Connecticut's Vault of Reading Riches

The Book Vault in Wallingford, Connecticut

Books may be precious to Janice and Stuart Hecht, but their store, The Book Vault in Wallingford, Connecticut, was not originally designed to house them. When the dramatic, stone-faced building with two-story palladium windows, which is currently home to The Book Vault, was built in 1921, it was designed to house the First National Bank. In October 2003, the Hechts opened The Book Vault, taking over the space from its most recent occupant, a CVS drugstore.

Janice Hecht, who devotes herself full-time to the store, and Stuart, who also works full-time as a realtor, were new to bookselling, but they saw the potential in the old bank building, despite the suspended ceiling and Mylar-covered windows. At various times, they had admired the building as they sat in a popular cafe across the street, and when the space became available in the summer of 2003, they decided to jump into the bookselling business.

The Hechts moved to Wallingford six years ago from elsewhere in Connecticut. Janice Hecht, who recently spoke to BTW, explained, "[Stuart] brought me here kicking and screaming, 'How am I moving to a town that doesn't even have a bookstore?' I didn't really ever intend to open one myself, but once the space in the center of town was available, we went ahead."

A typical window scene painted each month by the Hechts' son Ben.

The Book Vault has 1,800 square feet of selling space. To improve the store, Hecht said, she and Stuart "took down the suspended ceiling so you could see the full two stories. The landlord cleaned up the outside façade, and we took the coverings off the windows to let the light in. But since our building was designed as a bank in the 1920s, it doesn't have store windows that are lower to the ground for displaying merchandise. We realized that people just weren't seeing us or noticing we were even there or that we sold books. We started employing our son Ben, who is an artist, to paint scenes on our windows with poster paint. He changes the pictures every month, and now it has become an event to watch him paint. He always leaves room at the bottom for us to display books."

In the 15 months that The Book Vault has been open, "people have come to expect more that just books at our store, said Hecht. "Beyond the typical author events, we've hosted cultural events as well. The Connecticut Opera performs previews of its current performances here. We have hosted art exhibits for visiting artists, even hosting the American premiere of an Italian artist who paints on papyrus. Customers are always wondering, what's next?"

Business this year has been good, Hecht said. "This is only our second Christmas so we hardly know what to expect, but sales are up over 25 percent." Many people in the community are making a concerted effort to support the downtown businesses. Customers have told the Hechts that "they just don't want to go to the mall," and "I want to keep my business downtown and shop independents."

Both Hechts have done a number of speaking engagements in the community. According to Janice Hecht, "They all want us to talk about the challenges of being an independent business. They want to know how we can compete with the chains. We talk about how we are not competing -- we have different styles and strengths. We want to have an impact on the community. And we are telling people about books they wouldn't hear about otherwise, handselling lots of books."

Hecht also talked about their customers' interest in the Book Sense lists. "We do use the Book Sense Bestseller lists quite a bit. I think these lists reflect more accurately the reading habits of our customers than do the New York Times or other published lists," she said. "It's interesting to watch titles that first appear on the Book Sense lists make their way to the New York Times list. Our customers really appreciate our personal recommendations."

Customers also appreciate the special services that The Book Vault offers. Hecht told BTW, when the store is unable to fulfill an order in time for gift giving, "we print out an image of the book jacket with the notice that a gift is coming to you from that person and we include our logo. We have also worked closely with other downtown merchants to organize events such as last summer's sidewalk art contest for kids. Children registered, received free sidewalk chalk, and were assigned specific blocks of sidewalk. The drawings had to relate to a summer theme. Merchants chipped in to provide cash prizes for the winners in each age category. It was great fun and brought lots of families to town.

"We have been pleasantly surprised that so many people -- who also come from all the surrounding towns -- are rooting for us to succeed. Not a day goes by that someone doesn't say, 'We're so glad you're here. We love independent bookstores.' That makes all the hard work worthwhile. Before we were even open, there was an editorial cartoon in the local paper portraying Harry Potter and his owl flying over Wallingford with the caption, 'It's about time this town had a bookstore.'" --Nomi Schwartz