Reader's Choice Offers Independent Alternative for Centerville, Ohio

Last year, when Laurie Benner, frequent customer of Reader's Choice Bookstore, in Centerville, Ohio, was asked if she'd like to own the store, she answered, "Yes, but only every other day." She had experienced the difficulties -- and the rewards -- involved in running a bookstore as owner of Books, Coffee, and Friends in Allegan, Michigan.

The rewards won out, and Benner purchased the 20-year-old store from long-time owner Ken Yeager. She immediately moved it into a new, larger space. "Ken had expanded library and school sales, but had cut down on the retail part," she explained. "The things that I found most gratifying about bookselling couldn't be done in [the current] space. I found a location in the new addition to a strip mall around the corner from the store. I coordinated it so that the new space was ready when I purchased the store in mid-June 2004, and we only lost a few days."

But then Benner was faced with other challenges. "I was the first store occupied in the new part of the mall, so while there was plenty of parking, people didn't realize we were open and thought the whole place was still under construction," she said. "We waited until the end of July to hold our grand re-opening event. We just celebrated the one-year anniversary."

The mall is now filled with other businesses, mostly large department stores, supermarkets, and restaurants. Plenty of large chain bookstores are open all over Centerville. It's not easy to be the lone independent among all these chains, Benner said. "What helps me is service. People go into a chain and ask for a book and are told it will take weeks -- even though it can be delivered the next day. That tells them where they are on the food chain in the store's eyes -- and it's pretty low. Of the masses of people who work there [in the large chains bookstores], most won't know a thing about books -- you can't get recommendations. Krogers sells mass market books, bestsellers, and new releases, so we don't focus on those. We offer good reads that are not necessarily blockbusters."

Many of those good reads are found on the Book Sense lists. "I immediately joined Book Sense [at Reader's Choice] after finding the 76 Picks very helpful in my Michigan store," Benner said. "The Book Sense Picks are a way to maintain a diverse stock that the grocery stores won't have. We use our BookSense.com site for sales and to publicize all our events. The website gives us an avenue to offer customers more options. We were able to take orders on line for the new Harry Potter and extend a discount for some customers.

"We have maintained the relationships Ken had with school librarians, and they ask us for recommendations. We also supply books for author readings at schools -- that's a big part of what pays the rent. Lots of reading groups come here as well.

"We are trying to build up walk-in traffic. Our local author events are catching on slowly. No one has heard of some of the local authors, but we have had success with authorless events -- most recently with the Harry Potter series. The Reader's Choice party was featured in the Centerville Bellbrook Times -- above the fold on the front page. There was a huge picture on the front page and more pictures on another page inside devoted to the event. The Dayton Daily News featured the store in an article on the front page."

Reader's Choice held Harry Potter parties, monthly, beginning in February. "The five previous parties -- one each month leading up to the release of the Half-Blood Prince -- were devoted to the other five books in the series," Benner said. "Interest grew over the months and we were able to see what worked and what didn't. We're planning a final one in August." --Nomi Schwartz