The liquidation of the Borders bookstore chain in 2011 and the shuttering of Barnes & Noble stores in less profitable markets marks the end of a chapter for many book vendors in brick-and-mortar outlets.
In other market venues, booksellers are unfettered by fixed expenses. Online, books sell for less. They can be checked out free at public libraries. They’re free also across the country at Little Free Library swap boxes. They can be had for next to nothing at flea markets.
So, why did Keena and Jason Kimmel swim against the current to open White Rabbit Books at the edge of the Animas River Trail in the Riverfront Center just north of 14th Street?
“I love it, and it works,” Keena Kimmel said Friday from behind the counter in the couple’s 120-square-foot shop crammed with used books, surreal photos of hers and his blown-glass objects.
“I’ve sold books for 10 years online, at the (Durango) flea market on Sunday and at festivals in Colorado, Arizona, New Mexico and Southern California, including once at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena,” she said. “The rent here is OK, and we no longer have to pack and unpack books.”
The couple came through Durango 14 years ago from upstate New York on their way to Portland, Ore. They didn’t make it further.
In November 2013 they opened the White Rabbit – the name a nod to the whimsical, which attracts Kenna Kimmel and is evident in her surreal photography.
The White Rabbit stocks a few tomes of many genres – history, sci-fi, religion, classics, old favorites, the Beats (Ginsberg and Kerouac), contemporary fiction and Native American.
She even has a few collectibles, one a 1937 edition of Tom Sawyer illustrated by Norman Rockwell.
Requests are plentiful, she said. Fort Lewis College students trying to meet reading assignments are regular customers. There’s also a high demand for the supernatural, the metaphysical, regional authors and Southwest field and trail guides, she said.
Kenna Kimmel is always on the prowl for acquisitions. She finds her stock in trade at garage sales, flea markets and used-book stores when the couple are on the road.
“I also take books on trade and give people a credit for a certain amount for whenever they wants to buy,” she said. “I don’t sell so much online anymore because the large commercial sellers tend to drive down prices.”
daler@durangoherald.com
