In October 2004, my husband Bob and I purchased Sister Wolf Books, an independent bookstore in Dorset, Minnesota. The experiences of our first year were chronicled in Book Women in the April/May 2006 issue.  

Life has moved on since that first year. As Bob tells it, on May 1, 2007 we woke up to discover we owned two bookstores! It wasn’t quite that abrupt—but almost. In February, Jill Johnson had called our daughter, Jen Geraedts, and said she was ready to retire. Was Jen interested in purchasing Jill’s bookstore, Beagle Books in Park Rapids? Was Jen interested?!? Owning a bookstore was her life goal! However, the cost of the store, inventory, and building were out of Jen’s range at this time in her life. So. . .Mom and Dad were approached. Bob and I were interested in the possibility of purchasing Beagle, and Jill and her husband, Deane, were willing to sell it to us instead of to Jen.  

We began a series of trips to Park Rapids to meet with Jill and Deane and become familiar with the store. It’s so odd to visit the competition and learn its’ in and outs! The more we talked, the more attractive purchasing Beagle seemed. I began to get excited and, although he won’t admit it, Bob must have been getting excited, too. Isn’t that why the keys were locked in the car after one visit to Beagle? 

Both stores are more than three hours north of our Minneapolis home. I was already living in our cabin five months of the years while managing Sister Wolf, so we knew we would need a local manager for Beagle. And our daughter was available—as well as eager—to assume that role. 

We’d purchased Sister Wolf Books in October. It didn’t re-open until May, so there was plenty of time to get ready. This time, the situation was different. We acquired the store one afternoon and had to begin running it the very next day! I was getting Sister Wolf ready to open for the summer, and Jen was fighting jet-lag following a trip to Korea. Nonetheless, she opened Beagle at 8AM on May 1 with a big smile on her face! 

Fortunately, there were helpful similarities between the stores. We used the same POS (Point of Sale) system, so inventory was tracked and sales were made the same way at each store. The inventories at the stores were similar, so Jen was familiar with the stock at Beagle. Another important commonality was that the Johnsons and my family had similar visions of the role of a bookstore in the community, and a shared desire for our stores to be good neighbors in that community. 
 

The most immediate tasks for Jen were learning to manage a staff and learning to be responsible for the administrative tasks involved in running a book store. She had worked at Sister Wolf Books for several summers but didn’t have experience with these aspects of the business. Jill and Deane Johnson were a wonderful resource for her— supportive, encouraging, and available to answer questions and explain procedures,  

Both Sister Wolf and Beagle Books are small stores, which means that the manager has to do everything—buy books and other merchandise, clean the toilet, supervise staff, do payroll, shovel the front steps, arrange special events, run book groups, monitor the budget—and sell books. Jen had thought that being the manager of a book store was her dream job. Now she thinks that being a manager who plans special events, sells books and delegates the rest would be her dream job!

We had decided that while the stores would retain their names and identities, we would run them as sister stores. At first, customers were startled to see the same bookseller at both stores, or a bookseller at one store wearing a t-shirt from the other store!  We quickly got used to calling the other store to secure books, and made several trips a week moving books back and forth. It’s wonderful for both stores to have a private warehouse so close by!

The stores complement each other in interesting ways. Sister Wolf has a reputation for strong book groups, while Beagle is great at tracking down hard-to-find titles. Sister Wolf offers free Wi-Fi, while piano lessons are given at Beagle. Beagle supports a women’s cooperative in Thailand and Sister Wolf has free trade journals and coffee. Both stores offer the fine customer service which characterizes independent book stores. Each store has distinctive sidelines (non-book merchandise,) with very little overlap. 

An interesting challenge is that the rhythm of the stores is different. The “year” at Sister Wolf is May-October. We’ve all had to adjust to running a year-round store. For example, at Sister Wolf we take inventory in a leisurely way after the stores closes for the season. At Beagle, the entire family descended on the store one night at closing, counted all night, and were ready for business the next morning. Bob and I are in the habit of taking an autumn vacation after Sister Wolf closes in the fall. Jen called me the day after Thanksgiving, while we were vacationing in Maryland, to inform me that I could no longer have that day off. What did I know about bookselling in the weeks before Christmas?  

The administration of the stores is still evolving. Ordering books in larger quantities can be economical, but takes a good bit of coordination. And we think we’ve finally figured out a good system for tracking income and finances, but it’s been a challenge getting there. 

Because the stores are a family business, we’ve had to work hard to establish and maintain appropriate boundaries between our work and personal lives, and between our roles as owner/manager and mother/daughter. Jen says, “My mom knows all my mistakes at work—but still is a voice of genuine support”—an affirmation which brought tears to my eyes, as well as letting me know we’re doing some things right! 

As a parent, it’s meaningful to share a core value—the importance of reading and books-- with my daughter. It’s also gratifying to see her grow professionally in her role as the manager of Beagle Books. 

I’ve learned that Jen has the ability to plan and execute special events with a distinctive flair. On the Fourth of July, Beagle Books and Chef John Michael Lerma, author of “Garden County Cooking,” teamed up to sponsor a Pie-Baking contest. Over 20 people entered pies in four categories. After the judging, the pies were auctioned off in front of Beagle. The event raised $500 to benefit the Park Rapids Library. Just days later, our two stores, the coffee shop next to Beagle, and the Park Rapids public library celebrated the release of “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows” with a “Harry Potter Party Tour.” There were different events at each venue, and participants who visited all four were entered in a drawing. We had large, enthusiastic crowds at each stop on the tour, and a surprising number visited them all. These events were the result of Jen’s vision and planning. 

Her latest, and most ambitious, project is called Stone Soup. As a response to reading Barbara’s Kingsolver’s book, “Animal, Vegetable, Miracle,” Jen has started a community group to explore issues involved in eating locally grown foods. She’s even considering turning one of the gardens around the store into a vegetable garden! 

Running a family business means everyone gets involved. Jen’s husband, Tom was one of the judges of the pie-baking contest. He’s also pitched in less glamorous ways—boarding up a broken window at Sister Wolf in the middle of the night, and quickly installing a new gutter at Beagle during the spring thaw. Their six-year old daughter, Megan, learned how to scan books before she could read. She also has potential as a sales person—one day at Beagle she asked a store full of customers, “who wants to spend a million dollars?” Alas, no one did!  

Our first year of running both stores had other challenges, too. A Wal-mart Super Store opened in Park Rapids last year, and a road construction project which lasted all summer made it difficult to get to Beagle Books. Overnight, Bob had the upkeep of two buildings to oversee. He’s still wondering how doubling the number of stores resulted in tripling the projects on his “to do” list.  

At the end of our first year running both stores, we’re wiser than we were a year ago, and more committed than ever to sharing books with our community!