The Traverse City Record-Eagle recalled the move 20 years ago of Horizon Books into a former J.C. Penney site in downtown Traverse City, Mich., a move that was a major force in the transformation of the area. Speaking of Horizon owners Vic Herman and Amy Reynolds, longtime Traverse City leader and businessman Bruce Rogers said, "If there's anything that started the turnaround for downtown on its way back to what it is today, it is the courage Vic and Amy had to purchase that building. It was huge."
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| photo: LibraryThing.com | |
Herman remembered that Horizon Books needed to expand and that he put in a low offer on the empty Penney's building, one of "a lot" of vacant storefronts. The offer was accepted, the store moved and doubled its sales the first year. Horizon felt "lonesome" for a time, but eventually more stores opened.
Horizon took a 15% hit in sales when Borders opened in 1996--but then sales rose 20% when Borders closed in 2011. "Probably the most important reason we didn't go out of business when Borders came was because we owned our own building," Herman told the paper. A Books-A-Million that opened in the former Borders space hasn't affected Horizon's sales.
Horizon has 25 employees in the 22,000-square-foot space and has branches in Petoskey and Cadillac. The store continues to maintain its traditional long hours: from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m., seven days a week. "We have never wanted our customers to worry about if we were going to be open or not," Reynolds explained.