Point Defiance Books

As I have time, I want to introduce you to some of the local shops in our Ruston-Point Defiance Business District area. Not all will be business district members, but each one puts everything on the line to run a business at our doorstep. Stop in, say hello and spend a few dollars to support our local economy.

The feature today is on Point Defiance Books, aka Primary Source Books. Proprietor Jim Bennett has been a visible part of the storefront along our Pearl Street core for several years now. Jim is the current president of the Business District and gives much of his time to make our community better. Here are his answers to my questions:

1) When did you get started? What is your background prior to this business? I have my bachelor's from Central Washington and my master's in education from UPS. For 30 years I worked as a teacher and a middle school transition coordinator in the Tacoma District at the 8th grade level. I taught health, English and US history at Hunt and Jerry Meeker middle schools. I retired for health reasons in June of 2002. I began collecting books in the late 1960's.
2) Describe what your business is/does. I sell used, rare and out of print books focusing primarily on non-fiction and particularly US history, although I have a bit of everything except romance and modern travel guides.
3) What motivated you to open a business? Thinking to have a bookstore as a retirement business to augment my non-cost-of-living-adjustable pension I put together a catalog and advertised in publications such as American Heritage, American History Illustrated, Civil War Times, etc. in 1996-7. I broke even. I began selling on Ebay in 1998 and eventually ABEBOOKS.COM and ALIBRIS.COM as well as my own website: PRIMARYSOURCEBOOKS.COM. These were very profitable. After retirement I began looking for a place to open a 'brick and mortar' bookstore.
4) Why did you locate here? Well, honestly, my first choice was Proctor, but then Jerry Culpepper opened a shop a couple of years before I was ready to take the plunge. I decided the Ruston area showed promise. It was close to my home and I expected decent shopping traffic due to the antique stores and the Antique Sandwich Company. I felt that with the clean-up of the Asarco site the area would experience a boom as new development came in.
5) How would you describe your success? Quite frankly while the first couple of years were good, the last three have been tough, not only are in-store sales down, but also internet sales have suffered from the massive increase in online selling competition and the increasing fees the listing services charge.

What are your primary markets? My regulars tend to be folks from the North End, Ruston and Vashon ferry-riders. Online, the bulk of buyers are from New York, Washington DC, Virginia, Florida and California. I also sell at various specialty shows.

6) Any plans to expand or are you satisfied with your current operation? I am not satisfied with my current operation, but cannot afford to expand as originally planned until the economy picks up. Also, we are planning on moving to the Tri-Cities when my wife retires in a year or two. As of now, the business is no longer prosperous enough to pay for someone to manage it or to attract a buyer. I am planning on opening another store over there.

7) What has the business district done for your business and for the local businesses as a whole? What do you see as the primary goals for the district over the next year? I think the Ruston Business District has helped to make more folks aware of the shopping available here through the Music Fest and group advertising. Our participation in City of Tacoma tourism programs has brought more tourists through my doors. In fact, some of my biggest sales each year are to tourists who find my prices for rare and collectible books too good to pass up.
The biggest challenges for the district remains upgrading the appearance and pedestrian-friendliness of the area. We have a lot of auto traffic, but not many places where it is convenient to stop and park. In the next five years, it is unlikely that all of the current smaller businesses will remain as rising rents become too much for sales to support. A major challenge will be integrating the "new" Ruston center developing on the smelter site with the businesses of the "old" core centered at 51st and Pearl Streets. It may be that the "old" core will not be able to participate in the draw of the "new" center resulting in business along Pearl becoming relatively marginalized. Developing strategies to avoid this outcome will be important for long term success of these businesses.
8) Anything else you think folks would like to know? At present I am looking to buy books in nice shape in the areas of hunting/firearms, and American military and political history.