A "Better" Philosophy Guides Rainy Day Books

Instead of "bigger is better," small business owners often practice the lesser-known adage "better is better." That's the philosophy of Vivien Jennings, co-owner of Rainy Day Books in Kansas. Her approach focuses not only in-store by maintaining a happy staff, but on the Greater Kansas City community at large by hosting about 150 author readings a year.

Rainy Day Books in Fairway, Kansas

Rainy Day Books opened in 1975 as a 450-square-foot shop that used to be a police station and jail. They've since moved and expanded into a 2,500-square-foot anchor store replete with bell tower, in the small city of Fairway, so called because it sits in the center among three country club golf courses. Sales have also increased: six percent in 2002 to $1.5 million, three times the rate of the industry. Jennings' interest in bookselling tracks back to the "old thing about if you want to go into business, do what you love." Jennings' life and business partner Roger Doeren, an ex-lighting designer, described his move to the book business as "leaving lighting for enlightenment."

Jennings attributes their gains to the fruits of her "better is better" strategy, which includes the author readings. They range in size of from a crowd of 50 for local, lesser-known writers to 1,250, in which case the bookstore goes off site to the nearby Unity Temple on the Plaza. Jennings said she can "set up a bookstore anywhere, anytime" with the help of tech-savvy Doeren. They use cellular credit card capture, so they don't need phone lines to make credit card sales. Rainy Day Books has featured readings by Ray Bradbury, Jimmy Carter, Billy Collins, Jane Smiley, and others. Recent favorites include Jill Conner Browne who read from her Sweet Potato Queens' Big-Ass Cookbook & Financial Planner (Three Rivers Press) and Da Chen who played his bamboo flute and signed copies of his Colors of the Mountain (Anchor Books) in calligraphy.

Another key to Rainy Day's success is its staff, explained Jennings. How does she fuel her motivated, knowledgeable team? Chocolate. As policy, she makes sure there's plenty for her 16 long-term employees. No wonder Rainy Day Books was recently named as a great workplace by Winning Workplaces, a not-for-profit organization helping small- and mid-size organizations build positive work environments. Winning Workplaces recognized the bond "Jennings has created between management, employees, and customers, enabling her 27-year-old company to prosper."

Jennings also gives her staff advanced reading copies and discounted books to augment employee's background in helping with recommendations. In addition to her staff's own suggestions, she said, they use all the Book Sense 76s at different times and display them in their appropriate sections. Jennings said her clientele appreciates the Book Sense lists as "often they aren't interested in what's on the New York Times bestseller lists because they don't necessarily read everything everyone else reads." Jennings added that shoppers "don't want a review to hear about why someone didn't like a book, they want to hear from another independent bookseller about why they did like the book."

Jennings ensures that she's one independent bookseller her customers will hear from. When a shopper recently asked if she had a copy of Janet Maslin's review of Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code (Doubleday), Jennings told him "Forget Maslin. You don't need her. All you need to know is that it's the best thriller I've read in 27 years." Jennings added, "I'll step up to the plate and say what I think. We're proud of what we do. That's why we still have a passion for it." -- Karen Schechner