Coombs bookstore owner Sean Wallington has not only outgrown his available sales space, but may well have outgrown his store’s name.
Cozy Corner Books conjures the image of a small, quiet and tidy nook for relaxation and contemplation.
What Wallington has wrought in more than 25 years in business here would hardly fit in a warehouse.
“The last count we made, there were 250,000 (books),” Wallington, 44, said while standing in aisles crammed with double-deep shelves of books, with more piled in stackes on the floor. “Multiply that by four, and that’s what I’ve got in storage.”
And still, both his collection and his business continue to grow, despite Cozy Corner’s unlikely location between the popular Goats on the Roof and Coombs Emporium tourist hotspots.
“People who have been here a long time complain that there are fewer tourists now than there were year ago,” he said. “But they’re just talking about the summer peak season. The off-season is getting much, much better.”
And, both in terms of tourists and of residents along B.C.’s coast, he has a large following of repeat customers.
Longtime customer Maureen Campbell came around the corner to find Wallington chatting in an aisle.
“We come here regularly from Powell River, because (Wallington) knows everything,” longtime customer Maureen Campbell said.
“I don’t know it all,” Wallington amended, “but it’s hard to stump me on books.”
Wallington unknowingly created what became a family bookselling dynasty when he came up with the idea for a small bookstore as a nine-year-old youth.
His father, Stan, “jumped on the idea,” he said. Stan opened the original Cozy Corner in the early 1980s in a, well, cozy 250-square foot shack within sight of the current store.
“We had 1,000 books, tops,” Wallington said.
As Sean continued through school — eventually dropping out in grade 10 while moving into management for the McDonald’s fast-foot chain — Stan opened a second store, The Last Page, in Port Alberni. When that was up and running, he offered management of the Coombs store to Sean.
Stan Wallington later sold his Port Alberni store and opened Fireside Books in Parksville 20 years ago. It continues to operate under Stan’s wife Jennifer Wallington since his death two years ago.
In 2002, Sean was running the Coombs store on a seasonal-only basis in the unheated Coombs Emporium building when he decided to open his own Port Alberni store, a second Cozy Corner location, in order to operate year-round.
“Back then, Coombs basically closed in the winter,” Wallington said. “It ran from March 1 to Thanksgiving, because there was no heat in the main building.”
Two years after his move into the Port Alberni market, heat was installed in the Emporium and Wallington opened year-round. He continued to operate the Port Alberni store until 2012, when continued growth of the Coombs shop and the time and effort of traveling from his home in Cedar led him to close the second location.
“My ultimate goal is to have one giant store,” he said. “I’ve been resistant to opening other stores in other cities.”
Cozy Corner Bookstore owner Sean Wallington, right, looks over signs made by employee Aviva Fox as store manager Linda Beijk looks on at left. — Image credit: J.R. Rardon/NEWS staff
Cozy Corner has been the sole tenant of of the current rental building, alongside Coombs Emporium, since it was built to replace a crumbling, older building seven years ago. When he heard the landlord was going to build a three-unit commercial shop, he asked if the two lower units could be combined into a single, larger rental.
“When he offered to put the two lower shops into one, I said, ‘I’ll take it,’” Wallington said of the building, which was not even built yet. “Then I got thinking, ‘Why not just take all of it?’”
So, after negotiating a bit of a break on the rental, he took over the entire 3,000-square foot space. That space seems the only limit to his business, which has proven remarkably recession-proof — including during the downturn of 2008 — he said.
“The book business is not dead,” said Wallington, who still uses a fading system of dealers at large book sales, and cash purchase of used books at his store. “In all the years I’ve been doing this, I’ve had a 15 to 20 per cent increase in business every year.
With the increased sales have come an increase in inventory. So much so that his wife Nancy, who is also Cozy Corner’s bookkeeper, has wondered aloud why he continues to buy so many used books — including a one-time purchase of 54,000 comics in June.
“What happens in our business is, no matter how good you are and how many books you sell, there’s always more books coming in than going out,” Wallington said. “My wife thinks I spend too much money on books. She thinks 1.25 million is enough.”
His oldest son, Jonah, 16, is on the payroll as a summer employee two days a week, but Wallington doesn’t know if Cozy Corner will continue on with Jonah or siblings Nateasha or Chis after he is ready to step down.
“I’m not going to force anything on them,” he said of his children.
Cozy Corner’s success also hinges on a knowledgable, veteran staff, including Aviva Fox, Brenda Schuck and store manager Linda Beijk — “I may be the owner, but I’m not the boss,” Wallington said. “(Linda’s) the boss.”
But Wallington is still the buyer, and will continue to add to his collection as long as he is able. At this year’s Rotary Club book sale in Comox, he and a platoon of dealers purchased $3,000 worth of books in a 45-minute period after the sale’s shotgun start.
“It’s crazy fast,” Wallington said of a book-buying expedition. “At one point my son came back from the checkout table and said, ‘Dad, the guy wants you to stop buying books. He can’t keep up.’”
