Busines Profile: Canterbury Book Store offers special services to customers
Trending
EDITOR NOTE: The Daily Press will be featuring a series of articles on local businesses, highlighting their history and what makes them unique. The series will run on a regular basis in the Daily Press.
-- -- --
ESCANABA -- 908 Ludington St. is in an area of downtown Escanaba that was built in the late 19th century to support the industry around the shipping port. As one might guess, it was a brewery at one point and a tavern at another. A tailor occupied the space for a while and was followed by the first incarnation of Canterbury Book Store in the mid '60s. In 2018, a young couple purchased the shop, and they have been peddling literature ever since.
The wooden shelves and the row of titles on lighthouses and lakes reminds visitors that they are in the Upper Peninsula, while the name hearkening to that holy ancient site and the Gothic lettering on the storefront allows them to imagine they are part of a Chaucerian tale on a pilgrimage across England.
The contents of the store, says co-owner and operator Jesse Traub, are contantly in flux. "Bit by bit, we're trying to turn over the inventory. It's a never-ending process."
Most are new books whose first reads will be made in the hands of Canterbury patrons. The store buys directly from publishers and other distributers. On choosing which titles to carry, Traub said, "It's more art than science."
But there is a loose formula. They -- Jesse and the other owner, Rebecca Bender, his wife -- keep up on book reviews in various publications. Trade associations like the Midwest Independent Booksellers Association can give them an idea of books that are selling well regionally, but such information is hardly a guarantee of what Escanaba readers want. "Hit and miss," Traub said of that strategy.
They do special orders a lot, said Jesse, so the surest way to know what people actually want is simply to listen to what customers ask for and carry through with fulfilling the request. And if multiple people inquire after a particular title or author, that is a clear indication that there is local interest in the subject.
Certain topics can be slightly more popular than others. "People here tend to head towards fiction more than non-fiction," Traub said thoughtfully, then added a departure from that generality. There a good number of history buffs, he said, and the store will experience a burst "when a hot new history book comes out."
Mysteries perpetually intrigue, said Jesse on Thursday, and part-time employee Gregg Bruff echoed the statement Friday. Sci-fi and fantasy are well-liked.
"We're trying to get more into romance.
"Children's books have a pretty strong following through the generations. Dr. Seuss is still popular," said Traub. "Shel Silverstein, Eric Carle -- these are people who -- 40 years ago, people were reading them to their children, and they still do."
Classics will always have a place in the book store. "Mark Twain, Tolstoy, Chinua Achebe -- these all continue to sell as they did when they were first released."
But such consistency is not true of every category. Of romance, Traub reported, "We found that the newer titles we stock in that section tend to do better," and said that they were trying to carry more.
There are used books to be found at Canterbury. They will occasionally buy if people bring in some books to offer. "We're more particular when we do that," said Jesse, so only some make the cut that way.
"Sometimes people are just looking to get rid of a bunch of books and they'll just drop them off as a donation, which is great."