We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Lara Harrison a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Lara, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. We’d love to have you retell us the story behind how you came up with the idea for your business, I think our audience would really enjoy hearing the backstory.

In the fall of 2002, my dad, Charlie, passed away, and I inherited 18.000 hardback books. Charlie was an avid reader and book collector. Growing up in Southern California, I frequented used book stores and library book sales with my dad and as I got older, we bonded over favorite authors and sharing new ones. Reading became a habit at an early age and soon I had my own collection of books I treasured.

When the call came about my dad, I had a newborn baby, a career and I lived in Colorado. Together with my sister, we went California to figure out our next steps. We decided the only option was for me to take the books and open a book store someday. Collecting them had been Charlie’s passion and legacy. We wanted to pass along his love for books to others and keep the memory of our dad alive. So, we packed up the books and I rented a freight hauler to move the books across country and into storage until the time was right.

The following year, we moved to New Mexico. This was supposed to be temporary, so the books stayed in Colorado. Five years later, the Land of Enchantment (or Entrapment, a common joke here) had worked its magic and we decided we were staying. It was time to get started on my new career. My dad had talked about opening a used book store when he retired and calling it Under the Covers. Under Charlie’s Covers Fine Used Books was born.

Opening a used book store in 2009 was crazy! Book stores were closing all over the country because of Amazon, which began as a book selling web site. I decided I would give the store a chance. Fortunately, I had taken a buy-out from my job and had some money to invest. All I needed was to be able to cover my costs. There were no book stores, used or new, in Sandoval County where I live, which was good and bad. Used book stores are a destination business, meaning customers will travel to go to one, but having more than one around is helpful to get those customers to come. I knew this was worth my time and effort, and sharing my love of reading and books with others would be fulfilling.

I used the business model of some of the used book stores I used to frequent. I offered 25% of the retail value of the book in trade credit, and for the first year so I could build my inventory, customers could use all of their credit towards the purchase of our books. My location was not ideal. I was looking for a space close to home because I needed to be close to the elementary school my kids were attending. I settled across from a popular NM restaurant chain that had just opened the year before in the historic town of Bernalillo, NM.

Lara, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I was inspired by my father, Charles Ramsey, to open my used book store, Under Charlies Covers Fine Used Books. I have a degree in Speech Communication and worked in the communications department at a former nuclear weapons facility during it’s clean-up project before opening my store.

Under Charlie’s Covers is a used book store with more than 40,000 books in stock, all organized by genre/subject. We carry fiction and non-fiction, paperbacks and hardbacks, children’s, large print and audio books along with fun bookish gifts like t-shirts and greeting cards. We also have a large collection of signed and collectible books. We are the largest bookstore in Sandoval County, NM and have the widest selection of used books in the Santa Fe/Albuquerque metro area. We pride ourselves on our selection of books and our customer service. All of my employees have been my customers, and they love books as much as I do. We love to talk about books with anyone and everyone who walks through our door.! We are always available to help find books and suggest others. If we don’t have what our customers are looking for, we will do our best to find it elsewhere.

Our books are generally priced at half the retail price. We offer 25% of the retail price in trade credit that can be used for half of your purchase. Translated, that means if you have trade credit, you will pay 25% of the retail price.

We are great community partners! We have donated thousands of books to local prisons, schools and other organizations. We support local events and businesses. I have served on the Board of Directors for the Rio Rancho Regional Chamber of Commerce for six years and we were named 2023 Small Business of the Year by that chamber.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

Under Charlie’s Covers has been in three different locations in our 15 years in business, all within a few block radius. When my first three year lease was up, it was obvious I had outgrown my space. I found a store front across the street a few blocks down the street and was offered a sweet deal for three times the space and better visibility. I started telling customers I was going to move and soon I had a crew of volunteers with trucks, muscle and stamina to help me pack, move, and unpack, and we were back open in 14 days! The next time we moved back across the street, I had a lot more inventory and I was moving into a smaller space, so it was a huge challenge and took a lot more planning. Once again, my customers came to my rescue and helped me move. I am so full of gratitude for all of those folks — some came every day for a month. The outpouring of support from our community has been incredible!

Any fun sales or marketing stories?

Here in New Mexico, the film industry is booming. Probably five years into my business, I got a call from someone who was looking for books to be used on a set of a spin-off of the show Breaking Bad called Better Call Saul. They needed 1000 hardback books with dark spines in two days. I quoted them a very discounted price and worked day and night to find books that met their criteria. I thought that this would be the perfect chance to unload a bunch of outdated health and political science books. Well, 1000 books really is a lot. I literally went through all of the books in the store in those 48 hours to find dark-spined books I was willing to sell for cheap. It was a good lesson for me not to under-value my product plus I under estimated how much time it would take to fulfill their order. On the bright side, I forged a relationship with the set design union and they called multiple times for books for movie sets, plus they even brought over 18 volunteers to help us one day when we moved the second time.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.undercharliescovers.com
• Instagram: @undercharlies
• Facebook: Under Charlie’s Covers
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lara-harrison-665838237
• Yelp: Under Charlie’s Covers