Acapella, R.I.P.
Acapella Books, in Little 5 Points, has gone out of business. This is very sad indeed. It was a great little bookstore. Lots of used stuff. Great politics and philosopher sections and a room dedicated to affordable science fiction. Perhaps the folks a DragonCon will hold a seance to channel its spirit into another store around town.
The loss of Acapella is particularly disturbing as it comes just on the heals of a new plaza opening just south of the Little 5 area. A city loses something culturally when Big Box stores that cater to the lowest common denominator drive out long time stores that served a neighborhood clientel’. It also means that Atlanta is sliding back a bit.
When communities first form, they only have local stores. No big boxes in Rutledge Georgia. As they begin to grow, the chains do their economic analysis and see if the market will bear the traffic and then build. Waffle Houses, Steak and Shakes, Wal Marts, and Publix start to come in. As the population grows in income and sophistication, Dillards, Starbucks, Barnes and Nobles, Macaroni Grills etc. come in. All, of course, competing against the local establishments that helped the community get off the ground in the first place. If the community still grows in wealth, sophistication, and so forth, you get your Borders, Emerils, Nordstrom, Crate and Barrel, Ikea etc.
Now your community has reached Big Box saturation, much like Atlanta. The next step, however is interesting. To keep growing, you need to develop a new set of store unique to your city. A reason to come because no one else has it. No one else has Foyles books in London. No one else has Marshall Fields main store in Chicago (or Wax Trax for that matter).
When a city loses a long time store or neighborhood that has survived, it loses part of what makes it unique. I’d hate to lose Sevananda, IFO, 20th Century Antiques, or Manual’s. It would be a crying shame, just like Acapella.
August 4th, 2005 at 2:04 pm
Actually, they just moved to Moreland Ave, next door to the little 5 points drugstore.
August 4th, 2005 at 3:52 pm
I don’t automatically dislike all “big box” stores. In fact, I downright like a lot of them - Starbucks, Borders, Barnes and Noble, Publix… to name a few. But what is needed is that delicate balance of “big box” and independent, local stores. A tough thing to achieve, much less maintain.
And no, I don’t have a solution. Just ranting…
August 5th, 2005 at 10:21 am
And while you’re at Acapella Books, drop by Little Five Points Pharmacy, next door, and say hello to Ira. It’s a non-chain pharmacy with excellent service, and once he gets to know you you’ll be amazed at the value he provides along with the merchandise.
August 8th, 2005 at 1:55 am
The new Acapella is, unfortunately, smaller (physically, and in inventory.) It is, however, still there at it’s net-to-Savage-Pizza location last I checked.
Boy, did you use this as an excuse to go off on the L4P/Edgewood Big Box Land! Me, I kinda like having all that so near, and so inside te perimeter, and there’s really no reason to think that I wouldn’t have a need for Criminal Records AND Target, or Acapella AND Barnes and Noble in my life.
August 10th, 2005 at 12:54 pm
Fortunately as noted Acapella is still around. Also - as noted, I dig having more consumer crap to blow money at, since I live nearby. I actually know some people that are attempting to boycott Edgewood, only problem is - they shop at Target, Washington bank, Kroger, etc. at OTHER locations. So what’s the point?
As long as Target doesn’t start selling bongs or Best Buy doesn’t sell Hello Kitty vibrators - I think Little 5 Points will do fine.
December 4th, 2005 at 12:29 pm
Did you know that when someone does a Google search for A Cappella Books the first thing that comes up is your incorrectly titled and misinforming BLOG entry? Sucks for them, huh? If you really think it was a “great little bookstore” you should delete this page.
December 4th, 2005 at 7:46 pm
I tried a Google search on “A Cappella Books” and “A Capella Books” and in neither case did this page come up even on the first page of results. Are you sure you didn’t have “site:bloglanta.com” at the beginning of your search?
January 12th, 2006 at 12:46 pm
I was relieved to see A Capella books is still in
business, but at a new location. When I used to
visit my daughter, who lived not many doors away
on Euclid before she married, A Capella was a
“must go to” place for me; they had a wonderful
selection and reasonable prices and they lightened
my pocketbook considerably. I was especially fond
of the manager, a good friend of my daughter,
Emily’s.
Glad to have an update on my favorite bookstore.
Virginia Vardaman
January 19th, 2006 at 2:17 am
The problem is the spelling. It is A Cappella Books. Try Acappellabooks.com for information on what is going on at the store. The fact is the new space is about one square foot bigger than the old space, and we did get rid of a few books: some very dead stock that we reduced down to one dollar before we moved. Plus we recently expanded to include some high end titles provided by several friendly Atlanta antiquarian dealers and moved our science fiction and mystery stock into the new chocolate shop next door. love you all.
June 17th, 2006 at 7:16 am
You guys are the 57172 best, thanks so much for the help.
September 8th, 2006 at 10:01 am
i just did a google search for acappella books and this was the third entry. i got all nervous thinking it closed down. you should take this page down or rename it so people don’t think its really closed.
September 8th, 2006 at 10:02 am
actually i misspelled it when i searched, just like the author of this blog did, acapella, so thats why it came up third. i am sure lots more people would do that.