This month, the Bookworm in Omaha, Nebr., is marking a 40-year anniversary. While the bookstore is celebrating 18 years in business, the location boasts that it has been the uninterrupted home to independent booksellers for the past four decades.
Harriet Otis and Hortense Butt originally opened the Village Bookstore on this spot in the Countryside Village shopping area in October 1964, Janet Grojean, Bookworm events coordinator, told PW. Over the next three decades, several owners ran the bookstore. Five years ago, Phil and Beth Black, bought Village Books' location. They closed Village Bookstore and moved their own 13-year-old Bookworm into the 6,000-square-foot retail space, doubling the size of their bookstore. Last year, the bookstore grossed more than $1 million.
The Bookworm is the only full-service, general, independent bookstore left in Omaha. Three of its 30 full-time and part-time employees are themselves former owners of local bookstores that have closed in the past decade.
"We've gone from a large volume of independent bookstores—the Bookhouse, Ketterson's, Combs & Combs, Star Realms, Little Professor, with knowledgeable, enthusiastic, local store owners, which peaked in the '90s—to being the only independent left in Omaha," Grojean told PW. "There are plenty of used bookstores around. But as for full-service general stores, we're it."
While many independent bookstores in Omaha have shut their doors in the past decade, Grojean believes the Bookworm's thriving business is, in part, due to the store's physical location. "People have been buying books right here for 40 years," Grojean said. "Our customers know they'll come in here, as they have been for the past four decades, and we're going to remain committed to putting the right book in the right hands, and making sure that the customer enjoys their purchase. That's the bottom line."
The theme of the month-long anniversary celebration is bookstores and bookselling in Nebraska's capital city. Booksellers have set up a timeline charting the history of Omaha's independent bookstores and major literary events since 1964. There is also a display of memorabilia from Omaha's independent bookstores: bookmarks, pens, pencils, photographs, even sales receipts, illustrating the history of Omaha's locally owned bookstores. October 31 is "So You've Always Wanted to Work in a Bookstore?" day at the Bookworm. Patrons will join bookstore staff in dusting, cleaning, rearranging, vacuuming, selling, working with customers and, of course, answering the phones.
"People are always telling us, 'I'd love to work in a bookstore.' So we thought we'd give them the opportunity to participate in all aspects of bookselling: cleaning and sweeping, as well as talking about books," Grojean said.
