Anderson's Bookshops Going Strong for Six Generations

What is the secret to running several independent family businesses for 130 years? The Andersons of Naperville, Illinois, would be the ones to ask: The sixth generation of Andersons now runs the original family business, Oswald's Pharmacy, and three bookselling enterprises.

Becky Anderson Wilkins, and three Anderson brothers, own and run Oswald's, which recently added books and toys; Anderson's Bookshops, one in Naperville and one in Downers Grove; and W.W. Wickel, a children's book wholesaler that handles school book fairs and educational events.

According to Wilkins, many factors are responsible for the success of family-run businesses such as theirs. Constantly generating new ideas, training and developing staff, and "being involved in every possible way we can with the community, including the schools." Wilkins is a firm believer in participating in a strong downtown organization: she is the marketing director of the Downtown Naperville Alliance.

"In many ways, we support one another in this growing downtown community -- we work hard to bring the businesses and community groups together," Wilkins told BTW. "By encouraging merchants, performance groups, children's groups, and others, to 'think outside the box', we were able to create a terrific event for the release of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince."

By any standard of measurement, Naperville's July 15 Potter release celebration, spearheaded by Anderson's, was phenomenal -- dozens of businesses and organizations created a citywide festival that drew an estimated 50,000 participants.

In 2001, when Anderson's was awarded the Illinois Family Business of the Year award, Wilkins explained to BTW, "The pharmacy that my great-great-grandfather opened sold books as well. In 1963, my grandfather opened a separate store above the pharmacy called Paperback Paradise. It expanded several times and eventually got its own home; the name was changed to Anderson's partly because people mistook Paperback Paradise for a religious bookstore."

Anderson's was the recipient of two major bookselling awards in 2002: the Women's National Book Association's Lucile Micheels Pannell Award for a general bookstore and the Charles S. Haslam Award for Excellence in Bookselling, presented by the Southeast Booksellers Association to a bookseller who "has achieved excellence in the field."

In 2003, Anderson's was paid a visit by perhaps the only other person to create as much excitement about books as J.K. Rowling, Chicago-based talk show host Oprah Winfrey. On Monday, June 16, Winfrey strode into Anderson's "carrying two large cartons of her newest Oprah Book Club selection. 'What a wonderful bookstore,' Oprah proclaimed," recounted store buyer Mary Yockey. Winfrey had decided to resurrect her hugely popular book club and chose the Naperville-based Anderson's, because, she told the openmouthed staff and patrons, the show had received more e-mail messages to restart her book club from people in Naperville than from any other single area.

When Winfrey officially announced the title, East of Eden by John Steinbeck, on her show two days later, 10 Anderson's staff members were in the audience and heard Winfrey declare their store, "the best independent bookstore in the country" and watched a video clip taped in the store.

Visits from superstars and parties for 50,000 are not the only way Anderson's promotes and sells books. Wilkins stressed the importance of Book Sense Picks and other ABA initiatives. "We've been [Book Sense] supporters since the beginning," Wilkins told BTW, "and we recommend that every bookstore be a participant. [Book Sense] is our voice when talking to publishers, a significant voice. It's a great list for us to promote."

Of Book Sense gift cards, Wilkins said, "We have been very happy with the Givex gift card program, [and] now it's integrated into our WordStock system. We've seen huge increases [over paper certificates]. And we're very pleased."

Another way Anderson's has promoted books and involved schools, libraries, and community members was through the Naperville Reads initiative. In 2002, in conjunction with Naperville Public Library staff, school librarians, and reading specialists from Naperville public schools, Anderson's encouraged people of all ages to read any book by prolific author Gary Paulsen. Anderson's held an in store read-a-thon, and local shelters brought in animals for adoption. The events culminated in a weeklong visit by Paulsen to Naperville.

Wilkins laughs about the family dynamics of working with three siblings: "You can pity me at our meetings." The four are equal partners with separate, but overlapping, functions within the businesses -- Tres Anderson primarily runs the bookstores with Wilkins, Bill Anderson runs the pharmacy, and Pete Anderson runs the wholesale business. Their combined 13 offspring provide a ready workforce in all parts of the business as they grow into the seventh generation of Andersons to offer, in Wilkins' words, "drugs, books, and more" to their community. --Nomi Schwartz