Gold Shoe Books opened recently at 405 N. Jackson Ave. in St. Louis, Mo. The Post-Dispatch reported that owner Debra Kennard "has always dreamed of opening a bookstore. She's a reader and raised her three children to be readers, too."
Kennard said she drew inspiration from Parisian cafes and English shops for her bookstore's feel and inventory, adding that her goal is to be a classic neighborhood bookshop, one that creates community and brings people together: "I want to know what people want and what excites them, what their friend told them to read."
Prior to opening Gold Shoe Books, Kennard stepped away from her position at Washington University, feeling like this was the right time to pursue her bookshop dream: "I just pictured myself 10 years from now and feeling like that window had closed. I didn't want to be sitting somewhere in 10 years and wonder if I could have done it."
In preparation for the new venture, she scouted potential locations and spoke with other booksellers in the city, including Kelly Von Plonski of Subterranean Books and Kris Kleindienst of Left Bank Books, noting that these bookstores "were sort of my book haunts before now....
"In my conversation with Kelly I said, 'I'm not here to cannibalize your customer base or anybody else's.' My hope is that rising tides raise all ships. There's certainly enough interest in reading and hopefully the idea is you build even more of a reader base and more of a community and people can find their little niches. The more I talked to people, the more I was like, 'I'm not crazy to think I could do this. This is a neighborhood bookstore and I hope to do some things, but it's not going to ever be like Left Bank Books, as a cultural institution."
The bookshop's name was inspired by The Country Bunny and the Little Gold Shoes by DuBose Heyward, illustrated by Marjorie Flack, which she read to her kids when they were little.