New Arrangement Proves Beneficial to Wisconsin Booksellers

Last year, Ron Czerwein, the owner of Avol’s Books [1], in Madison, Wisconsin, was looking to give up the lease on his storefront. The location, a 6,000-square-foot space, which formerly housed Canterbury Books [2], was too big for Czerwein, who sells used, rare, and out-of-print books and now does a large part of his business online. Sandi Torkildson, the owner of A Room of One’s Own [3], which was located just around the corner, was looking at the space with an eye toward expanding.

“It’s a beautiful space. I just wasn’t sure if I could fill it with inventory,” Torkildson said. “All that extra space was daunting.” To make it work, Torkildson began exploring the idea of a merger of the two businesses.

“I knew about [Tempe, Arizona’s] Changing Hands [4]and other stores that combine new used successfully,” she said. “We started talking about that as a concept — how we could merge our stores and how it would be beneficial for both of us.”

Torkildson agreed to take over the lease for the space and contracted with Czerwein to sell his books on consignment through A Room of One’s Own. Czerwein does the used book buying and maintains a buying counter and storeroom in the bookstore.

“What it did for Ron is, it gave him a good location to continue to sell his books. It gave us the inventory to mix with our stock of new books,” Torkildson said.

The bookstore’s signage now reads “A Room of One’s Own Books New and Used,” and there is a small “Avol’s” sign in the window.

The inventory breakdown is about 60 percent new, 40 percent used, said Torkildson, who shelves the books together, with labels marking the used books.

A Room of One’s Own has set a monthly goal for used books sales, and in the first month that the store has been operating under the arrangement, its goal was met.

“Of course, our hope is we go beyond that goal,” said Torkildson. “And I’m optimistic. People have been really pleased. Regular customers come in and buy a couple used books, too. It’s a benefit to both our sales.”

The closing of the local Borders was among the motivating factors in her decision to move into a bigger space, said Torkildson, who knew there was still a demand for a general bookstore in the city. Canterbury Books originally opened in the space in 1991, at the same time Borders opened, which created fatal competition for the independent store. Avol’s took over the space and maintained its success as a used bookstore for eight years [2].

“Canterbury’s was such a beautiful store, and they did it well,” said Torkildson. “It was just a timing issue.” Canterbury’s owners still own the building and have been very supportive of the entire process, she added.

“We brought it back to what it had been when it was a general bookstore, and we’re very lucky to have such a great spot,” said Torkildson.