Once Upon a Time is a bookstore that was in great danger until two little girls saved it. It sounds like a fairy tale, but that's what happened to the Montrose, Calif., bookstore owned until very recently by Jane Humphrey.
After 36 years running Once Upon a Time, Humphrey decided it was time to retire, and she started telling customers that she was looking to sell the store. "I must have talked to 41 interested parties," she told PW, but despite their romantic notions of owning a small bookstore, nothing panned out and she had only one choice: to close shop.
On March 15, an article appeared in the News-Press, an insert in the Los Angeles Times, about the plight of Once Upon a Time. Two long-time customers—nine-year-old Jessica and seven-year-old Amelia Palacios—were inspired to write letters to the editor asking someone in the community to save their beloved bookstore.
Jessica's letter asked, "Where am I going to get my fifth Harry Potter book if there is no Once Upon a Time bookstore? Could you please help and try to find someone to buy it from the nice lady, Mrs. Humphrey?"
Two days later, while the Palacios sisters were shopping with their mother Maureen, Humphrey jokingly asked, "Why don't you buy the store?" as she had with so many other customers. "Lo and behold, it came to pass," Humphrey said.
Not even a week in her new job as proprietor of Once Upon a Time, Maureen Palacios told PW she decided to leave her 20-year career as a human resource consultant because she thought, "Wow, this is an opportunity to continue the legacy."
Once Upon a Time started exclusively with children's books and expanded into gardening, travel and cookbooks. Now, situated in a quaint three-block shopping community (that just celebrated its 90th anniversary), the store also carries whatever adult titles the staff recommends beyond those niches as well. Apparently, the mix works—with two Barnes & Nobles and two Borders Bookstores in a six-mile radius, it has held its own.
"People came into the store and threw their arms around me, some of them crying, because the store is going to continue in its current format," Palacios said. Part of that format is to keep Humphrey and her husband, "Mr. Bob," around on a part-time basis. "I couldn't do it any other way," Palacios added.
Humphrey raised three children in her store, a tradition that will continue for Palacios and her husband, Jorge. "I think that given the chance and given the energy, this place will continue to thrive," Palacios said. The hope being, of course, that they all live happily ever after.
