe, a kiosk at the mall that opened last fall. The bigger space will allow the couple to combine the bookstore and coffee shop into a single location, and offer more services to customers, she said.
Along with the coffee shop, the bigger space will allow room to offer more books and will also provide individual reading rooms and more space for customers to relax while they browse the store’s selection, she said.
“It’s going to be really cool by the time we get done with it,” Melissa Clancy said.
The expansion is taking place almost exactly a year after the bookstore first opened. The store has grown since then, but has started to run out of room for some of its most popular genres, including history and science fiction.
“I am desperate for space in my fantasy section because I have no room back there,” Melissa Clancy said.
The mall has lost several tenants in recent months, including American Eagle, Cardboard Heroes and Lens Crafters. And the Boonshoft Museum of Discovery recently announced that business is considering whether it makes sense to leave the mall for a new location in downtown Springfield.
Despite those setbacks, many of the local retailers are faring well, Melissa Clancy said.
“It’s not a death,” Melissa Clancy said of the mall. “”It’s a process of rebirth. You have to cut what doesn’t work. The local stores are the ones doing really well.”
Most of the stores that have left the mall are national retailers, particularly clothing companies that have struggled nationally, David Clancy noted. He argued many of those stores don’t have the flexibility to adjust to what customers want as quickly as local business owners.
Like many businesses at the mall, the coffee shop has seen a decline in foot traffic after anchors like Macy's and J.C. Penney closed their stores last year. But the bookstore and other local businesses have fared better because they have clients who are visiting the mall to visit a specific store. Combining the coffee shop and book store should benefit both parts of the business, he said.
“You have to adapt to your surroundings in order to survive,” David Clancy said.
The book store has been popular because many shoppers still want to browse and buy print versions of books, said Brenda LaBonte, the mall’s general manager.
“Melissa (Clancy), the owner, has done a great job building her business by giving shoppers what they want,” LaBonte said. “She has created a strong following which has certainly supported the expansion. “
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