Hudson Valley Book Stop Stays in the Family

When Joseph Biernat and his wife, Elizabeth, bought Hudson Valley Book Stop in Kingston, New York, from Elizabeth's parents last September, they weren't counting on a chain bookstore opening directly across the street. But, as in nature, in business adaptation is key, so the Biernats developed a plan. They are going to allow customers to bring in their used books for credit towards new or used books at Hudson Valley. "We'll use [the chain] for what they're good for, which is getting more books into the market," Joseph Biernat said. "If it goes well, we're thinking of opening across from them in Poughkeepsie."

Hudson Valley Books was opened by Elizabeth's parents, Charles and Faith Duryea, in 1985 as part of the Annie's group of bookstores, which they dropped out of a few years before the Biernats bought the 2,500-square-foot Hudson Valley store. Elizabeth, now a high school English teacher, worked in the store off and on throughout high school and college. Joseph, who grew up in Albuquerque, New Mexico, got his bookselling experience at Albuquerque's Page One Books during the early 1990s. The Duryeas continue to work three days a week at the bookstore, but now have the time to take long vacations to Florida. "They're still very much involved," said Joseph. "Though they were probably driven crazy when we computerized our entire system."

Joseph told BTW that when he and Elizabeth bought the store they became Book Sense members right away to distinguish themselves as an independent. Eventually they became BookSense.com members. "Now we're doing the gift card program," he said. "We're trying to push our brand through Book Sense. We like that the gift card is integrated with BookSense.com. It sets you apart if you can offer a gift card to your customers. They don't have to get in their car to use the gift card; they can redeem it on BookSense.com, which you can't do with the paper certificates.

The Book Sense 76 display at the Hudson Valley Book Stop.

"We've already sold two cards, and we've only had them [for three days]. Since in the past we only sold 20 paper gift certificates in a year, it's a good sign."

Biernat also mentioned that he was a little concerned about a customer's ability to redeem the cards. "When I read the back of the gift card it says you can only use the cards in a Book Sense store and only in the ones that carry gift cards. It would help if other Book Sense stores signed on to the program," he said. Biernat added that the Givex system was very user-friendly and though he'd activated two cards, he hadn't even cracked the manual. He was also pleased that no additional equipment was needed, that he could use the Internet to process the cards, with the telephone as a back up.

Even after some unexpected glitches, Joseph Biernat was entirely positive about the experience of owning and operating Hudson Valley Book Stop: "Purchasing the store from my in-laws has fulfilled both of our dreams -- our dream of business ownership and their dream of seeing the business they worked hard to build continue and grow. We are optimistic that our independent character, superior customer service, and the differentiation that selling used books provides will allow us to successfully compete as the chains enter our local market." --Karen Schechner