Running a successful independent bookstore could be likened to writing a gripping novel: Whatโs needed in both are characters readers believe in.
And thatโs what the longtime owners of Tucsonโs Antigone Books are looking for now โ just the right person to carry on Antigoneโs story.
Trudy Mills and Kate Randall announced on Tuesday their plans to sell the store.
The longtime business partners have helped local readers for decades, made people laugh with their storeโs zany gifts and cards, and challenged many to think more, or differently, about human rights and the environment.
โWeโre not after the fastest deal or the best financial deal,โ said Mills, โbut the best match.โ
Within a day of their announcement, eight people had inquired with Paz & Associates, the Florida-based consultants Mills and Randall have hired to handle the sale process.
Antigone Books, which opened in 1973, is named after the Greek mythological character who defied masculine authority. At first, the store at 411 N. Fourth Ave. offered only feminist literature and research, but over time expanded in both size and whatโs offered.
Mills and Randall, who have been business partners almost 27 years, said their store is doing well, with profits increasing consistently over the last five years.
It was Mills, 64, who first purchased the store, in 1987.
A former sociology professor, Mills had been teaching womenโs studies at the University of Arizona and says she lost her job over its refusal to give her maternity leave.
โI had the audacity to have a child,โ she said, with a laugh.
Around that time, Antigone Books went up for sale. (The original owners were Barbara Atwood, Pat Kelly and Jonnie Cunningham, who pooled $1,500 to open what was then one of the countryโs first feminist bookstores.)
The years with Antigone Books have been wonderful, Mills said, and sheโs not in a rush to sell.
โThe thing thatโs interesting to me about the store is that it kind of grew up and has changed as the times have changed,โ she said.
Whatโs for sale is the store, but not the building, Mills said. They plan to keep the building for now to ensure itโs a space for the book store and not some other enterprise.
Randall, 53, said she started working there โby total fluke.โ She was in her mid-20s at the time and had been looking for a job waiting tables when she decided to apply at Antigone Books.
โAt the time, the store was really small,โ she said. โIt was Trudy and one other staff person who, it turns out, was planning to leave to return to school.โ
After a couple of years, she became a partner and ran the store for a year while Mills traveled with her husband and young daughter.
โThere have been a lot of lucky moments,โ Randall said of Antigone and her years there.
โIโm not sure what Iโm going to do. Iโm not approaching retirement age yet, but I realize that Iโm ready to do something different.โ
Randallโs job is buying the non-book items for the store, which she enjoys.
โWe really have a great time looking for things that will make customers laugh or things that would make them think,โ she said. โItโs been great. I feel so thankful to the Tucson community for being so supportive.โ
Owning a bookstore is different from other retail endeavors, said Mark Kaufman of Paz & Associates, because book prices are established ahead of time and written right on the book cover.
Kaufman said his business, which he operates with his wife, Donna Paz Kaufman, is focused on helping people open new independent bookstores or buy existing ones.
โThe good news is that independent bookstores, as a whole, have reported their best year this past year, in 2015,โ he said. And double-digit growth is being reported so far this year, he said.
Kaufman said studies are showing this is attributable to people experiencing screen fatigue and wanting reading to return to being a โtactile experience.โ
The consultants have already provided Antigone Books with a valuation process, taking into consideration their five-year tax history, their profit and loss statements, their cash flow, tangible assets and intangible ones, such as the size of their mailing list and services they provide to the community.
The findings, which he declined to reveal, will provide a starting point for negotiating a price with a would-be buyer, he said.
Those who inquire and are serious about making an offer are asked to fill out a questionnaire and sign a confidentiality agreement as they move through the process, he said.
โFor them,โ he said of Mills and Randall, โitโs not as much about the money but someone to preserve the legacy theyโve created.โ
