"Owning an independent book store is hard work," the Williamson Daily News reminded its readers in a profile of Book Notes, Pikeville, Ken., where owner Glenda Hall, who has run the store for more than 15 years with her son, said "the job is well worth its struggles.
"We took this place when we started because it had been a book store before," Hall recalled. "We thought that would make it easier, but it took us a lot of hard work to get everything fixed up.... We don't have as many books as bigger stores, but if you let us know what you're looking for, even if we don't have it, in most cases we can recommend something similar."
Hall noted that great customer service is "what separates us from these bigger, chain owned stores. We know the people. We know what they like. And we especially know books! I don't know if that's a requirement for working in a chain store, but from some of my experiences, it seems like maybe not.... I think good customer service is very important in what we do." Bookselling, she added is "not something to do if you want to get rich. But we do it because we believe every person in the world should have access to a book store. That's something each person should have a right to."
