Montpelier Bookstore Owners Buy Second Store Across the Street

by Kevin Howell, PW Daily -- Publishers Weekly, 10/4/2006

In 2002, Claire Benedict and her husband Rob Kasow moved from Boston to Montpelier, Vt., to purchase the used and collectible bookstore Rivendell Books, never thinking that four years later they'd become the owners of a second bookstore diagonally across the street. This week, the couple purchased the 33-year-old Bear Pond Books from Michael Katzenberg and his wife Linda Prescott.

"Montpelier has a very strong local merchants community and both bookstores have been involved it in, so we knew them but hadn't worked with them," said Benedict of Bear Pond's former owners. "They sold new books and we sold used and collectible so we were doing two different things and were never in direct competition with each other. We'd send customers over to their store and they'd do the same for us."

Last December, at a merchants Christmas party, Katzenberg jokingly asked the couple if they wanted to buy a bookstore. Katzenberg had decided to retire from the store he founded but the deal with the first prospective buyer had fallen through. Benedict and Kasow began thinking about purchasing the bookstore and roughly six months ago, everyone sat down to start working on a plan.

The 2,500 sq.-ft. Rivendell employs five booksellers while the 2,800 sq.-ft Bear Pond has a staff of 12. "The staff is going to stay the same," said Benedict. "Some of the booksellers at Bear Pond have been there for a long time and are very knowledgeable. I can rely on them and that makes all the difference in the world."

"I'm going to run Bear Pond and Rob, who is focused on the collectible and rare books, will run Rivendell Books," said Benedict. Bear Pond is known for holding many events. Among the authors scheduled for in-store signing over the next 10 days are John Dean, Amy Goodman and Jan Brett. "This is a very vibrant town," said Benedict. "We're the state capitol and although our population is just 8,200, it swells during the day to 22,000."