We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Rita Collins a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Rita, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Folks often look at a successful business and imagine it was an overnight success, but from what we’ve seen this is often far from the truth. We’d love to hear your scaling up story – walk us through how you grew over time – what were some of the big things you had to do to grow and what was that scaling up journey like?
I faced a conflict when wanting to open a bookstore while living in a rural Montana community. It seemed unlikely a bookstore would be fiscally viable in a small town. After lots of thought and brainstorming with friends, the idea to have a traveling bookstore took shape. A bookstore in a van would let me take the bookstore to customers – at music festivals, cafes, farmers markets, brew pubs, county fairs and even birthday parties. A bookstore in a van would have lower overhead than rented space on Main Street and could be scheduled to be open when lots of people were around. That started the idea rolling and within a year, I was on the road driving to various events in Montana.
At a music festival at the end of that first summer, a young couple from New York stopped by, looked at books, purchased a few and in talking with me, suggested I bring the bookstore to the Brooklyn Book Festival. Blame it on their youth or the great day I was having at the music festival, but I listened to their suggestion. I found the application information for the Brooklyn festival online and applied to be a vendor there the following year.
I thought there would be two challenges to overcome going to a book festival in New York. First it would be driving the van across country and then there would be figuring out how to take enough books along. This is where so much learning needed to happen. At the time, I thought going to the Brooklyn festival meant driving pretty much nonstop until I got to New York and packing every square inch of space in the van with inventory, and then driving back empty (hopefully). Which is what I did on that first trip, but on the way back, I realized there were options.
The next bookstore trip I did outside of Montana was down the west coast. I planned to set up at numerous places along the way. Having learned from that first trip to NY, I now usually pace my driving to about five hours a day, and then set up for a day or two. This is a much better strategy and makes utter sense financially. Rather than driving 2500 miles for one event, I drive two to three hundred miles for a couple events, then another few hundred miles for the next event. And inventory? That fell into place in a totally unexpected way. I discovered being on the road with multiple stops, people give me books. After nearly selling out in Asheville, NC, I called a friend in Raleigh (the next stop) and asked if her book club would be interested in hearing about my travels in exchange for donating books. Got more books that day than would fit in the van. At a bookstore gig in Seattle, a man walked up with two huge boxes. He said his kids had outgrown chapter books. Would I take them? Ten years into this business, and it continues. I buy books occasionally when I see titles that I like in a thrift store or at a garage sale, but in general most of my inventory comes from donations.
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
When getting ready to retire from a teaching career, I planned to open a bookstore. When all the pieces finally fell into place, it turned out to be St. Rita’s Amazing Traveling Bookstore and Textual Apothecary. The man who designed my logo initially said that name was too long, but now ten years on we both agree it is perfect.
I hadn’t experienced a traveling bookstore before I opened my own, but I read about one in Wales and reached out to the owner. That man was very supportive, offered suggestions and convinced me being flexible was key. With a traveling bookstore, your customer base constantly changes. One day I’m set up at a brew pub in Sheridan, Wyoming and a week later at an art gallery in Lincoln, Nebraska. I’ve taken it to a birthday party for eight-year-olds in Montana and set up at a senior housing complex in Colorado. A BBQ place in Mississippi, music store in West Virginia, a public library on the Oregon coast…all sorts of people in all sorts of places from large cities to small towns. I personally believe its the wonder of this business. I don’t relying on a certain clientele, but am open to whomever walks up to the bookstore.
I see it as a win-win covering such a diverse set of places and offering good used books where people don’t expect to even find a bookstore. It keeps me thinking about my inventory, so I have a broad enough selection even when limited by space (I typically have about 700 volumes in the van). The bookstore is unique enough that people who would not generally walk into a brick-and-mortar bookstore, stop to see what my bookstore is all about. They might buy something, and we’ll probably end up talking. Many conversations happen which I believe is useful in the current political climate. Besides a bookstore that turns up in all sorts of venues, customers can stand outside to talk with me, check out the books on the table if they aren’t comfortable at first stepping inside the bookstore. Children don’t hesitate at all though! They love going into the bookstore as it seems to be the ideal space for them to curl up on the floor with a book or two.
Have you ever had to pivot?
I had been running the traveling bookstore business for nine years, had taken it all over the country numerous times and felt I had it down. Typically I would do a long trip in the spring, spend summers doing the bookstore in Montana, and then in the fall take the bookstore on another long trip. In 2023, I had a trip stretching from northwest Montana to Olive Branch, Mississippi including many stops going across and then more on the way back. About 6,000 miles over five weeks with gigs in Montana, Wyoming, Nebraska, Arkansas, Mississippi, and Colorado. A Czech friend was coming over to do the tour with me, seeing it as an opportunity to experience different regions in the US.
About a week prior to taking off, I took the van in for an oil change and to have things checked (despite owning a traveling bookstore, I am truly not mechanical). My regular mechanic got the oil changed and said he thought there was a problem with one of the belts, and I should get a diesel mechanic to check it out. I took it over to another garage, and was told it would require getting parts shipped in so a few days. At this point, I was feeling uneasy but had faith in the new mechanic. The clock kept ticking, the overnight shipping took three days (I live in a very small town at the end of the road), but the mechanic said he could have the van ready in the afternoon on the day I was suppose to leave.
By then my friend had flown in. We put our suitcases in the car to drive over and pick up the van. When we walked in, the mechanic said unfortunately it was a larger problem than what he originally thought. In fact, the van couldn’t be driven long distance at all a this point, would probably have to have the engine rebuilt The first gig on our trip was the following morning in Bozeman, Montana – about a seven hour drive from where we were, and from there we had a gig in Casper, Wyoming. And yes, this is where I had to pivot.
I told my Czech friend we would do the five week bookstore trip out of my Subaru Crosstrek. The mechanic gave us boxes and we started pulling books out of the van, putting them in boxes and squishing as many as possible into the car along with a folding table, two chairs, and our suitcases. On the drive to Bozeman, I called the man who designed my logo and he sent a file with the logo to a friend in Bozeman who had a large sign printed for me. The first gig in Bozeman was not the best day by any stretch. Cold, snow flurries and trying to figure out how to balance cardboard boxes filled with books on one smallish table. A customer who stopped by suggested using plastic milk crates, and said he happened to have some he could lend me for the trip. This was perfect! He also gave us large pieces of canvas (drop clothes from his business) that we ended up using in a variety of ways from covering the books in bad weather to making places for children to sit on the ground to read when the weather was nice.
Each bookstore gig after Bozeman got better. Often we were able to borrow an extra table or put some milk crates on the ground when we set up depending on the space and the weather. Doing the tour out of the Subaru was daunting but we did it. And the good news…two weeks into the trip, the mechanic called to say they solved the problem and the van was road-worthy again. Of course, by then we were down in Arkansas so finished out that traveling bookstore tour with the Subaru. But when we got home, it was a relief to be able to move the bookstore back into the van.
Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?
I am a digital immigrant. I did not grow up using computers and smart phones, but learned as an adult mostly through being a teacher when technology was introduced into classrooms. When I started the traveling bookstore business, I knew there needed to be an online presence so people could find out where I was going to be and when I’d be setting up. I have a Facebook page, Instagram, website and blog. Using these has pushed me to figure out what works, what seems to get more ‘likes’ and follows. My sites have grown over time which I attribute to keeping everything up to date and interesting, as well as using other methods for getting the word out.
Because there are certainly other pieces to how people learn about my business. I use business cards which I constantly give out to people whether I am with the bookstore, at a dinner party, or chatting with a stranger while standing in line at the grocery store. I’ve become aware that these cards – although many probably end up in the trash – get some people to check out my website or follow me on social media. When people take photos of the bookstore (which happens often), I give them a business card and ask them to tag me. This sort of networking helps get the ball rolling. Then there are people who reach out to me to do interviews, to invite me to set up my bookstore at their location, to inquire about starting their own traveling bookstore business. And I always say yes.
I was invited to be on the Kelly Clarkson Show, to do an interview with Bill Bradley on Sirius XM, to be featured in an article in an Italian newspaper, and to have a journalist ride along with me to write about the bookstore for Atlas Obscura. You need to remember I am one person (in my 70s) with a 2004 Sprinter van based out of Montana. This is not a big business or a flashy one. I am one woman willing to talk to just about anyone about my business. I believe all these pieces – from my presence on social media, to saying yes to interviews, to handing out business cards constantly – help me build a base of customers across the country. I haven’t gone viral, I am not on TikTok, but it does surprise me how many people have come to know St. Rita’s Amazing Traveling Bookstore since it first took to the road.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://saintritasbooks.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/stritasbooks/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/amazingtravelingbookstore/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rita-collins-998a8760/
- Other: https://travelingbookstore.wordpress.com/
Image Credits
All photos taken by me (Rita Collins) except the two photos with me in them. There were taken by Yvetta Fendrichová. Primary photo was taken by David James.