| Friday, July 30, 2010 |
|
Ann Simpson spent the last 24 years of her life building her bookstore, 2nd Look Books, from a small operation that rented space in a Laundromat to a 10-employee, online and brick-and-mortar operation with 126,000 titles.
Simpson never liked to sleep more than four hours a night, said her daughter, Staci Bernstein. She liked the sense of independence in owning her own business and building it from nothing.
Simpson died on Sept. 19 of cancer, after thinking she beat breast cancer more than a decade ago only to see it return. She was 69.
Part of Simpson's identity was as an energetic, entrepreneurial businesswoman, Bernstein said.
While the bookstore was her love, "I think any small business that could have been built up from nothing would have worked," Bernstein said.
For a liberal environmentalist who supported recycling and valued education, the used bookstore simply fit Simpson's values, her daughter said.
Growing her business was top for Simpson, who reinvested profits in the store, expanding its size, hiring more employees and adding a crucial Internet component in 1999. She had the foresight to recognize early the large role the Internet would have for bookstores, insisting that every book be catalogued and searchable on the Web site, www.2ndlookbooks.com. Simpson hired teams of people to work six days a week for three months to put books in the system, she previously told The Spokesman-Review. Within a couple of years, online sales, through either the Web site or other online used-book directories, accounted for 40 percent of total store sales.
Simpson stopped carrying textbooks because publishers were putting out new editions every year, reducing demand and leaving old editions sitting on the shelves, said Judy Oliver, who has worked at the shop for nearly five years.
"She wasn't afraid to try anything and she would just add a new facet to the store or drop things, and I think that's why a lot of used bookstores don't hold on for 24 years," she said.
Although it was still called 2nd Look Books, the three racks of books Simpson and a partner had in a Laundromat in 1982 are a far cry from the two floors of packed shelves today. Early on, Simpson bought that partner's share of the business. In 1988, she moved to the current location, at 2829 E. 29th Ave.
Employees said Simpson, an energetic woman who used to drink half a case of Dr. Pepper a day, wasn't always easy to work with. It was her way, or no way.
"It was her and everyone else. There was no hierarchy. It was a hierarchy of one," said John Lauerman, who worked downstairs near Simpson's office for the past year. "She was a tyrant who I loved."
What's more, he respected her, Lauerman said. "Ann Simpson was the kind of person I had no problem making minimum wage for," he said.
Lauerman described an energy that was contagious, an energy that took the terminally ill woman whitewater rafting only several weeks ago.
The last time he saw her, he said, was about two weeks ago on his first day back after getting hit by a car on his bike; it was her last day at work. Despite the cancer that was clearly overtaking her, she worried over his concussion, broken ribs and cuts, he said.
He was inspired by her selflessness, he said.
Simpson's energy brought her into the shop until 1 a.m. to do payroll and manage the books, her daughter Bernstein said. As she got sicker and spent less time there, she held onto doing payroll, she said, something she retained because it made her feel vital to the business.
"The last four or five years I'd try her bookstore before I'd try her house, if I need to get ahold of her late at night," Bernstein said.
2nd Look Books was her biggest business venture, but she had other work, as well. She once owned a computerized dating service that not only connected customers, but also introduced her to the man who would become her second husband. Until recently, she sold customized pens, calendars, mugs and other items to businesses, and she rented out a duplex, said Brent Simpson, one of her sons.
When she became sick, Simpson began trying to sell the bookstore, but because she thought it was worth more than an appraiser estimated, she had trouble selling it, Bernstein said. The appraiser looked only at the material value, not name recognition, customer base and refined processes, she said.
Simpson died before it could sell. She was separated from her second husband and her four children live elsewhere, leaving no family to take it over, Brent Simpson said.
The siblings still intend to sell the shop, "as much as I'd love to see her legacy continue with it," Brent Simpson said.
A memorial service for Simpson is planned at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Spokane, at 4340 W. Fort Wright Drive, at 4 p.m. on October 22.
