Getting lost in the whimsical inventory of BookSmart Kids
– what many will recognize as Garlic City Books reincarnate – is
like kicking off your shoes and stepping back into childhood: It’s
all about imagination, color, exploration and fun.
And candy and ice cream, of course.
Getting lost in the whimsical inventory of BookSmart Kids – what many will recognize as Garlic City Books reincarnate – is like kicking off your shoes and stepping back into childhood: It’s all about imagination, color, exploration and fun.
And candy and ice cream, of course.
Standing amid empty boxes, entrepreneur Cinda Meister gazed at displays in progress Thursday afternoon inside the stately neoclassical building at 7490 Monterey St. downtown.
“We wanted to bring some whimsy to it,” she said.
Meister was flanked by rubber dinosaurs to her left; a book titled “Make a Mummy Shrink Head, and Other Useful Skills,” to her right.
After Garlic City books went out of business in late July, Cinda and husband Brad Jones are “giving the community a second chance,” said landlord Gary Walton, who owns the edifice that lasted as a used bookstore for about one year.
(Read the past story: Garlic City Books closing.)”
“We hear it all the time,” he continued. “‘There’s nothing to do downtown.’ If you don’t come down and patronize it, it’s not going to stay, and all you’ll have is an empty downtown and a bunch of chain stores.”
Rolling up their sleeves and giving it a second try, Jones and Meister – owners of BookSmart in Morgan Hill for 17 years – are reinventing their venue that officially opened to the public Friday. Astutely keeping in sync with related businesses such as Mango Street Kids and Studio Three, the couple is honing in on a family-oriented market that already possesses a strong presence in the area.
Moving away from used books, “Brad redid the business plan based on the fact that Gilroy has the youngest population demographically in the county,” Walton pointed out.
BookSmart Kids (which is permeated with that wonderful brand new book smell) is an equal mix of books, toys and games; plus a little bit of this and a little bit of that: Recognizable classics by Maurice Sendak (author of “Where the Wild Things Are”), giant animal heads that blow bubbles, a cornucopia of Playmobil sets, “reptile bingo,” slap wrist watches in bright neon colors, the Bananagrams game or a selection of books in Spanish – something Meister said she plans to build upon should the demand grow.
Plush microbe characters, such as “Yeast, Brain Cell, E-Coli, Common Cold and Swine Flu,” are an absolute hoot that scream “clever gift for your favorite school nurse” or “lighthearted get-well gift.”
Besides a tempting selection of old fashioned candy, BookSmart Kids offers Fair Trade & Organic Press Pot coffee from Santa Cruz Roasting Co., along with a tantalizing selection of gourmet Treat Ice Cream produced locally by a San Jose Company that’s been in business since 1951.
This is the kind of place you’ll wander into with your children, and end up equally engrossed with novelty items not necessarily found in corporate toy stores.
The “Bubber,” for example, is the most amusing synthetic substance since Play-Doh, Silly Putty or Gak.
“I had an adult who had to taste it,” said Cinda, scooping a handful green squishiness from the jar and molding it between both palms. “So now I know it tastes like nothing.”
She meanders past shelves of fanciful merchandise, explaining why she picked particular items, and what she thinks patrons will like about them.
It’s this glimmer of personal touch, Walton underscores, you don’t necessarily get when visiting Wal-Mart.
Gilroy needs to embrace independent entrepreneurs, he said, “because it’s what makes us different. I guarantee you go to Brad and you’ll get better service. He cares about this business. A lot of people who work for chain stores, it’s just a job.”
Jones and Meister have been in book retail for 17 years; a niche occupation that came about when the couples’ business partners retired from operating the Mushrooms Bar and Grill in Morgan Hill.
Recalling it “was time to do something different,” Brad happened upon Town Books on the corner of Second and Monterey streets in Morgan Hill, where a sign had just been hung declaring the store was going out of business.
“I stopped in and I looked at it, and thought, ‘This would be perfect for us,'” he remembers.
After mulling over the career change, Cinda said, “I knew customer service, and I love to read, and I thought, ‘How hard could it be?'”
After turning around Garlic City Books in a matter of months, Meister and Jones consider Friday their soft opening. An official grand opening will come down the road, they say.
“But we figured if we didn’t give ourselves a deadline, it would never happen,” mused Cinda.
While they’re focusing on smoothing out the wrinkles that come with opening a brand-new business, the pair will eventually schedule community activities such as group story times and arts and crafts. Much of Garlic City Books’ former staff has been split between the two stores, so there will still be “lots of familiar faces,” said Meister.
Lauding Jones and Meister as people who give back to the cities they live and work in, Walton hopes Gilroy chooses to patronize the new store.
“These are local people that are your neighbors,” he said. “Hopefully the community will start thinking about supporting their neighbors vs. big box stores.”
BookSmart kids will be open from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Tuesday through Saturdays, and 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Sundays. For more information and updates, visit the BookSmart Kids Facebook page, or call (408) 842-2665.
