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By JANET COOK
News staff writer
October 18, 2006
In the fall of 1976, Sally LaVenture was
living simply on a communal farm in the Hood River Valley with her
husband, Charley, and some friends. She spent her days working in the
farm’s huge gardens, making bread and tofu, and canning and preserving
the food they didn’t eat fresh.
But Sally felt something was missing. When she wasn’t working on the
farm, she would slip away to Portland to hang out in bookstores and
buy books. There was no bookstore in Hood River and she secretly
dreamed of opening one, but she had no idea how to go about it.
Then one day, the owners of a Hood River store called Waucoma Books
and Herbs – a funky shop on Third Street (where Flow Yoga now is)
which sold wine and beer making supplies, bulk coffee, tea and spices,
plants and a few books on parenting and natural childbirth – stopped
by the farm. They were moving to Eugene and wondered if Sally would be
interested in taking over the store.
“I was scared but after three days of going back and forth about it, I
decided this was my chance to really do what I had been thinking
about,” Sally recalled. “I told them I only wanted the few books, and
the teas, spices and coffee – and their stationery!” Sally and Charley
built bookshelves out of lumber from Hanel Mill (which are still in
use) and drove their Volkswagen bus to a book distributor in Seattle
to load up on their first inventory.
Business was slow at first, a blessing as Sally was learning
everything as she went – from ordering books to paying taxes. But
customers eventually began trickling in. That was 30 years ago, and
the rest, as they say, is history.
‘Harry Potter’ release parties have become a tradition at Waucoma.
Above, in July 2005, Patty Merz and Rose Kelly announce to a packed
store that midnight has arrived, and the first Harry Potter book (“The
Half-Blood Prince”) can be sold. Below, costumed Sally LaVenture and
Patty Merz ring up Harry Potter books.
Waucoma Bookstore celebrates its 30th
anniversary this month with a visit by author and celebrated
mountaineer Pete Takeda (see sidebar), special sales and customer
appreciation events.
Thirty years is a landmark event for any business, but particularly
for a small, independent bookstore in the age of the Internet and big
box discount retailers.
“The Internet has been the biggest challenge,” Sally said. “Every book
is just a finger tap away on the computer keypad, and often those
books are discounted as well.” Sally credits both her staff and “a
loyal customer base” with Waucoma’s survival.
“We have several book buyers, not just me,” Sally said. “We each order
the subject we know and are the most interested in. We order with our
customers and our community in mind, unlike some of the bigger stores
where a regional warehouse sends a predetermined number of the same
titles to each store.”
Another thing Waucoma offers is customer service – something Sally
thinks people still value even if it’s easier to order books without
ever leaving home.
“We have customers who have been coming to us for years, and we know
them well,” Sally said. “We know their families, we know what they
like to read. We think of them when we are ordering books. We point
out new titles we think they will like. We love the challenge of
finding the right book for the right person. That is something the
Internet and many of the big box bookstores can’t do.”
Connecting a good book with the right customer – “hand-selling” a
book, as it’s referred to in the book business – is what Sally loves
most about bookselling.
“I read a book, fall in love with it, and then my enthusiasm spreads
to a customer looking for a good book to read,” she said. “Then they
come back in and tell me how much they loved the book and then they go
and buy another copy to give their friend. I love that.” Sally and her
staff are avid readers – as anyone who has browsed the “staff
recommendations” section at the bookstore will attest.
That true love for books helps not only with customer service but has
helped Sally bring a wide range of well-known – and soon-to-be
well-known – authors to Hood River over the years. Ten years ago,
Sally read Connie May Fowler’s “Before Women had Wings,” and became so
passionate about it that she tracked down the then-unknown author and
brought her to town for a reading and book signing. Soon, local book
groups were reading the book and buzz about it spread. Eventually,
Oprah picked it for her monthly selection.
“Bringing her to town was a highlight of my bookselling career,” Sally
said. Similarly, after a chance meeting with mountaineer and author
Jon Krakauer several years ago in Mexico, she brought him to town just
as his best-selling book “Under the Banner of Heaven” was released. A
sold-out crowd of more than 300 showed up, and ticket proceeds were
donated to the Hood River County Library’s renovation.
“It is a challenge to get authors to come to a small town, especially
when Portland is so close,” Sally said. “I have been lucky lately.”
She has already arranged for a visit in February by Greg Mortenson,
author of “Three Cups of Tea” which recounts his efforts over the past
15 years to build more than 50 schools across rural Pakistan and
Afghanistan.
Thirty years into her bookselling career, Sally now is absent from the
bookstore frequently – visiting her grown daughters in Colorado, her
mother in France and her father in Boston, as well as spending time
with Charley at their home in Mexico. Rose Kelly, who has worked at
Waucoma for nearly 20 years, now manages the store.
“Without her at the helm, there would be no store,” Sally said. “She,
together with the help of the other staff, keeps the bookstore alive –
with a little help from me now and then.”
And then there are the readers in the Hood River community.
“The fact that Hood River has several bookstores now only goes to show
what a literate town Hood River has become,” Sally said. “It gives me
hope that the art of reading is alive and well in Hood River.”
Sally recalls a conversation she had with a man in Hood River 30 years
ago.
“He warned me against opening a bookstore because there were not
enough people who read in this community to support a bookstore,” she
said. “I was determined to prove him wrong.”
And she has, 30 times over. |
