Scott's Bookstore Is No Run of the Mill Independent

Scott's Bookstore is the only general bookstore in Mount Vernon, Washington, a city with a population of over 60,000. Nonetheless, the 5,000-square-foot store, which occupies the historic 95-year-old Granary Building, enjoys a special camaraderie with its independent bookstore colleagues, said Megan Scott, manager of Scott's Bookstore. The store is a member of the Rain Coast Bookseller's League, a group of five Washington State-based independents, and is a dedicated participant in both the Book Sense and BookSense.com programs. "We feel that what's good for [other independents] is good for us," Scott told Bookselling This Week.

Located between Seattle and Vancouver, Mount Vernon is a "great place for an independent," said Scott. The city's downtown is made up of three main streets. There are no chain stores in downtown Mount Vernon. Instead, it's essentially made up of specialty stores, said Scott -- a running store, a kitchen store, as well as your basic department store, a pharmacy, a gift store, local brewery houses, and a music store.

"It's a nice, old-fashioned town," she said. "There's lots of historic buildings. There's an historic vaudeville theater [Lincoln Theater], and we're in an historic toasted oat mill, which was built in 1907, and later became a granary. It's a big funky building with wide plank floors and exposed pipes."

Scott's mother, Mary Scott, and her grandmother, Ruth Scott, opened Scott's Bookstore in 1976 in a 500-square-foot space situated right next door to the Lincoln Theater. "My mother told me that she could either spend her entire time taking [me and my brothers] to the library or simply open a bookstore," Scott said.

Five years later, in 1981, Scott's moved to a small, local mall, where the store expanded to 5,000-square-feet. Then, in 1987, the bookstore moved into the Granary Building. "We're definitely more of a downtown store," said Scott. Today, the bookstore shares its first-floor space with the Calico Cupboard café, a local chain with three stores in Mount Vernon. Scott's uses the second floor for events; the third floor, called "The Penthouse," is Calico's corporate office.

Scott's been working at the bookstore since she was 13, after begging her mother for a job. "She let me dust after school," she said. By the time she was 18, she was doing all the non-book buying, such as cards and gifts. At one point, "they started calling me manager so they wouldn't have to answer questions," Scott said with a laugh.

Though Scott's bills itself as a general bookstore, it houses a "fairly large kids' section, slightly larger than a quarter of the store," she explained. Additionally, it also has extensive cookbook, travel, and regional books. Scott's tries to hold as many author readings as it can, said Scott, but "we're an hour outside of Seattle so it's harder to get some authors here."

In 1996, Scott's joined forces with four other independents in the general area and formed the Rain Coast Booksellers League (RCBL), she told BTW. RCBL was a natural extension of the friendship that Scott had with the other stores in the area. "We always got together as a group," she said. "It was in 1996 that we first gave ourselves a name."

Aside from Scott's, RCBL is made up of Village Books in nearby Bellingham, Watermark Book Company in Anacortes, The Snow Goose Bookstore in Stanwood, and the Wind and Tide Bookshop in Oak Harbor. Together, she said, they've organized some major events. For one, in 1999, they brought Philip Pullman to the Lincoln Theater. "He hosted an author event there, and we sold books," she said. "There were about 480 people there."

Scott pointed out that RCBL offers the five bookstores other advantages, such as allowing each to participate in book expos when otherwise it would be impossible -- due to scheduling conflicts, cost, and/or staff considerations. For instance, at the Northwest Bookfest in Seattle, which is sponsored in part by the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association, the five stores exhibited as one.

Considering this, it's probably no surprise that Scott joined the Book Sense program "the second they offered it," she said. "It's such a wonderful opportunity for independent bookstores to gain a part of the market that we wouldn't be able to get on our own." The Book Sense gift certificate is a great example, she said. It allows people to give the certificates as gifts that are redeemable in independents throughout the country, making them more appealing to consumers. Also, "it's a bonding thing," she said. "It identifies us as independents."

For similar reasons, Scott joined BookSense.com soon after its inception, she said. "It's an amazing benefit to offer indies," she said. "It offers our customers the option to shop at home and still use us. [Creating an e-commerce site] is an expense that few indies can shoulder. We're lucky to get it for the price we pay." --David Grogan