Sometimes you don't have to go far to get what you want. Certainly that's the case with Elaine Sopchak and her husband Stephen Sopchak's recent purchase of the Book Rack & Children's Pages in Essex Junction, Vt., where Elaine has worked for the past six years.
"We started looking to buy a bookstore about five years ago," said Elaine, whose bookselling experience also includes stints at a Paperback Booksmith and a Little Professor in New Jersey. "We met with dozens of booksellers and sat down seriously with four of them. Last March Renee Reiner and Mike DeSanto, the owners of the store, said they'd decided to move on." Since the sale was finalized earlier this month, the transition has gone smoothly. All 12 employees are staying, and Stephen is training for a new career as a bookseller after years as a nuclear pharmacist.
This isn't the first change in ownership, or direction, for the Book Rack, which was founded in 1981 in nearby Winooski. When Reiner and DeSanto purchased the store eight years ago, they modeled it after San Francisco's City Lights and added an extensive store newsletter, writing classes and a publishing house, Onion River Press, which the pair will continue to operate. Then in 2001, the Book Rack relocated to its current 4,250-sq.-ft. space in the Essex Outlets & Cinema mall, where it has transformed itself into a family bookstore.
"We are in the hometown of IBM," explained Elaine. "Between that and the Air Force base in the next town, our demographics changed entirely. We discovered our children's section blossomed. We started at half children's books and half adult titles when we got here. I'm thinking of changing the mix to 60/40 or maybe making two-thirds of the inventory kid's books." She's also looking to add more children's sidelines like baby clothes from Vermont-owned Zootano. For now, said Elaine, "we just want to fine-tune and get what our customers want." That means plenty of Book Sense 76 titles, cookbooks, mysteries, nonfiction and bargain books. Although the Sopchaks are considering changing the store's name, that decision is on hold until after Christmas. The store's Web site will also remain the same for now: bookrackvermont.com.
