In this episode of the Western Wayne News Podcast we talk with Kate Glen, co-owner of The Two Sisters: Books and More, located in Richmond’s Depot District. Kate shares how she and her sister turned a lifelong dream into a welcoming community space that’s as much about connection as it is about books. From hosting book clubs and birthday parties to offering a safe haven for creativity and conversation, the shop has become a local gathering place. Listen in as host Kate Jetmore brings an inspiring look at how one small business is helping to shape the heart of a community.
Transcript
Kate Glen: I’m Kate Glen, co-owner of The Two Sisters: Books and More.
Kate Jetmore: From Civic Spark Media and the Western Wayne News in Wayne County, Indiana, I’m Kate Jetmore. As a native of Richmond, Indiana, I’m excited to be sitting down with some of our neighbors and listening to the stories that define our community.
My guest today is Kate Glen, who runs a bookshop in Richmond’s Depot District along with her sister, Patty Glen. The store’s mission is to “provide quality literature and related products in an environment that harkens back to a time before chain stores; when shopping was an unhurried, personal experience.” Kate also does PR for the Boys & Girls Club.
Welcome, Kate! I’m so happy you could join me today.
Kate Glen: Hey, thanks for having me.
Kate Jetmore: How did you and your sister decide to open a bookstore in Richmond, Indiana? Was this your first time tackling a project like this? Or had you done it before, elsewhere?
Kate Glen: Yeah, we’d talked since we were little kids about wanting to own a bookstore and how fun that would be.
And it was 2012. My sister had just graduated from college. And I had been out working for four years after graduating in 2008 at the height of the recession and taking all those millennial jobs that are underpaid and overworked.
And so I was looking for a change, too. And it just happened to be a really exciting time in the Depot District.
There hadn’t been a lot of change. But New Boswell had just opened. It turns out Roscoe’s was opening at the same time that we did.
Paint the Towne opened right after we did. And there were lots of little businesses that were coming in and starting up.
So it was just, we were really excited to be part of the revitalization of Richmond and to really be on the ground for that. That was a very exciting time for us.
Kate Jetmore: It’s exciting to hear you talk about it. I think, given what we have seen in the Depot District over the last, you know, 10, 12, 15 years, some people, especially maybe some of our younger listeners, don’t even remember when there really wasn’t a whole lot in the Depot District.
So you and your sister really played a key role as being people who, you know, took that chance and really jumped in there with your dream.
Kate Glen: It was really, it was really a very supported process too, because the Depot District at that time had just kind of launched their owner’s association.
So we had a support group of business owners who were there to help us get that business plan going and really be part of what was becoming an upswing for the depot.
But yeah, as you say, when I was growing up here, there was little Sheba’s and then there was nothing in between.
You didn’t go anywhere else. They had, where Roscoe’s is now, became a coffee shop, Charlie’s, for a while. And it was Charlie’s and Sheba’s and that was all you did if you were going down there at all.
So it’s really, really an exciting time for the depot with more and more stuff coming in and businesses shifting and changing.
And it’s a really healthy sign, I think, for our community that we have people who are still willing to invest in that area.
Kate Jetmore: Mm hmm. And I’m curious if you and your sister were met with what you expected to be met with, or if the experience of opening your own bookshop was something completely different than what you were prepared to be met with.
Kate Glen: I think we were really excited for the support we got from the community. When we first opened our doors for Oktoberfest, we didn’t have our bookshelves built.
We just, we wanted people to be able to see what we were doing, but we weren’t quite ready yet.
So we had, we had taped the shapes of the bookshelves onto the ground and we like stacked books where they would be if there was a bookshelf here.
And people loved it. Like they came in and they were like, is this going to be how it is?
They wanted that format. They thought that was so fun. And the kind of outpouring from the community has been like that ever since, where people, people have been really supportive of our work and people have been really excited that we’re there.
And I think that’s always what we wanted from that experience.
Kate Jetmore: For sure. Well, it’s no secret that, you know, running a bricks and mortar shop in the age of the internet, and I’m going to go ahead and say it, in the age of Amazon, is no small feat.
Are there people who come to your store specifically to support you? They make that intentional decision to go down to the Depot District and go into your bookshop and get that book?
Kate Glen: Oh, absolutely. Especially when new books are coming out, we don’t necessarily have a lot of instant new books on the shelf like Amazon has it the day it’s released. A bigger chain bookstore would have it the day it’s released, they might do a midnight release.
We don’t really have that option, but a lot of people will come and preorder a book like that through us anyway because they want to support local.
A lot of people, we have some customers who make it intentional, we’re going to be their stop that they come to every Saturday after getting brunch because they want to support local and they want to support brick and mortar.
Kate Jetmore: That’s amazing. It really speaks volumes about this community.
You and your shop have also served as a gathering place for writers and readers and I have to say a physical gathering place, you know, again, in the age of Zoom.
How did those gatherings start to happen, and what’s that been like?
Kate Glen: Yeah, they happen organically. People come in, and they say, I had a book club at the town where I used to live, and I want to start it again.
And then they start it up, and we help them with the advertising, and we put it on our page, and people come.
We had a writer’s group that was very healthy and thriving for a long time, and that happened because a person wanted to have a writer’s group, and they wanted to meet on Wednesdays.
That was back there. We’ve had people come in and ask to do birthday parties for their children. In our little back reading room, we’ve had people do senior photos and engagement photos.
It’s all an organic outpouring of what that space needs to be and wants to be for the community, and what the community wants from it.
Kate Jetmore: And is that something you and your sister expected? Or did you really think that it would be a place that sold books?
Kate Glen: No, I don’t think we ever thought it would be a place that sold books. I think a bookshop, and really any good thriving business in a community like this, needs to be responsive to the people who are there, and it needs to be something that is unique to its time and place, and you need to be involved with your customers and your people and to be part of all of that.
So, no, I think we always anticipated that things would happen that were people’s reaction to the space and to the vibe of the building more so than anything we could plan.
Kate Jetmore: How do you define, if you can, the role that Two Sisters Books plays in the community, which is Richmond, Indiana, or even in the broader community of Wayne County?
Kate Glen: Yeah, I think I would borrow some language and call us a safe space. We’re a safe space for people to come in to rest, to shop, to find inspiration.
And we’re just a safe space for people to exist and interact with like minds. And, like, for example, we hosted the Drag Queens at Richmond’s Pride. They did their costume changes in our back room, and there were lots of places you can do costume changes, but I think that community really felt that this was a space in that area where they would be safe to do that and have physical space.
But I think that’s probably the biggest function of the bookstore, is if you’re having a bad day, you can come in and you can have a cup of tea and you can chill, and you can be in a calm, relaxing environment that doesn’t expect anything of you.
Kate Jetmore: That’s huge. That’s huge to have created a space where people feel safe. And the other word that comes up for me is fear, because I think of safety being kind of the other end of the spectrum from fear.
And I’m curious, are you, you know, there are people who are feeling fear these days, maybe even a greater level of fear than they were feeling.
Are you, is that something that you’re aware of? In the context of the bookshop?
Kate Glen: Yeah, absolutely. I mean, people treat the bookshop a little bit like people imagine treating your local bartender.
A lot of people come in and they just want to share what’s going on in their lives and what they’re thinking about right now.
Kate Jetmore: Interesting.
I’m imagining, you know, people who are just discovering your bookshop, whether they’re passing through town or they’ve lived in town for a long time but have never actually gone into the shop.
What’s it like when… When someone walks through the door for the first time, is it something that you register, the reactions of new clients, new customers?
Kate Glen: We kind of have, when you walk in our front door, it’s not immediate books for sale. There’s kind of a little seating area there, too, and our book counter.
And so people kind of come in and they will pause for a minute and take the whole space in and take the colors in.
And that’s kind of fun to see. And then they usually will tell us about something that it reminds them of, some bookshop that they loved that they went to in another town or somebody’s house that they loved going to.
So we get a lot of those reactions where they come in and they, you know, they take the whole thing in and then they say, “Oh, this is just like…” And that’s really cool to see.
Kate Jetmore: Is that pretty common? I mean, do people voice what it is they’re feeling when they walk in?
Kate Glen: Yeah, it is. And I think it’s that there’s a physical space for them to do that, to really stand there and choose then to continue entering and really to interact with the space on their own, as opposed to like you, sometimes you walk into a store and the commerce is immediately in front of you and you’re just, your eye is going to go to the product and not necessarily to the space itself.
Kate Jetmore: Right. What about kids? Do kids have reactions that you tend to notice when they come into the store?
Kate Glen: Kids are always excited to come into the store. A lot of them will yell, “Oh, it’s a big library!”
And they’ll ask like, “How do you… Can I take it? Can I take the books home? How do we do that?”
You know, and they get very excited. Kids like running through the space. There’s lots of little nooks and crannies and zigzags and stuff.
So they get very excited there. We’ve hosted a Nerf party, because you can hide behind walls and things at the bookstore and we keep finding the little Nerf darts around the place.
So yeah, it’s a really fun space for kids.
Kate Jetmore: And you mentioned that at least one person has had a birthday party there. What was that like?
Kate Glen: We had a family that came to us and said their daughter really likes the space and she was into Victorian tea parties at that time and they wanted to host a tea party in our back.
So we made them a custom blend of tea for them to share with the kids and we had our little teapot set up for them and all the little girls came in in their little dresses and they just had a fun time, lots of giggles.
It’s really, it’s nice when people want to use the space and you just let them, and you can just hear the reactions and the happiness that’s going on in the back.
Kate Jetmore: Do those sounds and those responses and reactions keep you going in moments when maybe the business isn’t going as strongly as you would hope?
Kate Glen: Yeah, absolutely. You know, we really want to be there for our community and to meet some needs that aren’t necessarily economic.
And then, so remembering those moments when we’re getting not economic feedback is important because there is more to a community than just the business transactions.
There’s a lot with the spaces and the people, and that’s what we want to be.
Kate Jetmore: Yeah, I love hearing all the ways that the bookshop is a part of the community and gives back to the community that has nothing to do with being a business.
You know, it’s not, you don’t often hear that from a business or you hear it, but you know that it’s just sort of like a little benefit that happens, but the main thing is the money, the main thing is the money.
Kate Glen: Yeah, I mean, and that’s, it’s funny, like we probably would be a bigger bookstore or a more successful business if we focused a little more on the bottom line and our dollars and cents, but that isn’t necessarily why we got into it.
You know, I work a full-time job with the Boys & Girls Club, which I love and which is extremely rewarding. And my sister works a part time job doing safety coordinating for an archaeology firm.
And the bookstore is our absolute passion project in this town. And we want to keep it going, even if it’s not necessarily an economic powerhouse. We really feel that it’s filling a very large need that’s still there.
Kate Jetmore: Is there any…? I mean, I don’t want to ask you to speak for your sister, so maybe just speak for yourself.
When it comes to your work at the Boys & Girls Club, is there any overlap there? Do you see any sort of common needs being met, both in the bookstore and in the Boys & Girls Club?
Kate Glen: Absolutely. I think, again, the biggest one is safe spaces. The Boys & Girls Club is a safe space for kids to go after school and when school is out.
And parents need that and parents need a safe space that’s affordable. And they know their child’s not just hanging out.
They’re not just being watched, but they’re being cared for and nurtured. And it really, the bookstore does similar things. We obviously don’t do childcare, but we exist in a space where people can come in if they need to be there.
And I think that’s a really important overlap.
Kate Jetmore: Well, Kate, as we start to wrap up, I want to just turn our attention to the act of reading, the act of spending time with a good book, going slower, taking time, forgetting about the clock.
In the context, you know, sort of against the background of our attention economy, where that is really not the norm anymore.
Do you think that beyond the store, which as you said, is a safe space. It’s a special place. It’s a place that people are seeking out, whether it’s Saturday morning or once a month or once a week on a different day.
Do you think there’s still hope for, and a place for, that experience of spending time with a book?
Kate Glen: Oh, absolutely. Everybody needs an exhale. You know, everybody needs a moment where they can let go and just be and just exist.
And I think books facilitate that. Books also give an element of escapism sometimes, even when you’re reading a fiction book and you’re learning something new, you’re learning something that isn’t necessarily what is going on in your immediate environment.
And people need that. You need the ability to disconnect for a little while and to recharge and revive. And so I think there’s always going to be a place for brick and mortar bookstores.
Kate Jetmore: Oh, I’m very happy to hear that. Kate, is there anything you’d like to say to our listeners out there?
I mean, some of them may be people who already know the bookshop or maybe even regulars, but is there anything you’d like to say to listeners out there who maybe haven’t found you yet, things that are coming up, projects that you have or activities that you have coming up that you’d like to invite people to?
Kate Glen: Sure, we would love to invite everybody in the doors. We’re open 9 a.m. to 7 p.m., Monday through Saturday. So come by and see us.
We are there. We do custom blends of teas that are literary themed. We have gifts, items, if books aren’t necessarily your thing.
And as we mentioned, we have really, really nice places. We have really comfy couches, and we’re always excited to talk.
So come on down. So, Wednesday Wine Walks, come down for those. Those are really exciting for the summertime. We’ll be there for Oktoberfest at the end of September. And just come be in the Depot District. It’s an exciting place to be.
Kate Jetmore: Well, Kate, thank you. I’m so grateful to you for making time for this conversation.
I loved learning more about you and the bookshop, and I want to wish you and your family all the best.
Kate Glen: Thank you so much.