Couth Buzzard Books, a used and new bookstore in the Greenwood neighborhood of Seattle, Wash., has been put up for sale. The Seattle Times reported that last March, owner Theo Dzielak thought his bookstore had reached the end of the line. "I decided to initiate closing the store because the pandemic finally caught up with us," he said. "I was getting deeper in debt and the grace period for the loans were coming due."
To his surprise, however, the community came together to launch a successful GoFundMe campaign, with more than 720 donors contributing to save the shop. But Dzielak still felt ready to retire, having been in the business since he was hired at the University Village Barnes & Noble in 2001, and later becoming a manager in 2004 at Couth Buzzard in its previous location. The Times noted that when the store was evicted, Dzielak teamed up with the original co-owner, Gerry Lovchik, to move to its present location at 8310 Greenwood Ave. N., and he eventually took over full ownership of the shop.
Since the crowdfunding success last spring, business has been good, and some of the store's supporters have formed a steering committee to find a way for the Couth to survive.
"So now we're down to three options," Dzielak said. "Finding a nonprofit that will cover us, sell the store or close the store." Several potential buyers have inquired, but the conversations "haven't gone any place yet." He would like to reach some sort of resolution by summer 2024, and has requested that anyone interested in taking over the business reach out to talk with him.
Dzielak believes that the Greenwood/Phinney community is uniquely suited to make a third place work, noting "It's a good mix of businesses and lots of single-family residences, and then right down the street we have the Greenwood Senior Center, and right up the road we have the Phinney neighborhood center. Out on the street, I see people walking their dogs and out with their families--it's already an established neighborhood."