Main Street Books Aims to Corner the Market in Northeastern Nebraska

The closure of a book-and-music chain’s local branch store has created the business opportunity of a lifetime for a couple in Norfolk, Nebraska. Chad and Bonnell Jochum plan to open Main Street Books, a general interest bookstore, on April 18.

The 1,300-square-foot space located on West Norfolk Avenue, the town’s main thoroughfare, will sell approximately 80 percent new books and 20 percent used books, as well as magazines and a few sidelines.

When Jochum’s son Calvin reported that the store where he worked, Norfolk’s Hastings Books Music & Video, was closing in December, Chad Jochum, a retired army veteran, saw a valuable opportunity to corner the book market in northeastern Nebraska.

“It’s a rare opportunity being first to market, and that is why we really worked quickly to make it happen and why we initially decided to do it,” said Jochum. “Although I’d never had a longtime dream to open a bookstore, I decided this would be a great time to open one in a community that didn’t have one. Essentially the only competition we will have will be from Target and Walmart, which only have about a half row of books.” The only other general interest bookstore within 100 miles that primarily sells new books is the Barnes & Noble in Sioux City, Iowa, he added.

Jochum, who works in veteran services for the state of Nebraska, said his son will run day-to-day operations at the bookstore, while Bonnell Jochum, who works in accounting, will take care of financial and administrative tasks like payroll and bookkeeping.

Selling new books to local libraries will be part of the Jochums’ business strategy. After the Hastings closure, a local library approached Main Street Books about taking over the responsibility of supplying the library with books. Jochum began reaching out to a few dozen other libraries within a 100-mile radius, since many of them had also worked with the Midwestern chain. Now, according to Jochum, about 40 to 50 percent of the libraries have signed on to buy books (at a small discount) from Main Street Books.

The store, which is housed in a renovated thrift shop, will feature easy chairs and a loveseat, work by local artists on the walls, and a self-serve pot of coffee. The bookshelves are mobile so they can be rearranged for events such as book club meetings, author events, and story times.

“We’ll probably have to move the shelves around to accommodate things, but when we looked for spaces to rent we learned that bigger does not necessarily mean more sales,” Jochum said. “Most of the successful bookstores we’ve looked at were between 800 and 1,500 square feet.”

Over the past few months, in addition to advertising the store on social media, Jochum has been learning a lot about bookstore practices. His observations have included how Hastings ran its business as well as how other Midwestern independent bookstores operate.

“Children’s books are one of the things I’ve heard most booksellers say has been one of their biggest growing areas,” Jochum said. “In a down economy, people still buy books for their children. So we will focus pretty heavily on the children’s and young adult section and will probably expand it at some point.”

Main Street Books will also carry books by a dozen local authors, including several by local newspaper staff members and some by regional authors. As the business gains its footing, Jochum said that the store’s inventory will be adjusted to reflect the preferences of Norfolk’s 25,000 residents and other local customers.

“We’ll take a shotgun approach,” Jochum said. “We are using Ingram as our distributor, and we’re carrying a little bit of everything, so we’ll be returning things as we gauge our audience.”