Copperfield's Books opens to great reception

Enthusiastic crowd gather for grand opening

By Rem O'Donnelley

On a quiet, sunny Monday over 30 people waited on Fourth Street for the grand opening of Copperfield's Books.

This San Rafael location isn't their first or second store explained Vicki DeArmon who is director of marketing and events for the independent book chain. “This is our seventh as we have stores in Petaluma, Sebastopol, Healdsburg, Santa Rosa, Napa and Calistoga,” she said.

Gourmet cupcakes, chocolate cookies, brownies and other sweets and drinks welcomed the public as they explored the spacious store.

A few members of the San Rafael City Council attended which included Damon Connolly, newly reelected Kate Colin and mayor Gary Phillips who cut the red ribbon in front of the store with a pair of giant scissors.

Speaking to the assembled crowd before the ribbon cutting, Mayor Phillips said, “I've been looking forward to this from the day I was elected because the store was vacant at that time.”

Paul Jaffe is co-owner and co-founder of Copperfield's Books. “We're just really really excited to be in San Rafael,” he said.

Duane Stockton is the store's manager and was pleased with the crowd who dropped in. “The turnout was a great surprise to staff as it wasn't promoted widely. To see the turnout that we have, I am beside myself at the turnout, very very pleased,” Stockton said.

He explained why he chose to make the long commute from his home in Santa Rosa for this job. “I love this company, I've been a customer for years, even when I worked for a competitor. My love is in independent bookstores. So to have the opportunity to manage one in San Rafael which I personally believe really needed an independent book store on Fourth Street, it was an opportunity that I wanted to fulfill even with the commute I will be doing. Sometimes you've got to follow your desires,” Stockton said.

Co-founder and co-owner Barney Brown came out from Virginia for the opening. He was excited at the transition of the new bookstore. “I'm amazed, the last time I was here, this was open space. There's been an enormous amount of work done here. It's quite shocking to walk in and see how beautiful everything is . When you realize we're still about 2/3 inventory, it's going to be more beautiful when we get everything full,” Brown explained.

The new Copperfield's Books store also took steps to make the store environmentally friendly. “Probably 80-90% of the fixtures have been repurposed, an ecologically sound thing to do. Steve was the guy working for us for nearly 30 years, he refinished them and brought them back into life here,” Brown said.

Some of the visitors have shopped at other locations of Coppersfield's Books in the past. Tracy Toland from Kentfield is one of these loyal customers. “I used to live in Santa Rosa and that's where there is another Copperfield's Books. I started to go to them when their first store opened up in Sebastopol (in 1981). I'm a diehard fan and you just can't find bookstores like this anymore,” Toland said.

Another fan of the store is Andre Sisneros who owns Gamescape on Fourth Street. I used to live up north and I used to go to Copperfield's Books in Petaluma and Santa Rosa, huge fan. I was pleasantly surprised to see a lot of people that were devoted to their downtown,” Sisneros said.

Asking what made the co-founders choose San Rafael for their latest store Paul Jaffe made a good observation. “I was cruising Fourth Street looking for a location because ever since the Borders book store closed, it really left a vacuum. I thought San Rafael being the biggest city in Marin County it didn't have a real, full service independent bookstore. That's when I thought it would be a great opportunity not just for Copperfield's Books but also a good opportunity for San Rafael to bring back an independent store. There hasn't been one here for almost 20 years,” Jaffe said.

Jaffe and Brown are old timers in the bookstore business in the North Bay. Brown recalled how the two of them started the bookstore.

”When we started this store back in 1981 I had $5000. That's it. Paul didn't have any money. He had a collection of wine under his front porch. So we sold his wine collection and borrowed money and borrowed money and more money and we started up in Sebastopol in a little store that would fit in the coffee shop (that is being built in the new store) right now.

“We arrived at just the right time, there were no Barnes and Nobles, no Borders and no independent book sellers that sold a full range of books, without censorship, with community support,” he said.

Brown talked about the changes he and Jaffe have seen. “Our stores are very different now because we have Barnes and Noble, we do have online books, for us now our role has had to change. The people who brought books to the community, to the people who bring the best books to the community I'd say that's what we're about now.”