New owners experience success at Half Price Books

Kathy Ross is writing a new chapter in the history of Half Price Books, a used-book store at 1950 S. Glenstone Ave. Ross and her husband, Tom, purchased the 15-year-old business Nov. 1.

Kathy Ross is president and manages the day-to-day business at Half Price Books while her husband continues to work as a pharmaceutical sales representative. The Rosses said purchasing the bookstore was something they had wanted to do for a while.

"I love the people," Kathy Ross said. "Customers just know us, and it's like a big family."

Ross worked at the bookstore for 3 1/2 years before the purchase. During that time, she got to know the staff, customers and the owners, Frank and Mary Jo Clouse.

When the Clouses mentioned their future retirement plans to Ross, an idea was born.

"We were not particularly tired of the business nor were we physically handicapped to where we weren't able to work, but it just seemed like the right thing to do at the time," said Frank Clouse of the sale. "It was an opportunity that came along and we took advantage it."

The Clouses had purchased the store from founders David and Barbara Wetter in 1995. The Wetters opened the store in 1988.

Prior to entering the bookselling business, Ross was vice president of finance and human resources for Hicklin Marketing, a food brokerage business. Ross co-owned the company with her father, Oscar, and brother, Terry Hicklin.

In 1999, when Hicklin Marketing merged with Premier Concepts and moved to Bentonville, Ark., Ross and her brother decided to stay here. Soon after the change, Ross' brother went into the candy business as the owner of Richardson's Candy House and Ross went into the book business.

Ross said the Clouses taught her a lot about the business during her time as an employee, including the value of the hands-on approach.

"You have to keep your head in the game, like any small business. I don't think you can take a small business and have the owners be absent 50 percent of the time," Frank Clouse said. "If it is a retail- or customer-oriented business, I think (the owners) have to be the ones there making contact with the customer because the customer expects to see them."

Half Price Books buys, sells and trades books, and about 90 percent of the store's stock is in used books. Ross said the store has more than 90,000 books priced from $1.25 and up, as well as lower priced clearance items.

Ross said larger retailers that sell new books are not a problem for her business.

"I don't feel threatened at all. In order to have our stock, we have to have somebody buy (books) someplace else," Ross said. She added that her business has even picked up recently.

"I've seen a lot of interest since the economy is so bad." She said many people are looking for ways to save money on books as with other items.