Ahh, New Yearโs Eve. A time to toast auld acquaintances โฆ sing a song at midnight โฆ and then head to the airport for a long flight home.
The airline industry estimates that 39 million Americans will be flying this holiday season.
If some of them have been staying with you, we offer this public service:
Have them visit Ink by Hudson, one of Tucsonโs very best bookstores โฆ and certainly the least well-known.
Located in Terminal B at Tucson International Airport, Ink is hardly on the beaten path. But regular travelers on Alaska, American and Delta airlines are happy to sing its praises.
Tom Tronsdal, for one. He calls Ink the โBest-kept secret in Tucson.โ
Dr. Jaiva Larsen of the University of Arizonaโs College of Medicine agrees. โI love this place. I fly a lot, I read a lot and I come here every chance I can. Iโm definitely a regular.โ
Readers arenโt the only ones to stop by. Author Jeff Biggers was in the store last week. Seeing copies of his own new book, โIn Sardinia,โ he signed them all.
Ink is operated by Hudson, the king of airport retail in the United States. Hudson operates some 950 stores in 90 American airports and train stations.
Longtime Tucsonan Penny Mace, who manages the six Hudson shops at TIA, has a special place in her heart for the one in Terminal B.
โIโve been in retail sales my whole career,โ she said. โI used to spend a lot of time on the road, and I always took a book. For an avid reader, being able to walk into a bookstore every day is pretty special.โ
Ink should not be confused with the usual airport convenience store, where passengers might grab a water, a newspaper and a souvenir for little Willy back home.
This is a full-on bookshop, with one of the largest new-book collections in Tucson.
โItโs not just the number of books we have, itโs the range,โ Mace said. โNo matter what kind of books you read, no matter how old you are, we have at least a shelf or two youโll be interested it. And if you have questions? Just ask, because the people who work here are book people.โ
Hudson provides and prioritizes most of the books in the collection, borrowing heavily from its own bestseller list. But Mace and store supervisor Gil Sanchez have a budget for books of local and regional interest.
Linda Ronstadtโs memoir of her time in Tucson, โFeels Like Home,โ was a popular choice last spring.
During the last Hudson sales period, three of the storeโs five top sellers were childrenโs books by local authors and illustrators.
โChildrenโs books are big for us, especially the ones by local authors,โ Mace said. โSusan Lowell books like โThe 3 Little Javelinasโ are always in our top 20. Theyโre perfect gifts for your kids and grandkids when you get back home.โ
Ink is a full-on bookshop, with one of the largest new-book collections in Tucson.
Airport bookshops have been in Hudsonโs lineup for some time now, long enough that some customers refer to the company as โHudson Books.โ
The companyโs roots are actually in newspapers, specifically the Hudson County News in Bayonne, New Jersey. In the 1980s, the paper took over bankrupt newsstands at Newark and LaGuardia airports. The stores were called Hudson News, and Hudsonโs reach has been growing ever since.
Hudson now operates 60 bookstores nationwide, several on behalf of independent booksellers such as Warwickโs, Book Soup, Elliott Bay and Vromanโs.
Not surprisingly, sales strategies at Ink are different than other Tucson bookshops. Ink doesnโt advertise or promote itself to the general public, for example. Its target audience is small, limited to travelers using a single concourse at the airport. Ink relies on โcurb appealโ and front-door displays to attract passersby.
Ink is different than other airport bookstores, too. Its inventory spotlights books about life in the Southwest and along the border.
And while business is booming this week at other American airports, particularly the hubs, the peak sales season for retailers at TIA is not until Spring.
โThe airport is busy, but most of the travelers are people we see during the holidays live here in Tucson,โ Mace explained. โWe have lots of local regulars. We see them a lot. But itโs our out-of-town people who have time to browse while waiting for their flights โฆ and want to take things home to remember their stay.โ
In other words, Hudsonโs accountants in Tucson will save their Seasonโs Greetings until the tourist season begins in February.
โWeโre stocking up for Spring, when people start coming for vacations, conferences and big events like the gem show, rodeo and book festival,โ Mace said. โWhen itโs time for them to head home, theyโll want to take keepsakes for themselves and gifts for their kids.โ
Spring may be king for the accounting department, but for readers, Ink is the best-kept secret in Tucson all year โround.
FOOTNOTES
The Tucson Festival of Books has a new executive director. Welz Kauffman, formerly the president and CEO of the Ravinia Music Festival in Highland Park, Illinois, will join the festival Jan. 15. He will replace Melanie Morgan, who resigned in September.
Is Mother Nature a book reader, too? A weather delay last week brought several new customers to the Ink store at TIA. One of them was Robert Torgerson of Zeeland, Michigan. โWeโre delayed two hours because of the weather back East,โ he said. โWe could spend it here or in the bar, and this seemed a way better idea.โ
โFourth Wingโ by Rebecca Yarros was selected as Hudsonโs โBook of the Yearโ for 2023. To see its complete best-of list, visit hudsonbooksellers.com/best-books-2023.
