When Jenny Lawton bought Just Books in Greenwich, Conn., in January, her only book experience was the previous month she spent training with then owner Warren Cassell. "I got to meet all the important customers that way," said Lawton, who came to bookselling via high tech.
A quick study, Lawton is about to open her second store six months later, Just Books, Too, five miles away in Old Greenwich. "It's almost double in size, 1,000 square feet," said Lawton. She plans to use the extra space for in-store signings—the 600-square-foot flagship store is too small—and for a sizable kids section. Lawton estimates that children's books will account for one quarter of the inventory at the new store, which she would like to make an after-school destination. In addition to traditional books, she said, "I promised my two boys we'd have comics." John Netzer, formerly with the New Canaan Bookshop, will manage Just Books, Too, which is slated to open in mid-June, and handle the buying for both stores.
No other big changes are in the works at Just Books. Lawton has maintained the same look—green floor and shelves—from Cassell's days. "My customers would have a riot if I repainted it," said Lawton. However, she holds open the possibility of purchasing more stores. "I would expand as it make sense," she told PW. Across New England in the Jamaica Plain section of Boston, four-year-old Rhythm & Muse: Music-Bookstore-Café is doing some expanding of its own, even though the actual square footage will be smaller. According to David Doyle, a former health-care provider who owns the store with his brother, Scott, a former pastry chef, "We're going down in size from 1,800 to 1,100 square feet broken into three rooms. What we're doing is trading off floor space for wall space." In addition, Rhythm & Muse is giving up its formal cafe, but will continue to serve complimentary coffee. The new space is just a few blocks away in what had been Roseway Books, a used bookstore across from a busy CVS pharmacy. In a nod to the customers who frequented Roseway, Rhythm & Muse is planning to add first-edition hardcovers and some rare books.
The store will continue to split its inventory evenly between books and CDs, although, said Doyle, "we'd like to mix the two more. Our focus is literary fiction and trade paperbacks. We have a poetry section that's grown, and we have local author, gender & sexuality, politics and history sections. Our music is really a handpicked section going back to the '30s."
Rhythm & Muse will move out of its current location at the end of June and expects to reopen after the Fourth of July holiday. "We're hoping to have a little bit of a parade on Saturday June 29, when our customers help us move boxes to the new store. It shows that our bookstore is part of the community," said Doyle.
