Before it reopened in May 2014, the 18,000-square-foot complex in Phoenix, Ariz., where Changing Hands Bookstore has a new location was once a locally legendary steakhouse known as Beef Eaters. Founded by Jay Newton in 1961, Beef Eaters closed in 2006, and for nearly eight years the building was abandoned. At times, it was a home for squatters and transients, and at one point was slated for demolition. A group of citizens intent on preserving the local landmark, though, stopped it from being destroyed. Today it is a mixed-use community and commercial space called the Newton that houses a gardening store, a business strategy and consultancy agency, a restaurant--and Changing Hands Bookstore.
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| Co-owner Cindy Dach |
The new Changing Hands resides in what was once the original, cavernous dining room of Beef Eaters. The roughly 5,500-square-foot room had had no windows and the floor was covered in red carpeting; the biggest change made to the space, said Changing Hands co-owner Cindy Dach, was the addition of the room's windows and skylights. "The room was just too dark," said Dach. "Beyond that, though, we really didn't change very much."
They pulled out the original red carpeting and polished the concrete floor underneath, and the building's old light system was also completely replaced with a new LED light system. The store's bookshelves came from a Barnes & Noble in nearby Pasadena, Ariz., that closed in 2013. Before installing the shelves, Changing Hands painted the bookshelves black and cut them down so that shoppers and booksellers alike could look across the entire store.
The single biggest difference between the new store and the original Changing Hands in Tempe is the First Draft Book Bar, a beer, wine and coffee bar that is owned and operated by the bookstore and connects the store's selling floor with a large, multi-purpose community space. The bar is open from 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. from Monday to Saturday and from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Sunday, and has a "to-go" license for beer and wine.
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| First Draft Book Bar |
"The public hasn't quite caught on to the take-out aspect yet," said Dach. "We're working on doing some marketing to make all that more visible."
Dach described the bar's customers and atmosphere both as very literary. The area is well lit to facilitate reading, and conversations around the bar are frequently about books. The bartenders and customers constantly give each other recommendations and talk about books they love. On multiple occasions, Dach said, she's seen customers at the bar run out into the bookstore to grab a title for another customer with whom they had just been talking.
"One of my booksellers complained that no one needed her," recalled Dach, laughing. And during the holidays, customers would frequently order a drink at the bar and then, upon learning that they could bring beverages throughout the rest of the store, go browsing for books with beverage in hand.
The bar has both wine and beer on tap; kegs are stored in a large walk-in refrigerator in the basement, and the tap lines run up to the bar on the ground floor. To make it easier on delivery people, the store also has a keg-sized dumbwaiter that goes down into the basement. Changing Hands hired a liquor agent to help it get a liquor license. According to Dach, Changing Hands Phoenix was the first business in Arizona that was not a bar or restaurant to be given a liquor license.
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| The new store's cash wrap area. |
Before the store was open, Dach related, she and co-owner Gayle Shanks had had many "fraught discussions" about when to start serving alcohol to customers. They consulted with the owners of the restaurant next door, and were told: "You start serving when they start ordering." Dach and her team have followed that advice; on the weekends, the first drinks are usually served by 10 a.m.
The new store opened at 5 p.m. on May 30, 2014, the same day that the store passed its final fire inspection. Having already delayed the opening and worried that some of their new staff might have to go hunting for other jobs if they waited too much longer, Shanks and Dach resolved to move fast after receiving approval to open. They put the word out on social media, and the result, Dach said, was "insane."
The rest of last year, up to and including the holidays, was a major learning period for Dach and her staff. They gained a better understanding of how to run the bar, how to handle events in the new space, and how to make sure that things run smoothly between the bar and the bookstore. They've also learned more about the new store's customer base.
"In the Tempe store, we're in relationships; we have long-time customers," Dach explained. "In Phoenix, we're all on first, second or third dates."
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| The children's section |
The new store is close to downtown and in a much more urban area than the Tempe store. The Newton is also near Phoenix's Metro Light Rail, which began operation in 2008; more of the employees at the Phoenix store take the light rail or bike to work than drive. The Phoenix clientele is younger, and Dach has noticed that the "parents who drink" crowd is very fond of the bookstore. Also more men shop at the Phoenix store than the Tempe store. Remarked Dach: "I think it's the bar."
Some of those assumptions have proven true. Cookbooks and art books, for instance, sell better in Phoenix than in Tempe. Hardcover fiction and poetry also sell better in the new store, as do LGBT non-fiction and business books. Both stores show strong children's sales. One interesting surprise, though, has been the brisk sales of math-related books, specifically those about math theory, at the new store. Memoirs, meanwhile, tend to perform better in Tempe than in Phoenix.
Both the Phoenix store and the Tempe store sell used books. The inventory at the Tempe store is roughly a 50/50 split between new and used titles, and customers can trade in used books any day of the week. At the Phoenix store, the split is more like 70/30 new books to used books, and so far, customers can not yet trade in books. Starting in February, though, customers will be able to trade in books in Phoenix two days per week.
The holidays, Dach said, "absolutely exceeded expectations." Sales at the Tempe store were a little bit down compared to 2013, which Dach and Shanks had expected as a result of the new store, but sales in Phoenix more than made up the difference. The holiday bestsellers, Dach reported, were very similar at both stores--Anthony Doerr's All the Light We Cannot See was the biggest fiction title of the season.
Some of the initiatives that Dach and Shanks have been planning for a long time--such as book-and-beer or book-and-wine pairings as gift items--have yet to be introduced. But now that things have settled down a bit, Dach said, they can start working on those programs.
"When we said we'd open a bar, we had all these amazing ideas," said Dach. "But the first seven months were really about operations. Now we're able to take a breath and look at our list of original ideas and get those on the calendar." --Alex Mutter
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