Looking to warm up for a new book this year? Your next ride can be found across the pages of an exciting adventure, an activist’s life, an inspiring self-help book online or at a high-volume retailer, but if you look close to home you can find it from a nearby used one. Bookstore.
In the Midland Street area of Bay City, you might find yourself lost in the pages of your next book thanks to Midland Street Books.
Owners Scott Byers and Kerice Basmadjian are looking to enhance the best-in-class bookstore experience you can find. For Byers, it all started after a disaster at home caused him to start looking into selling books.
“I started selling books when I lost almost everything in a flood,” Byers said. “I lived in a basement apartment but my books were on high shelves so I kept them. I started learning how to sell books online and did that for a while, walking around Michigan, going to thrift stores and bookstore sales and selling them.”
Byers soon met the owner of the 99 Trees bookstore in Bay City and, with the collection from the then-closed store, was able to partner with her to open Midland Street Books. Since then, Byers has taken over the store with the previous owner of 99 Trees moving on to pursue other interests.
He soon partnered with Basmadjian, a regular customer, who helped introduce him to things like the Rotary Club and helped establish a space for him in business in Bay City.
“I came up like a stray cat,” Basmadjian said, “I was just coming in as a client the first few times. I was trying to get to know him a little bit because he didn’t grow up in Bay City. I just took him for a spin with me.”
Byers spent all his time in the library trying to provide a destination for book lovers to visit. When he started, his original plan was to sell books on Amazon with the main business online.
“The original plan was that we would have a bookstore, but the main business would be to sell books online,” Byers said. “We’ll have the bookstore, and it’ll be open a few days a week. It’ll be a way to get rooted in the community and get books in. Once I open something up in my mind and I realize, ‘Wait, this could be a lot more than I thought it could be, that’s the main business.'”
The only thing they do with the books that come in is they check the quality of the books that come off the shelf. They have their own rating system to ensure that the books they buy themselves are of high quality. If a book comes in below a certain quality, they take the time to fix it and restore it to what they consider salable quality. In addition to quality, they price their books at or just below online prices from places like Amazon.
Their customer base is constantly growing as well. When they started, Byers said they had no money for marketing. Focus on publishing Facebook Regularly and good lips because they want their reputation to be the reason people keep coming back.
“I can’t wait to get to the point where I know everyone when they come,” Basmadjian said. “This is where I feel really comfortable, I want to know people and I want to know what kind of books they’re reading so I can give them recommendations. I’ve been a reader but there’s still a lot I don’t know there was this learning process for me to learn When someone asks me about a good psychological thriller or something about sci-fi or things I don’t usually read I’m able to give them direction.”
With this growth they said people are now coming to the area as customers and businesses. There are now plenty of shops and things to do up and down Midland Street.
“Midland Street has a whole new vibe, maybe it’s never been like this, not since the bridge opened and diverted all the traffic because it was coming off the Third Street Bridge,” Basmadjian said. “We’re seeing more business during the day and family-friendly businesses. We’ve got Heidi’s Darn Good Cookies, we’ve got Cops and Donuts, we’ve got a skate shop, we’ve got LoLoBees Café, and we’ve got the pharmacy right around the corner. You see one business succeeds during the day and all of a sudden You have that feeling.”
“I said it’s partly down to us,” Byers. “This is a destination business, people do their best to go to a used bookstore. People drive for hours to get here. This place will be a major tourist attraction.”
In addition to their storefront, they sell their books on their website and do drop shipping as well. Basmadjian noted that they have people come from in, around and outside the state to look at what they have when they visit the area.
Midland Street Books is slowly trying to expand its space as it owns the room next to the main storefront as well.
Midland Street Books is located at 809 East Midland Street in Bay City and is open seven days a week. They can also be found online Facebook And midlandstreetbooks.com.