An Open Book will reopen under new ownership at a new location with one goal in mind: To support and embrace the gay and lesbian community. The store will reopen on the corner of North Fourth Street and East Third Avenue in mid-October.
Jim Criswell, owner of KRT Cards and Gifts and Spotlight Entertainment Guide for Central Ohio’s gay and lesbian businesses, decided to buy the bookstore.
Although The Short North has a fairly large gay community, Criswell faced resistance when trying to find property to lease for his bookstore. He had hoped to reopen in the Short North where the gay and lesbian community was easily accessible.
A building opened up that he was interested in, but according to Criswell, the property owner was less than cooperative. Criswell said he tried to rent the space and invited the property owner to visit the bookstore to get a feel for the environment. Criswell said the property owner responded by saying that he had walked past the bookstore before but never felt a need to go inside.
“It was kind of a chilly answer and I felt like ‘Gosh, don’t you read?'” Criswell said.
Doug Motz, the manager of The Wexner Center Bookshop, also experienced problems with landlords in the Short North. Motz and Michael Lindsey operated the original bookstore in the Short North.
“Originally one of the landlords thought we were going to open up a pornography store. If it’s a gay and lesbian book shop, they tend to focus on the sexuality of it,” Motz said. “It was my interest to bring in the gay and lesbian section (to the bookstore).”
This was not the first time An Open Book has been relocated. Originally located within the Short North area, Criswell believed that Lindsey never really wanted to identify it as a gay and lesbian bookstore. Once the bookstore moved a couple doors down to a larger store, Criswell said Lindsey sent the gay and lesbian sections to the back to bring in more products and diversify in order to defray the costs of a bigger store.
Criswell said he will not push the gay and lesbian books to the back of the store.
“It will have a complete tie to the gay and lesbian community,” Criswell said.
He said it’s easy to offend and alienate clientele if you try pleasing both the gay and straight community in one store. It’s hard for an independent bookstore to survive with all the Barnes and Nobles out there, Criswell said. But, by targeting a specific group and building loyalty with them, it is possible to be successful. The new store will provide books that were not easily accessible to the gay community before.
“Because we’re targeting the gay and lesbian community we will have employees that will be very open minded, if not gay or lesbian,” Criswell said. “If someone has just come out and wants to get a book about it, you know automatically that the person who is working there is familiar with it. Personal touch and a staff that is helpful and friendly goes a long way.”
For now he hopes the reopening of An Open Book will be a popular destination for people. The area where the bookstore is to be reopened doesn’t have many retail stores, but there are plans for redevelopment in the area with new apartments being built this fall.
“I hope it does well, but I think it’ll take awhile for it to get popular,” said Troy Moorage, co-owner of Gender on North High Street. “I wish it was reopened where it initially was.”
The store will have its own parking lot, patio and a coffee shop will also be added after the bookstore is opened. The store will look much like the original, with all of the pictures and wall decorations being the same.
With the success of KRT Cards and Gifts, GLB Spotlight Magazine and the reopening of An Open Book, Criswell attributes his entrepreneurial abilities to his parents. His dad was an auto mechanic who ran his own gas station and sustained the gas crisis of the 1970’s. Criswell believes his father helped shape him into the person he is today.
Criswell, an Ohio State graduate, grew up in Lakewood, Ohio, a suburb of Cleveland. He waited five years after high school before enrolling at OSU and earning his journalism degree with a minor in photography. Criswell has had his share of odd jobs. He was once the guy passing out cheese samples to customers as they do at Hickory Farms and also worked in a factory making labels.
After opening up his own store KRT, formally known as Kukalas and Rainbow Tribe, he decided expand into other business ventures.
“I’ll continue doing what I love, which is serving my friends everyday and making new friends,” Criswell said. “It’s a really lucky thing to be able to do.”
