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Saugerties Times - Features | 12/4/2008 |
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Free to a Good Home
Rent not included; offer valid only for book lovers |
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| | Richard Frisbie at his Main Street book store.
[ Andy Uzzle ] | |
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by Heather Plonchak
Whoever said that nothing in life is free has never met Richard Frisbie.
The owner of Hope Farm Press and Booktrader is offering his Main Street shop, along with more than 15,000 books, for the low, low price of--get this--zilch.
Frisbie says giving the place away may be the only way to ensure it remains a bookstore, and even that looks doubtful at this time. If no "buyers "come forward, the doors to Saugerties' oldest bookstore will permanently close December 31.
Frisbie plans to continue to oversee the Hope Farm Press half of the business, a primarily online retailer specializing in books about New York State, from his living room on Jane Street.
Desperate times...
When he put the business on the market in June, the asking price was $20,000. Frisbie received several inquiries, with more than one prospective buyer expressing some healthy suspicion at the price tag.
"It was just too cheap," he said. "But, the point wasn't to make a lot of money. The point was to make it so attractive that someone would buy it and keep the store open on Main Street. I want [Booktrader] to stay here, and me to move to Jane Street.
"What I really wanted was the bragging rights," Frisbie added. "I wanted to be able to say I sold it twice."
Although Frisbie says the Booktrader holds its own, and will likely break even at the end of the year, the new owner would have bring something new to the table to turn a profit. He thinks adding new and used CDs and DVDs might do the trick, but he'll leave it to his successor to figure out the particulars. The shop would provide an ideal opportunity for a dedicated book lover to go pro.
He should know. Frisbie first acquired the Booktrader in the mid-1980s, intending to transform his hobby into his profession, and his former profession, gardening, into a hobby. After five years next to what is now M&T Bank, Frisbie moved the shop to its current location, and then sold it to Lou Saylor in 1992.
Five years later, in 1997, Frisbie received a call from Saylor. He'd had enough of life as an independent book seller. He was closing the store and moving out of Saugerties. Might Frisbie be interested in buying back the business?
At that time, Frisbie was looking to expand Hope Farm Press, but he says he agreed to retake the helm because he couldn't bear the thought of hometown without a bookstore. (Since then, two more have opened.)
How crazy is he?
Hope Farm Press, which Frisbie bought in 1990, is a 50-year-old publishing company which boasts the largest collection of new and used books on the subject of New York State --some 3500, says Frisbie. Though it does most of its business online, Frisbie plans to continue to keep regular hours for local shoppers. That is, when he's not on assignment in some luxurious foreign locale.
Frisbie regularly travels across the globe to write travel, food, wine, and adventure articles for several publications, both local and international. Giving up Booktrader will not only alleviate the guilt that he feels leaving his Main Street storefront closed while he travels, but will allow him to accept more invitations and further pursue his career as a journalist. In 2007, he spent a total of seven and a half weeks traveling outside of the United States, and seven weeks in 2008.
"For two months out of the year, I really can't afford to keep the shop open," said Frisbie. "I also think it's selfish of me to take up prime real estate space on Main Street and not be open. It's not good for the community in general, and I do care about the community."
Frisbie said the economic downturn hasn't helped matters, convincing him that he'd have to give the place away. He says he'll turn the shop over only to someone who's clearly serious about running the Booktrader.
"The last person I sold it to ran it for five years," said Frisbie. "That was a reasonable amount of time. It would be great to get someone who loves books and reading, and who knows about books, because we already have enough bookstores full of people who don't know anything about books."
With less than a month before D-Day, Frisbie is preparing for the possibility no buyers will materialize. A "Store for Rent" sign now resides in the front window, inviting prospective new tenants to contact the building's owner. With each passing day, the likelihood that Booktrader will follow in the footsteps of many other long-departed Saugerties businesses grows stronger.
Frisbie says he'll be available as a consultant, should someone take the shop off his hands. And if that person decided at some point to call it quits, Frisbie says he might even consider buying the Booktrader a third time.
"One never knows how crazy I really am," he said. "Then I'd really have some bragging rights."
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