After five years as owner of Lightly Used Books in downtown Turlock, Jenni Brannon has made the decision to close the second-hand bookstore.

“March 30 will be the last day,” said Brannon, a lifelong lover of books who grew up in a house across the street from a library. “The landlord and I agreed that’s when I could fairly break my lease with no penalty.”

Brannon jokes that she “accidentally” bought the store five years ago after having a bad day at work.

“I came home and all I wanted to do was go into a bookstore and smell the books,” she said. “I knew the exact book I wanted and where it was located, but the store was closed at the time.” She had her eye on a Greek language book, needed for an upcoming trip to Greece.

Brannon eventually tracked down the person who had inherited the bookstore at 141 S. Center St. and asked if there were any plans to re-open. During the conversation, she jokingly threw out a dollar amount. The next day, the owner called and accepted it.

“I told my husband, ‘I think I accidentally bought a bookstore,’” she said. “He asked if we could afford it, and I told him, ‘Well, you won’t have to take me to Greece.’”

After a soft opening in January of 2020, Brannon scheduled a grand opening for March, but the COVID-19 pandemic scuttled those plans, and much of her early efforts to get the operation up and running.

“It took about two years for the community to figure out that the store was open,” said Brannon, who pointed out that three months worth of work on the sidewalk and street in front of her store didn’t help matters.

And because Lightly Used Books didn’t operate in 2019, the store didn’t qualify for COVID relief funds from the government.

“We didn’t have any financials for 2019 and couldn’t prove that the company was real,” she said.

The store’s rent increased 4 percent each year, and in May 2022, Lightly Used Books was downsized, with Brannon giving up the store’s second suite. But nearly three years later, she’s right back where she was then, even though she feels the business is finally positioned to be profitable.

“We kind of knew we had to make some decisions,” she said. “One thing I didn’t want to do was increase the price of books.” 

In five years, neither Brannon nor her children, who work at the store part time, took a paycheck.

“It was all put back into the business,” said Brannon, who has had conversations with a handful of potential buyers. “It was a labor of love. But we owe back rent, and our landlord has been so generous. We realized that we’ve got to cut our losses. That’s just kind of where we’re at."

Brannon doesn’t want to write off her debt or file for bankruptcy — “we accumulated this debt and we’re going to pay it off,” she said — and will maintain the online component of her operation in an effort to pay the bills.

“About 25 percent of our business comes from the online store,” she said. “Our ‘Blind Date with a Book’ program has been popular. For $10 a month you get one hardback or two paperback books. We sort of sleuth out your social media and see if we can get a feel for the person, to see what books we can send to your door each month.”
Even though things didn’t work out as she’d hoped, she’s not averse to giving it another try down the road.

“If there’s a need, absolutely,” Brannon said. “But if somebody else is doing it beautifully, then we’ll support them.

“I didn’t think we were going to become millionaires owning a bookstore, but I was happy and content being part of this community. It’s now self-sustainable. I think we hit that mark in the last 18 months. Hopefully, we get a buyer and you’re able to write an updated story. That would be my new perfect world. I don’t want to see it go away.”

Despite constantly hearing “nobody reads books anymore,” Brannon believes a book renaissance is on the horizon. 

“It’s mostly people between the ages of 30 and 50 who say that nobody reads anymore,” she said. “I find that the younger generation is starving for the written word. Not just my kids, but their friends, and Stan State kids. A lot of them are on their screens, but when it comes to reading, I find that whole generation is really excited about actual books. They love that we have all these different options. They’re excited about history and biographies and true crime.”

Brannon’s biggest concern is her older clientele.

“A lot of seniors don’t have cable TV and books are their main source of entertainment,” she said. “They prefer westerns, and older romances. My husband and I are flirting with the idea of a pop-up trailer that we can use to take the books to them, since many of them are not online shoppers. I don’t want to see them lose that source of entertainment.”

Brannon said she’ll miss being part of Turlock’s small-business community.

“The other downtown business owners have become like family to me,” she said. “That has been very, very rewarding.

“The customers have been so sweet and kind. They remember my birthday; they remember my kids’ birthdays; they come into the store and pick up conversations that were started during their last visit. Community … that’s the best part of being a business owner in downtown Turlock. I think that’s what I’m going to miss the most.”

Despite it all, Brannon admits there is one small consolation.

“My husband promised he’d take me to Greece,” she said.