Lone Rhinoceros

There's a song from the early 80's by Adrian Belew called Lone Rhinoceros. The first few lines of it have been running through my head today. I've sent the last of my crew here at the Main Street store to Trolley Square. So I'm rumbling through this old store entirely alone. I'm collecting bookends, old signage, display stands and -bizarrely - shelving books. All the while I'm singing, "I'm a lone rhinoceros. There ain't one hell of a lots of us..."

Of course Belew's melancholy song about an endangered species isn't true to our story. Ours is a story of evolution and survival. It's always been thus. Sam took over the store upon his return from World War II, when it was nearly bankrupt. When he moved the store from 200 S. to Main Street, it was because the landlord had other plans for the space. The catastrophic fire of 1972 caused another (temporary) move and a remodel of the Main Street store. The 80's and 90's brought changes to the book industry that had us computerizing the inventory system and selling our used/rare books on the Internet. Recent years have left us and many of our independent bookseller peers feeling a bit bruised. But of late, the news for us all is better and we're looking up. Now we evolve again.

It's exciting. I've always found change to be stimulating. The energy at the new store is envigorating. Our amazing staff and generous volunteers are working hard to put our plans into place. Each evening I lock up the Main Street store and drive to Trolley for a managers' recapitulation of the day and plans for the next one. What I see when I get there is always different and always exciting. As tired as I am when I arrive -- and I am tired! -- it's difficult to leave the store once I'm there.

But for now I'm a lone rhinoceros closing this world.

December 28th Moving Update

Moving began yesterday with crews of employees, volunteers, and movers packing up books on Main Street, and a crew of employees and volunteers setting up bookcases at Trolley Square. Here's a peek at the progress so far.

Book on carts waiting to be taken to Trolley Square.

We've already cleared out a large portion of the main floor!

View from the top of the stairs at trolley.

From the landing at Trolley. Just a few more bookcases to go!

We still need volunteers! Join us in our move by calling 801-328-2588 and talking to Jason.

Polaroid Pictures

While cleaning the office here at Sam Weller's Books in preparation for our move to Trolley Square we found a Polaroid camera and some film (best used by March 2004).

I love Polaroids. Birthday money supplemented with chore money bought my first camera, a Polaroid. It looked almost exactly like this one, except that it was a sporty red color. So I was immediately excited to start snapping photos.

Of course with film that expired seven years and nine months ago, there was no telling how they would turn out. They turned out interesting.

 Catherine is channeling the moving stress of all the staff.

 Tony and Joan are preparing the Rare Book Room.

 Getting things done.

 Frank staffing the side counter.

Hollis is holding down the fort in the office.

 Jason is organizing the volunteer schedule.

If you would like to volunteer, contact him at the store. 

801-328-2586 or jasonrabb@samwellers.com

Elizabeth is the returns queen.

 Our friends in the Coffee Garden on Main.

 Debra staffing the main floor info desk.

Stephanie is packing the office.

I don't know what caused portions not to develop. Perhaps the developing fluid had dried out. I have one cartridge (10 photos!) left. I'll use them in the move and post them in a future blog.

Worlds Collide in an Awesome Way

We recently received a shipment of awesome at the bookstore. Limited edition Star Wars moleskine journals. As you can see, they come in both Republic and Empire designs, or Light Side and Dark Side of the Force, if you will.

We also received some limited edition Pac-man moleskine planners.

Come in for your dose of awesome today!

New name for a new space

Catherine and I are the third generation of Wellers to serve the community's interests by selling books. My grandfather, Gustav, opened the original store at the onset of the Great Depression. It was then called Zion Bookstore. My father, Sam, took over in 1946. Sam and my mother, Lila, moved the bookstore to 254 S. Main Street in 1961. In the 1970s the name became Sam Weller's Zion Bookstore. By the 1980s we simply went by Sam Wellers.

I have worked in the family bookstore since childhood. Main Street was a vibrant place throughout my youth but beginning in the 1980's it began to decline as a shopping district due to the proliferation of new suburban malls, increasing parking costs and some poor development decisions. Sales weakened for independent booksellers in the late 1980s and the 1990s as stock funded corporate booksellers fought for dominance. A bit later the internet and ebooks gave users new ways to get information once found only in books. Today all the foregoing is exacerbated by our troubled economy.

We value the long heritage of our bookstore. Sam Weller was a gregarious, energetic bookman whose reputation was known across the country. He was a powerful man and a dedicated father who had a giant influence in my life. But his energy hasn't been strongly felt in the bookstore since he lost his eyesight in 1997. Sam passed away in 2009. For all our love and respect for the bookstore we have been on Main Street, we felt that our new store -- designed and built by Catherine, our team and me -- wouldn't be, and simply couldn't be called Sam's anymore.

When we open our store in Trolley Square on January 6th, it will be known as Weller Book Works. For months we pondered how to preserve the family name while embracing a new identity that reflects our new location, our new style of bookselling, and our changed culture. We settled on "Works" because it is an active term and we're active booksellers. I've often said we're the proletariats of the book world. Works has good connotations. This works. Books work (without batteries and for hundreds of years). It works for me. We work for you. We like the industrial association and think it fits nicely into the old trolley garages into which Trolley Square has been built.

We're excited about our new name and logo. We're also excited about the new web site that will follow shortly. We hope you'll enjoy the bookstore that makes them meaningful.

Trolley Square photos

Here are a few photos of the space in progress. I'm sorry they're so dark. But the lights aren't installed yet so it's dark in there! Don't worry, they're shipping.


This is the current outside of our store. The entrances, upstairs and down, will be immediately west of the atrium off the 600 South entrance.














This was how the space looked raw. It hasn't looked like this since early October.















This is the area Tony refers to as "The Grotto." Those spaces are transforming into offices and a meeting room.















Interior framing. The Grotto is off the the left. The mezzanine is above The Grotto. Big pipes are everywhere.














Still to come: electrical/phones/data/lights, a staircase from the balcony, flooring and railings for the balcony, main floor staining & sealing, painting, installation of sales racks and counters (to seismic code specs), signage and the facade, plus myriad little things I'm forgetting right now.

Oh, and a clothes line. Yes a clothes line. You'll see.

Stuff for Sale

You already know we've begun our Moving Sale. Oh, you don't? Well, used and rare books are 20% off. If you purchase 10 or more used books, or 10 or more rare books, the discount increases to 30%. The Bargain Rooms sale is still in effect, 10 or more items from there will get you 50% off.
Even better we've moved National Geographics published from the 1950's on to the Bargain Rooms. They're 25 cents a piece.

In addition to all that book goodness, we've got construction supplies for sale. We've got lumber, cinder blocks, oak doors, and enormous wood beams. Contact a manager for more details. More book cases have become available too. Come down and snag one or two today.