If there’s anything you should know about Sue Richards, it’s that she absolutely loves sustainability. She recycled before it was fashionable and has always bought her books second-hand. She believes that books were made to be reusable, so of course it made sense for her to frequent a little shop tucked away on Freeport Boulevard, Crawford’s Books. Little did she know that one day she would own and operate that very store.
Established in 1983 by Jim and Joyce Crawford, Crawford’s books has withstood the test of time, location changes, and a global pandemic. Crawford’s is different from most bookstores because of their buy-sell-trade policy. At the store, you can sell back books for 20-25% of the cover price. This money is transferred into store credit redeemable on everything except clearance titles.
Sue Richards had always wanted to run a bookstore, and after visiting the store one day in late 2017, she offered to run the place if the Crawfords ever decided to quit. Unbeknownst to her, that very morning, the elderly couple had talked about retiring. Two months later, in January 2018, she owned the shop. As a business owner, Richards’ main priority is to give people the opportunity to read. She says that “book selling isn’t a money making venture but [she] really loves books and wants to keep book distribution at an affordable price.”
After taking over, Richards reorganized the bookstore’s 40,000+ books (including a $300 graffiti book and a $100 book explaining why humans are part dolphin) into 15 major sections (although there are dozens of subsections) including cooking, fiction, romance, classics, and international literature. Her entire back wall is filled with non-fiction titles that are perfect for history term papers, and she makes sure to keep a shelf of books specifically read in the HISP program. She also tripled the kids section of the store as she hopes to encourage young readers to engage with books early on.
After being hit by pandemic shutdowns this spring, Crawford’s was closed for three months. In June, Sue started to introduce curbside pickups with remote payments and her extremely popular mystery bundles. These are hand-selected packages of 5-10 books based on a reader’s favorite authors that are offered at a reduced price. She says that she will continue to offer these services as long as people still want them.
Sue says that she feels fortunate to operate a bookstore during the pandemic because her business has increased. She says, “right now, everyone wants to read a book and escape. People are bored and they have a lot of time on their hands.” She also attributes some of this success to the increased rejection of big companies like Amazon. Sue has noticed that the pandemic has created a big shift in where people choose to buy from. Now, customers are actively seeking her out whereas before, people didn’t necessarily think to support local business.
Although some small businesses like Crawford’s have survived the pandemic, Richards pointed out that proposition 15 has the potential to wipe out a lot of these shops. Prop 15 would make commercial businesses pay property tax based on their market value instead of purchase price, with the revenue going to public services like schools. Sue says she “can see both sides. On the surface this seems great, but if commercial property owners need to pay more, it will trickle down”. When property taxes are raised, landlords increase rents, which force business owners to increase prices.
This ends up hurting people on the lower side of the socioeconomic scale and Sue argues that this could effectively make or break a small business. She’s seen this happen firsthand when her friend’s Elk Grove used bookstore had to close because of rent increase. Sue fears that this will ultimately harm smaller businesses and leave big businesses unscathed.
With winter holidays coming up, a lot of us are scrambling to find thoughtful, affordable gifts. Sue believes that books are the perfect gift because “they share feeling and experience with the ones you love. It’s a wonderful way to give someone hours of entertainment for cheap too!”, and she has always given books as gifts. Crawford’s has been stocking up for the holidays with copies of Dune, local author’s work, STEM books, feminist theory, and a whole collection of sci-fi fantasy written by Black women including famed Octavia Butler. In addition to books, Sue sells local art and jewelry in her store, making Crawford’s Books a great place to support local artists, authors, and small businesses.
If you need suggestions for gifts or pleasure reading, just ask Sue! Her favorite book genre is historical fiction, because she “feel[s] transported to different times and places”. Her all-time favorite books include Marcus Zusak’s Bridge of Clay and Aaron Morgenstern’s The Starless Sea, but she firmly believes that everyone should read classics like All Quiet on the Western Front, A Man Called Ove, The Boys in the Boat and The Life of Pi. If you have anything you’d love for Crawford’s Books to stock up on, let Sue know! She’s always open to suggestions.