Small Businesses Taking Painful Steps To Stay Afloat In 2010

latimes.com:

Step through the glass doors of Eso Won Bookstore, the landmark but struggling Leimert Park shop specializing in African American titles, and you'll see shelves stacked with civil rights classics by Martin Luther King Jr., poetry by Maya Angelou and important fiction including James Baldwin's "Another Country."

Their ranks will be thinned substantially when co-owner James Fugate switches to more bargain-priced books when restocking his shelves next year in a bid to boost sales. Too much money is tied up in the slow-moving back-list tomes, which sell for $15 or more, he said.

"A lot of the history that we built our store on, that stuff has got to go," said Fugate, who with co-owner Tom Hamilton opened the shop in 1989.

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