"If I were going to be working 80-hour weeks, I wanted to be comfortable," said Collette Morgan, a founding owner and general manager of Wild Rumpus in Minneapolis, Minn. Wild Rumpus is a 2,000-square-foot, primarily children's and YA bookstore with a singular twist: the store is home to a multitude of adopted and rescued animals and operates as something of a petting zoo.
"I decided from the beginning there had to be animals," recalled Morgan, who had worked for years at famed Minneapolis indie Odegard Books before opening her own store. The number and kinds of animals at Wild Rumpus have changed over the years, but the store currently has three cats, two rats, two doves, two chinchillas, a ferret, a chicken, a tarantula, a cockatiel and assorted fish. "I wanted to make it a comfortable place for me, and I knew kids would like that stuff, too. It was self-serving, but it worked out."
Being a kid's-focused bookstore, added Morgan, was also part of the plan from the beginning. She opened Wild Rumpus in 1992, after watching Odegard Books go out of business due to competition from Barnes & Noble and other chain stores (she bought her initial stock from Odegard's after it closed).
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| Collette Morgan and feathered friend | |
"At that time, I did not want to open a general-interest store against all of those big-box stores," explained Morgan. She wanted her store to have a definite focus on young readers, but also not be uncomfortable for teenagers and adults. And despite opening in what Morgan called "the worst of times," Wild Rumpus has thrived for the past 23 years thanks to its specialty focus and unusual draw.
All of the store's animals reside in Wild Rumpus around the clock, even outside of business hours. The chicken and cats are always roaming, while the other animals get taken out of their respective cages when the employees want to show them. Most of the animals, Morgan added, also get some time out of their cages every morning before the store opens, and all the animals that frequently interact with customers have places in store to which they can retreat if they feel bothered. Joked Morgan: "I have a space like that, too. It's called my office."
All of Wild Rumpus's employees receive animal training and take part in caring for the animals, and there is an animal coordinator on staff whose job is keeping track of veterinary appointments, ordering food and generally "pulling it all together." Budgeting for all of the animals' needs can be challenging, Morgan said. Her store uses four vets--a bird specialist, a lizard specialist, a general vet who handles most of the store's furred animals, and a ferret specialist--and feeding so many animals requires buying a lot of food.
"That's a pretty huge expense when you think of it," said Morgan, in terms of both money and time. "They're expenses that other stores don't have."
Wild Rumpus hosts plenty of author events and, as one might expect, many of the store's events are animal-focused. Morgan and her employees don't build events around any of the store's full-time residents, but they do sometimes bring in slightly more exotic animals. They've done a live horseshoeing at the store, and have also brought in a llama. And when the furred-animal vet visits, customers can watch.
At a few points over the years, Morgan has been unable to keep some animals that were adopted by the store. One of those was a young pot-bellied pig, whose previous owner had assured Morgan that the pig was litter-trained. The pig did not always stick to its training, which caused the store's cats to also abandon their litter boxes. The pig was eventually re-homed to the owner of a nearby quilt shop, and ended up growing to around 250 pounds. Another such animal was a beautiful macaw that grew hugely attached to Morgan. Whenever she was in the store, Morgan recalled, the parrot was fine. But whenever she left, the parrot began shrieking so loudly that it could be heard down the block.
"It wasn't good for browsing," added Morgan, dryly. "So we had to find someone."
Wild Rumpus has an inventory of some 35,000 titles, all new. The store does have a section of "recycled books," which are bought from children on store credit and re-sold at $1, but those aren't tracked as inventory. Though the store is children's focused, there is a strong YA section and a smattering of adult frontlist titles. As for non-book inventory, Wild Rumpus carries a selection of book-related plush toys and greeting cards, and Morgan has begun stocking a relatively small selection of turntables and vinyl. Although Wild Rumpus technically has a pet store license--Morgan couldn't legally keep ferrets, chickens and some other types of animals without one--none of the pets are ever for sale.
Said Morgan: "We're a pet store that only sells books." --Alex Mutter