No Dearth Books Gets a Reprieve

No Dearth of Books won an eleventh hour reprieve when new owners stepped up to buy the 14-year-old business from Harry Dearth just as he was preparing to close.

Guy and Martha Johnson, two recent transplants from Rochester, NY, purchased Dearth’s inventory at the end of April and plan to reopen the used bookstore under the same name in Neptune’s Court in July. 

“I just happened to notice the [closing] sign in the window and went in and asked Harry about it. Things started rolling from there,” said Martha Johnson.

The couple has always had an interest in books and thought the store would be a nice venture as a family business when Guy Johnson, a college professor, retires within the next year.

“We always wanted to have a family business. This was something all our family members could partake in,” said Martha Johnson.

The retired museum educator and her husband put down roots in Gig Harbor about two years ago to be closer to their son, Devin, and daughter, Sarah, both of whom live in the area.

The whole crew – minus dad who’s still in Rochester finishing out the semester – is already hard at work getting the shop ready to open in time for the summer season.

“Our biggest challenge at the moment is trying to get everything organized and inventoried so we know what’s where,” said Johnson. “There’s a huge number of books and they weren’t inventoried. It was all in Harry’s head.”

The new No Dearth of Books will be located off Pioneer Square in the space previously occupied by Strictly Scandinavian Gifts. Johnson said the plan is to “continue Harry’s legacy.” The store will retain its classic, old bookstore feel, emphasizing nautical and maritime titles. But they expect to incorporate a few twists of their own.

One will be to add an e-commerce component to the business once the store is up and running. The dominance of online booksellers was clearly one of the drawbacks to owning a traditional brick-and-mortar store, Johnson said. But building an e-commerce element to the business in a competitive response to that was something that appealed to them.

No Dearth of Books also will have its share of competition in downtown Gig Harbor. In addition to Mostly Books, a third bookstore, Bayside Book Company, is opening up in No Dearth’s old space adjacent to El Pueblito restaurant. But it will specialize in children’s books, according to the sign posted on the storefront window. So Johnson doesn’t expect there will be much overlap between the two businesses.

Harry Dearth, meanwhile, continues to check-in periodically to see how his former business is progressing.

“He’s very protective of his store and wants to make sure things are okay,” said Johnson. “He’s quite happy that it will continue.”