Sarasota News Leader

04/12/2013

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Sarasota News Leader April 12, 2013 Page 67 December 1994. Bob says it was always Pat's dream to have her own used-book shop. Back in New Jersey, she worked and volunteered as a librarian in an elementary school. In college, she was a library science major, and she never lost her love for books. Pat has instituted her own method of payment for purchases. Regular customers, such as myself, usually come in with some books from home to trade toward new purchases. Pat prices the books and records the amounts on an index card with the customer's name. (Her index file is enormous, and it is her only database). When I am ready to buy more books, she looks up my name in the file box and then completes the transaction. If this all seems like the 1950s to you, I could not agree more with that observation. Pat says owning a computer to keep records is very expensive, and her method works perfectly for her. She keeps track of her inventory because (a) she has a phenomenal memory; and (b) she puts the books on the shelves, so she can remember exactly where they are. A visiting tourist who has no books to trade can just pay cash and get a free in-store bookmark with the books to go. Bob says he and Pat agreed on plans for operating the bookstore from the start. Their jobs are well defined: Bob does the bookkeeping and Pat sells the books. She has truly followed her dream, and her husband of 50 years would never have done anything to keep that from happening. %

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