The Antithesis to Mega-Bookstores
Where to find a bookstore with real personality
By Mariana O’Leary
Living in the Bay Area can be a mixed blessing. The cultural richness of our community gives us an incredible variety of restaurants, museums and entertainment options, while the beautiful California coast and scenic wineries beckon. Unfortunately, living here also comes with a hefty price tag, as the Bay Area has one of the highest cost of living rates in the U.S., and even taking a drive has become almost prohibitive.
If you live in the East Bay, new clusters of ‘big box’ stores have seemed to pop up overnight. Offering entertainment in the form of chain coffee stores, oversized mega-electronics nightmares, and worst of all, cookie cutter book warehouses, these corporate giants are devoid of personality and chock-full of discounted, shiny new books. These may seem the answer to your search for distraction, but before you give in and order a mochaccino, you may want to look to that independently-owned bookstore within walking distance.
What if you could find a place where the person behind the counter was actually interested in what you like to read then made additional suggestions? What if you had the opportunity to buy all your reading material on recycled paper? What if you could find a wealth of local knowledge, advice on what sushi restaurant to eat at on Wednesdays, debate politics, and buy locally made art pieces all in one place?
The Book Shop on B Street in downtown Hayward has been offering this and much more since 1960. For a true local experience, head down B Street past the new theatre, and stop at 1007, just short of The Bistro. Not to worry, you’ll be at the Bistro later, pairing a delicious microbrew with your newly acquired book and listening to snatches of local gossip as you relax on its sunny patio.
Walking into the small shop, you can probably expect a chipper “good afternoon!” from Renee Rettig, resident genius, mind reader, expert book sleuth and manager of The Book Shop, a valuable friend to have who will remember you next time. Take a second to congratulate yourself on finding this place, as you stare openmouthed at the floor-to-ceiling shelves crammed with titles.
Rettig seems to have the capability of merely looking at a person who has just announced they’re just looking for “something to read,” and producing a book the poor soul didn’t even know they had been secretly yearning for. She quotes John Milton with ease in one breath, recommends a western from their largest-in-the-Bay selection a second later, and is equally enthusiastic to giggle with you over the latest chick-flick pulp. It’s obvious Rettig is a person who loves her work.
“Humans will always have a natural need for connection with each other, and bookstores are a perfect forum for the expression of ideas,” says Rettig.
Leave Rettig chatting away happily while ringing up customer purchases with a hand-held calculator and allow yourself to wander aimlessly. On the left you can find new books and political best sellers. Artsy calendars, Bay Area travel guides, best chick-literature for curling up on the couch as the fog creeps in are on the right. Further back and you realize the smallness of The Book Shop is deceiving--you’ve taken a turn into a small room and you’re by yourself. Titles sing out at you, classics, childhood favorites, hard-to-find science fiction, romance, and poetry...this could be heaven.
A warning: if you instead find yourself face-to-face with a silver-bearded, nicely aged, yet slightly gruff-looking character upon entering The Book Shop, don’t panic. He’s the self-proclaimed ‘grouch of B Street’ but Hank Maschal, the well-known owner of The Book Shop since 1989, has the heart of a love poem (just don’t let on that you know).
“He’s a classic,” says The Bistro owner Vic Kralj about Maschal. “I’ve known Hank for 15 years and in terms of understanding small town business and what makes a small business great no one does it better. He’s a good old boy in the way of softness and old fashioned mannerisms, and everyone loves him. One of my bartenders even made a shirt that said ‘I love Hank.’ ”
A passionate bird-watcher and an accountant, Maschal was born in Berkeley, Calif., and in 1989 decided he wanted a different career.
“I had wanted something that was gentle and decided owning a bookstore was the gentlest thing I could do.”
With the intention of buying a book on how to run a used bookstore, Maschal walked into the Book Shop where Virginia and Ken MacKenzie promptly offered, “How about this one?”
Almost 20 years later, Maschal thinks of retiring to have time for more bird-watching, but seems to be in no hurry.
“I still like coming in here every day,” says Maschal. “I’m surrounded by books and once in a while a nice person.”
A fun quirk of The Book Shop comes in the form of a trade-in system. Aside from offering an extraordinary selection of used and new books, custom ordering any book currently in print in the U.S. at no extra charge and giving excellent recommendations, you can also practice recycling and save yourself even more money.
“Not unlike a vintage clothing store, once you’ve rung every bit of use out of a book, you can exchange it for another one,” says Rettig.
With a guarantee to buy back all books they sell at 25 percent of the cost to a charge account, and 10 percent of the retail price offered for other books they may want, customers build up credit toward future purchases.
With no rush and no long lines of impatient customers who have consumed too much Starbucks for their own good, browsing for books at a small independent store becomes an entirely different and pleasant experience.
“I love the multicultural aspect of downtown,” says Rettig. “Hayward is so full of potential and we cater to an independent thirst. People can walk through the door, take a deep breath and sigh with satisfaction. We are people who are tired of being a unit of commerce at a big box store.”
Karima Clay has been coming to The Book Shop for at least 13 years.
“They're all super helpful,” says Clay as she buys a stack of books,bagged and handed to her in a recycled plastic bag from a grocery store. “Hank is great, he’ll occasionally make fun of some of my purchases and I love that. This place has personality."
Within the space of an hour, Rettig has recommended a children’s series to a soft-spoken woman who needs the perfect book for her ‘slow-reading’ 10-year-old granddaughter. A man in a Georgetown sweatshirt silently slaps down 50 cents on the counter and gets 15 cents in change for a paperback copy of Disclosure. An older gentleman quietly buys two books and Rettig carefully sets change on the counter and pushes it forward (“He doesn’t like to be touched,” she whispers kindly after he’s gone). With each purchase, Rettig hands out candy, matching bookmarks to book covers, and personal recommendations.
“Come back soon!” the chipper voice calls as you reluctantly walk out the door. Your soul warmed by friendly chatter, your arms full of books, and your wallets far from empty, the cold beer and sunny patio next door beckon.
