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| Vivien Jennings and Roger Doeren | |
Rainy Day Books in Fairway, Kan., has been sold to an ownership group consisting of "entrepreneurs, business leaders and longtime Rainy Day Books customers," the Kansas City Business Journal reported.
The group includes the founders of Made in Kansas City, who will oversee bookstore operations, and the new owners intend to "pursue bigger author events, cross-marketing, a presence at the Kansas City International Airport and expanded hours." At some point they will also look at opening new Rainy Day Books locations.
"We view your local bookstore as the pinnacle of retail," said Tyler Enders, co-founder of Made in Kansas City and member of the ownership group. "Any company that has been around for 47 years clearly has good business acumen, but also is very flexible. They've had to adapt and have really nurtured relationships with their customers.... It's a storied, iconic institution.”
Earlier this year, store president and founder Vivien Jennings and chief operating officer Roger Doeren decided to put the store up for sale, with Jennings's son Geoffrey Jennings guiding the process.
In the spring Jennings and Doeren wrote, "It is time for transition, so that new owners can build on our reputation and legacy of literacy," noting that 2020 and 2021 were "very challenging" for themselves and the store. They reinvented and reinvested in the business, and "endured with the support from the community and beyond." With the world opening back up, "the pace and hospitality of the author events we produce requires greater stamina than we have at ages 77 and 70." It was time "for someone new to be the face and voice of Rainy Day Books."
Jennings said she doesn't plan to step away entirely from the bookstore just yet. She will continue to make book recommendations and plan author events while spending more time with friends and family, particularly her grandchildren. Doeren, meanwhile, will "continue helping on the tech side," while Geoffrey Jennings will stay onboard as a buyer and events organizer, noting that "stopping cold turkey" didn't feel right.
"It's not the signal of an end of an era," Vivien Jennings told the Journal. "It's actually an extension of what we've been doing for 47 years. We want to continue the importance of literacy and what that can mean to a community. I think Tyler and Made in Kansas City will also take that forward."
Author, journalist and longtime Rainy Day Books customer David Von Drehle was instrumental in bringing the ownership group together. He initially pitched the idea of investing in the bookstore to his book club, while also telling Jennings and Doeren that he could help with forming an investor group if the need arose.
That group also includes Karen Ball, Von Drehle's wife; Leigh and Tyler Nottberg, who is the CEO of U.S. Engineering; art collectors Christy and Bill Gautreaux; and a member of the Kansas City Royals ownership group. Tyler Enders noted that all of them are Rainy Day Books customers.
"Made in Kansas City is basically giving Rainy Day Books a much bigger microphone, and they're going to be able to do that very quickly," Geoffrey Jennings said. "The store needs to grow. We're at an inflection point."