Wednesday, June 21, 2017 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon
11
Paulina Springs marks 25 years of bookselling in Sisters
By Jim Cornelius
News Editor
The venerable trade of
bookselling has been buf-
feted by stiff and swirling
commercial winds over the
past 25 years — from the rise
and fall of giant brick-and-
mortar stores to the massive
inroads of the online levia-
than Amazon.com.
Paulina Springs Books has
weathered them all.
Founded in 1992 by Dick
Sandvik and Diane Campbell,
the store established itself as
a cultural center in Sisters,
offering an eclectic selection
of hand-picked books, host-
ing author events and even
serving as the launching pad
for the Sisters Folk Festival.
Brad Smith took ownership
15 years ago and has carried
on the bookstore’s legacy
while pushing it into new
territory.
Smith saluted his prede-
cessors for building a strong
base in a tough trade.
“It’s a hard thing to do,”
he said. “They did a power-
ful job.”
Smith says that he tries
to stay on the cutting edge
of a technology-driven field,
with a full-functioning web-
site that allows for direct
purchase and downloadable
audio books and the like. But
his real focus is on something
that might be considered
old-fashioned:
“Just focusing on our core
message, which for me is cus-
tomer service. Nothing over-
shadows customer service. It
is by far and away the thing
that makes a successful retail
business, in my opinion. It’s
all about creating customer
satisfaction, creating an expe-
rience that people want to
return to — and that experi-
ence has a lot to do with the
people who work here.”
One of those people is Sue
Tank, who started right at the
beginning, with Campbell
and Sandvik. Tank is a reader,
especially of crime and mys-
tery fiction and natural his-
tory. She has as much passion
for reading and for books as
any of her customers, and
that passion shows as she
walks around the store help-
ing a customer find just the
right book for a Father’s Day
present.
That’s just not something
an algorithm can produce.
“Amazon is obviously a
very successful company,”
Smith said. “Their customer
service is not the same as
ours.”
That customer service
includes the ability to order
pretty much any book and get
it into the store in a couple of
days.
Independent book stores
have long discovered that
books alone are not suffi-
cient to support an operation,
and Paulina Springs is no
exception.
“ We ’ v e
certainly
diversified,” Tank said.
In Paulina Springs case,
that means carrying lines of
toys and games that seem to
fit pretty seamlessly into the
atmosphere of the store.
Smith acknowledges that
the large footprint of the store
and the extensive inventory
are not strictly necessary.
“It’s a weakness of mine,”
he said. “I’m always say-
ing, ‘Oh, wouldn’t this be
cool…’”
But the cool factor is
part of the charm of Paulina
Springs. Whether it was years
of serving as a musical hub of
the community, or a gathering
place for authors and readers,
the bookstore has been much
more than simply a retail
business — it is a cultural
linchpin and destination for
locals and visitors alike.
There are many prognos-
ticators of gloom and doom
for the publishing industry.
Smith isn’t one of them.
“People tend to think that
the youth aren’t going to read
because they’re so digitally
set, they do everything on
screens,” he said.
Yet, he says, young people
are more and more drawn
PHOTO BY JIM CORNELIUS
Sue Tank (right) offers Carol Dixon some of the customer service that
made Paulina Springs’ reputation.
PHOTO BY JIM CORNELIUS
Brad Smith has owned Paulina Springs Books for 15 years, building on a
business established by Dick Sandvik and Diane Campbell in 1992.
to books. The Young Adult
(YA) market is the strongest
sector of the book publish-
ing industry, and it’s drawing
top-drawer talent. Many top-
selling non-fiction titles are
now accompanied by YA ver-
sions, and some fine writers
are working in the YA field.
“The quality of writing
there is so much better than it
used to be,” Smith said.
“It’s always been a minor-
ity who I would define as
readers — people who read
for pleasure,” he said. “I
don’t think it’s changed. If
it’s changed, it’s grown.”
Smith spent his early
career in the grocery business,
and in both that field and in
book-selling, he is a passion-
ate proponent of shopping
local. Spending your money
with a mom-and-pop opera-
tion directly benefits your
community and municipality,
creating jobs, building a tax
base and creating vibrancy.
He’s proud to have been a
part of creating what many
consider to be a vital asset to
the Sisters community.
And he sees hopeful signs
that more and more people
are finding benefits to shop-
ping locally — though he
acknowledges that he may be
unduly optimistic.
“Do I see that happen-
ing? Yeah, I see it. But I
see it because I hope it,” he
said. “My hopes drive me as
opposed to my realities.”
But hope and a dream is
what drives most folks who
open a business in Sisters —
hope that they can make a
living doing something they
love while contributing to
their community. And Smith
— along with his predeces-
sors Campbell and Sandvik
— can have no doubt that
they have done that.
“I can really say that I’ve
contributed to a community,
being an asset,” Smith said.
“Those are the things that
make it all worthwhile.”
Paulina Springs Books is
located at 252 W. Hood Ave.