Taking a Gamble

Gift and book shops associated with museums, libraries, galleries, and other not-for-profit institutions face special retailing challenges. These include fulfilling guidelines and working within budgets set by their parent organizations, using volunteer staff members, and selling only merchandise related to their mission statement to avoid difficulty with the IRS and the Unrelated Business Income Tax.

In the case of The Gamble House Bookstore in Pasadena, California, you can add another challenge to that list, for as a National Historic Landmark, any alterations to its 560-square-foot selling space are restricted to standards set by the U.S. Secretary of the Interior. As a result, it's virtually impossible to expand the space, and no original materials used in the building can be altered when making improvements or setting up displays. And yet, in 2002, the shop generated more than $406,000 in sales of books, lamps, pottery, prints, and home textiles.

The David B. Gamble House was completed in 1909 for David and Mary Gamble, heirs to the Procter & Gamble fortune. A masterpiece of the Arts and Crafts movement, the house was designed by brother architects Charles Sumner Greene and Henry Mather Greene.

The bookstore occupies the original, detached garage on the estate, and is subject to the same rules and restrictions as the main house, which made a 2001 renovation of the shop especially challenging. First, existing cases and tables were rearranged to provide better flow of traffic and visually unify the space. Next came a series of other improvements:

• Entrance doors were re-hung to swing outward, freeing up interior space. (This was permitted by the regulations, as the doors were not originals.)
• Shelf lights were installed on modern bookcases to alleviate the inadequate original lighting, which consisted of four overhead light bulbs. (The added cases have increased the store's title count from 450 to more than 1,200 books.)
• Period-style reproduction lamps — also available for sale — were placed throughout the space.
• Custom-built tabletop risers done in the Arts and Crafts style were placed on original Greene and Greene tables. (The risers and a donation box were built by a local craftsman who bartered his services for merchandise in lieu of cash.)
• Space underneath the tables was utilized for storing bulky items, such as pillows, in contemporary metal baskets outfitted with wheels.

With store space at such a high premium, merchandising the shop is much like outfitting a ship, according to marketing and sales manager Christopher Molinar. At Gamble House, every available inch of space has to be used. And since necessity is the mother of invention, the staff has become quite creative in their use of space. For instance, two ceiling hooks originally used to pull engines from the Gamble cars, are now used to hang merchandise above customers' heads.

The results of the renovation have been satisfying both visually and economically, reports Molinar. Traffic moves through the store much more easily, and the additional ambient lighting adds a vintage period atmosphere to the interior and its merchandise. Visitors consistently compliment the shop. What's more, dollars-per-visitor transactions have increased and, most importantly, the store has been able to reinvigorate business while fulfilling the institution's educational mission.