Celebrating 30 Years in A Room of One's Own

A Room of One's Own in Madison, Wisconsin, began in 1975 when five women -- Sandi Torkildson, Moe Doe, Susan Ketchum, Gail Straw, and Sally Stevens -- pooled their resources, sought donations and loans, and raised $5,000 to launch the bookstore. When they found a sublet for $250 a month, they were in business, despite a general lack of bookselling experience. "We learned by the seat of our pants," said Torkildson, who spoke to BTW about the store's evolution and recent 30th anniversary celebration.

"It started when [we] had just finished our degrees at the University of Wisconsin," said Torkildson, who now co-owns A Room of One's Own with Nancy Geary and staff members who participate in an employee stock plan. Torkildson is the only founder of the original five who is still involved in the bookstore. "We were all taking a series of evening courses on women's issues and wanted a place to gather and meet," she said. "On State Street, the main drag in Madison, it was all bars, and we didn't feel we had a place to get together. We had heard of feminist bookstores -- one in Chicago, Jane Adams, and Amazon in Minneapolis. We went to visit a few and decided this is what we need."

Torkildson had worked in a college bookstore, but the group had little collective bookstore or retail experience. They turned to ABA for financial, management, and inventory workshops and also had help from other feminist bookstores.

"We started with $5,000 -- that's an incredibly small amount of money," said Torkildson. "It was different 30 years ago.... We learned at a time when the economy was growing."

In 1997, A Room of One's Own moved two doors down from its original location, doubled its size to 3,000 square feet, and gained enough space to sublet to a small cafe. "It's easier to sublet the cafe than run two small businesses," said Torkildson. A Room of One's Own stocks 12,000 titles, and specialties include feminist, gay and lesbian, gender studies, and minority literature. The store recently expanded its biography and history sections to fill a gap left by Canterbury Bookstore, which closed in 2004.

A Room of One's Own has been a Book Sense store since the program launched in 1999 and immediately signed up for the Book Sense gift card program when it became available. "The gift cards have been great," said Torkildson. "I really encourage other booksellers to go to gift cards. We sell a lot of them, and I'm worried that people who don't get them will lose sales. I have [customers] who come in to get them and send them to people in other cities all the time."

On April 16, the bookstore celebrated its 30th anniversary with cake and snacks, along with a silent auction and a dance. Torkildson reported that approximately 350 people participated in the various events, which included jazz groups, a women's choir, and other local artists, one of whom sang at the first anniversary of the store. "The party was great," said Torkildson. "We had a wonderful birthday cake that I didn't get a piece of. We had gold and lavender balloons -- the color of suffragettes' marching banners. We projected old pictures of the store onto the ceiling."

The silent auction helped raise funds that have been earmarked to increase inventory and to coordinate additional community programs. "We want to start a nonprofit to do more programs associated with the library, the public schools," said Torkildson. "We want to get more young people reading. The library had to drop the community read because there wasn't enough funding. We'd like to start that up again."

Torkildson talked about some of the changes in bookselling since 1975. "It's a lot harder financially. I have to really, really be on top of things and close to the accounting. I have to watch money very closely, which translates to watching inventory control. A new business, while it's growing, gives you a little breathing room, but once it's established, the growth slows, which means you have to manage inventory carefully ... making sure you get the right kind of return on investment."

Some operational practices have become less arduous over time. "For a long time, we didn't have a computer," said Torkildson. "It makes everything, including tracking our inventory, a lot easier." One business aspect that has remained a constant, however, is Torkildson's attitude about owning and running A Room of One's Own. "It's a lot of hard work, but I love it," she said. "I feel really lucky that it's my life's work." --Karen Schechner