“A Town Isn’t A Town Without A Bookstore”

By LYDIA BERGLAR
News Editor

“What I say is, a town isn’t a town without a bookstore. It may call itself a town, but unless it’s got a bookstore, it knows it’s not foolin’ a soul.” So wrote Neil Gaiman in his novel “American Gods.” It appears that fans of McBride’s Bookstore agree with Gaiman.

The summer months were financially challenging for Trenton’s bookstore, but the community rallied behind the small business, continuing to prove that we do, indeed, want a local bookstore.

Of course, the demise of bookstores and brick-and-mortar stores in general is not a new topic, but a number of articles offer hopeful outlooks. For those interested, several interesting ones are:

• “The Truth About the ‘Death of Brick-and-Mortar’” by Rob Stott
• “We Thought Amazon Killed Bookstores. We Were So Wrong.” by Marilyn Bailey
• “2 Years Of Lessons From Running My Own Bookstore” by Ryan Holiday

To stay open, McBride’s needs to make $205 per business day, but that’s for bare bones, just keeping the doors open. This summer, most days brought in less than $100, and the electric bills and other business expenses were high.

Coy Williams (general manager) doesn’t take a salary. “Everything I get goes back into the store to bring in product and make sure the customers have what they need.” He said that if the store made $300 a day, “I would be able to breathe a little bit better.” In the words of Drew Kreuser (marketing manager), “We have all invested money in the store, and we usually don’t ask for help, but we had really bad sales in June and July.”

The store posted on Facebook about these difficulties, and people responded heartily. The Facebook page went from 400 followers to now over 1,900 followers. In August, about 5,000 books were donated to the store.

Williams said, “We’ve had people drive from Lafayette and Ringgold, and a ton of people come from Chattanooga. I had people calling from Chattanooga wanting me to mail them books since they couldn’t get down here. It’s all word of mouth, people telling others, ‘Hey, you should go check out this bookstore.’”

As of mid-September, the store was in good shape for October, and Williams said they will stay open through the end of the year. Depending on how business is for the rest of 2024, they may need to reassess come 2025.

Kreuser explained, “One of the challenges of the past year has been keeping prices low enough for our customers while offering a wide variety of books, including newer books.” Finding the best possible copies at the cheapest prices is a bit like a treasure hunt for the McBride’s staff who are experts at finding deals.

With all the talk about kids reading less and less, the Sentinel asked what McBride’s is seeing when it comes to children’s literacy. Williams encouragingly reported, “We have a lot of good parents that read, and they bring their children in here. They want to pass that love of reading on to their kids.” Children are often interested in books about animals and dinosaurs, and the historical fiction “I Survived” series by Lauren Tarshis is popular these days.

Teenagers also frequent the bookstore, particularly seeking out young adult novels. Even some Southeast Lineman Training Center students find the store, sometimes bringing their families. Williams said, “One lady has been coming here since we opened. Her grandson graduated from SLTC the first year that we were open, and she’ll still drive 12 hours from Oklahoma to come here.”

Williams observed that middle-aged readers prefer New York Times Best Sellers, including authors like Nora Roberts and John Grisham, while many senior women love their romance books, and the senior men choose westerns.

Classics are still, well, classic. Williams reported, “We can’t keep ‘1984’ and ‘Animal Farm’ in. They sell like hotcakes. Certain authors like Cormac McCarthy and Stephen King are very popular now.”

When the Sentinel was at the store, one regular, Miss Patsy, stopped by. She used to run a bookstore in the Gross Shopping Center when Williams was a teenager. He recalled, “We all traded books with her. That’s where I was introduced to Anne Rice and Stephen King. It was a little bitty store beside the barber shop. Now, she shops with me.” Williams puts aside any books in Miss Patsy’s favorite series that come to the store, saving them for her.

Later that Tuesday morning, a group of women came in, eagerly browsing for books. One described what she was interested in, and Williams quickly pointed her in the right direction. This is one advantage local bookstores have over online sellers: You’ll find people like Williams and Kreuser who love talking about books, music, and beyond and are knowledgeable about what they’re selling.

Local bookstores are also one thread in the fabric of small communities, often hosting meet and greets with local authors. McBride’s has had three in the last few months alone, offering snacks and drinks at the events. Williams said, “There are more local authors I haven’t met yet. We encourage them to reach out to us, and we’ll set something up.”

Once a month, McBride’s donates about ten boxes of books to the Dade County Senior Center, and inmates in the Dade County Jail can order books through the store. The store let the Girl Scouts sell cookies out front and gave gift certificates to the Cub Scouts’ Pinewood Derby.

Williams said that particularly when it comes to new books, online shopping detracts from their business, but the store thrives by selling old books. “Most of our used books are cheaper than you’ll find them online. Sometimes we can find stuff cheaper than Amazon. I always want my price to be cheaper. As a consumer myself, I’m going to go for the cheapest price.”

This is especially true of rare books and collectables. Williams said, “Oddball stuff comes in that you have no idea is rare, but you look it up and find out it is. It’s the stuff people can’t find at a chain store.”

In mid-September, a book collector from Orlando, Fla. visited. He was on a road trip to stop at every used bookstore he could find in Georgia. “He was planning on hitting 13 used bookstores the day he visited us,” Williams said. “He bought a bunch of old science fiction and fantasy.”

While it has changed the landscape of buying books, the internet is not the antagonist in this story; McBride’s sells on eBay quite a bit and searches online to find exactly what customers want.

The staff are also known to go above and beyond for customers. For example, a girl requested a copy of the popular young adult book “The Book of Bill” for her birthday. Williams said, “Everybody was out of it, everywhere online was out of it. The only place that had it was a Target 200 miles away.” McBride’s made the trip, bought the remaining five copies at the Target, and met the birthday deadline.

The Sentinel asked if free public libraries impact the bookstore, but Williams didn’t think so. McBride’s and the Dade County Public Library share the same passion for literacy, and they consider each other to be partners. “I think it’s wonderful all the programs the library has.”

McBride’s donated $5 gift certificates to the library’s summer reading program so that kids who completed the challenge could purchase their very own book. The store also makes sure to have titles on the library’s book club list in stock.

Also, when a Russian student came to Dade County, there weren’t any books in Russian in the library’s broader system. Mindy Haworth (previous library manager) went to Williams who recalled, “I went to two or three different places and called my friend at ‘The Crazy Book Lady’ in Acworth, Ga. She had an old set of fairytale books written in Russian. Those were cool as all get out.”

Because waiting lists can be long at the library or readers may want to take their time with a book, owning books isn’t going away any time soon. Williams added that customers will often discover favorite authors or series at the library; then they’ll visit McBride’s to purchase more of that series or author.

Williams thinks people aren’t always aware of what the store offers. For example, last year, they added manga, comic books, video games, and vinyl LPs, and while the records generally sold well, the video games didn’t. “I think people didn’t know we had them. We’re trying a whole bunch of different things. I always want to hear what people want that we don’t have.”

He also noted that the parking lot can be an obstacle. “I know it’s awful. That is a big problem for some people. Between 3 and 5 p.m., it’s hard to get in and out of this parking lot.” Before making a trip to the store, customers can always call to see what’s in stock.

Always happy to accept donated books, McBride’s is thankful for the community support. Williams said, “I love the donations because you never know what you’ll get in them. We had a big donation from people who were moving and found 24 Shakespeare books printed in 1848. They were in perfect shape, and we sold those the next day.”

Volunteers are also welcome. Williams said, “If anyone wants to help shelve books and alphabetize, we’d love to have them. A married couple comes in on Thursdays for about an hour. She’s good with computers, so she and Drew do all the computer stuff while her husband and I work on organizing.”

In closing, Williams said honestly, “Y’all want a bookstore here? Please come visit us. I will stay open as long as y’all are wanting to come in.”