Two Gig Harbor Bookstores Call it a Day

The month of April has been a sad one no doubt for Gig Harbor readers, as two local bookstores— and closed their doors for good.

The two couldn’t have been more different. ; No Dearth of Books was a downtown fixture for 14. Borders represented the modern mega-chain, offering new releases of every genre, community activities and a coffee café to boot. No Dearth was a throwback to another time—a tiny, good old-fashioned bookstore, crammed to capacity with used volumes focusing mostly on the Northwest, nautical subjects, military history and other nonfiction works.

They shared one thing in the end, however. Both stores had seen business suffer due to the rise of Internet retailers and the poor economy. Declining sales had factored in the decision to close shop in both cases.

“It’s affected everybody, the electronic sellers and the economy,” said Harry Dearth, who owned with his wife, Shirley, for 27 years before selling it and opening No Dearth of Books down the street in the late 1990s.

There were other factors that played into Dearth’s decision to close his store. The 86-year-old said he wanted to spend more time with his family. His current lease expired at the end of April, so it was an opportune time to do it.

Still, he considers the move to be only semi-retirement. “Some of my old customers wanted me to keep going,” he said. “I’m still hoping to do some business out of my home and online.”

A native of Massachusetts, Dearth developed his interest in books while working in the library as a student at Columbia University in New York City. It would be decades later before he “backed into the business” of selling books for a living, he said.

He ended up in the Northwest while working as a sales service engineer for a specialty steel company. Then he was laid off when the company downsized, creating the opportunity to open Mostly Books in Gig Harbor.

Dearth said one of the pluses of owning his bookstores was the chance they gave him to meet people from all over the world. In recent years, he had visitors sign guest books to record the encounters. Thumbing through the pages of one, he ticked off some of far-flung places they came from: Beijing, Australia, Malaysia, Kenya, Kyrgyzstan.

“Visitors and boaters were very helpful to my business over the years,” he said.

Movers carted off the store’s remaining books and other contents on Wednesday, April 27, signaling its official closing.

The Borders’ closing had come 10 days earlier on Sunday, April 17, nearly two months after its parent, Borders Group, Inc., filed for bankruptcy on Feb. 16.

General Manager Cassy Glaspie was the last customer at Borders and she called it a bittersweet moment for her.

Glaspie had been a frequent Borders shopper. Her daughter, Jennifer Mendoza, who managed the cafe on the second floor, had worked there since its opening in October 2007. She knew most of the workers and used to go bowling with them.

"I was kind of like an honorary mom," Glaspie said. "They were like my family." 

Glaspie framed the receipt she received as the last customer and presented it to store manager Vicki Lundquist as a remembrance.

"It's hard to say goodbye to the people you're not going to see all the time," Glaspie said.

Wesley Inn sales manager Kathy Heerema knows how her co-worker feels. 

"So many people enjoyed Borders," said Heerema. "I think a lot of us are sad that it's gone."

Akiko Oda contributed to this story.