How an indie bookstore in Arizona survived Amazon, COVID-19 and BookTok over 50 years

Changing Hands Bookstore for 50 years has been a community gathering space and a safe haven for book lovers of all levels.

With two popular locations in metro Phoenix, Changing Hands is no Arizona hidden gem. Instead, the bookstore has forged deep ties into the community it grew along with. It has survived the rise of Amazon and a global pandemic and cemented itself as the place to go for book recommendations and good conversations among friends and authors.

How has Changing Hands managed to survive and thrive? Maybe it has something to do with the foundation it was built on.

Celebrate: How to attend Changing Hands Bookstore's 50th anniversary parties

Changing Hands begins: 3 book lovers with a dream and $500

Gayle Shanks, Tom Brodersen and Bob Sommer met in 1972 while volunteering at an alternative school in Phoenix and bonded over their love of reading. For years, they talked about their dream to open a bookstore that would double as a community gathering space.

"It was just part of what we did and we knew the importance of books in our own lives. And we also loved the ideas that were in books," Shanks said.

"And so the idea of being a bookseller, which we thought meant you got to read books, to sell books, but really to just talk about books all day long with people who came in to buy them was our idea of the ideal job."

Brodersen purchased a struggling used bookstore's inventory for $500. It included books, bookcases and the oldest cash register they'd ever seen.

Now they had the supplies. They just needed the right space in the right location to attract book buyers.

On April 1, 1974, the first Changing Hands Bookstore opened in a 500-square-foot space on Fifth Street in downtown Tempe.

"We had this idea that books could change people's minds and help them become more critical thinkers," Shanks said.

"So, we thought we were going to have this bookstore that was going to be a place where people could come and talk about ideas that they had either read in books or were thinking about. And it's grown into a much bigger space, or two spaces."

Changing Hands moves to Mill Avenue

In 1978, Changing Hands moved to a bigger, more prominent storefront on Mill Avenue in Tempe, adjacent to the Arizona State University campus. In 1980, Brodersen stepped down, and in 2000 Cindy Dach joined the team. She became a co-owner in 2006.

The Mill Avenue store was a hit.

"I fell in love with Changing Hands in their original location on Mill when I went to ASU," said customer Jeff Moriarty. "I was a poor college student, so I frequently stopped in to browse the aisles and pick out cheap books to read and escape for a while.

"The place was so warm and inviting, and I came to realize it was the people who made it that way. The books were just the way they loved to connect with people and the community."

In 1998, rents in downtown Tempe were rising and Changing Hands moved again, this time to a plaza at McClintock Drive and Guadalupe Road in south Tempe, where they still are to this day.

"I was heartbroken when they moved off of Mill, but they kept that same love that made them so special," Moriarty said. "It wasn't the building that made them who they were, it was the spirit (and books) they filled the place with."

Changing Hands Bookstore, First Draft Book Bar open in Phoenix

On May 30, 2014, Changing Hands expanded beyond Tempe when it opened a second store at Third Avenue and Camelback Road in Phoenix.

The owners wanted this location to have a little something extra.

The First Draft Book Bar serves up coffee, wine, beer and snacks in the middle of the brick-walled store. Seating is at the bar and in an adjacent room called The Commons, which doubles as a community gathering/co-working space and an event space for readings and other activities.

Authors such as Barbara Kingsolver and Terry Tempest Williams and poets including Alberto Ríos and Norman Dubie have come to speak at Changing Hands through the years.

"At some of the early events, we didn't have much space," Shanks said. "We had a mezzanine (at the Mill Avenue store) and two stairways and people would sit all around the mezzanine and on the steps. I mean, if the fire department had ever came, we would have been in really big trouble. But it was really amazing."

How Changing Hands withstood Amazon, the pandemic and BookTok

These special experiences may have been precisely what sustained Changing Hands through the rise of Amazon and the COVID-19 pandemic shutdowns.

The ease of having a seemingly limitless selection of books delivered to your door or your Kindle contributed to hundreds of chain and independent bookstores nationwide closing their doors.

"There were many, many moments when we didn't know how we were going to go on," Shanks said. "Amazon hitting us in the face was really difficult for a while, the recession hit us hard, and then of course there was a pandemic and we had to close our store for nine months."

"And we didn't know if we were going to be able to open the stores again, because who knew what was going to happen?"

But Changing Hands Bookstore continued to focus on its strength: listening to customers.

"Our ear was always to the ground and the ground was always our customers and our community, and as long as we listened, they told us what they needed. We wanted it to be their bookstore, not our bookstore," Shanks said.

According to an article at publishersweekly.com, booksellers across the digital and physical spaces have seen increased sales over the last couple of years thanks in part to TikTok's latest craze: BookTok. It's a TikTok space where people share what they're reading, show off special collectors editions and, of course, influence the algorithm.

"BookTok has definitely grown a certain segment of the readership that shops in our store and I feel really fortunate that they do," Shanks said. "We had 25 chain bookstores in the Valley at one point in the '90s, and Changing Hands managed to survive in spite of the fact that in five miles from us in every single direction, there was a chain bookstore."

And while Shanks isn't totally in love with all of the books from BookTok that bring customers in, she does love that it gets people started on their reading journey.

"Once you start reading, you get hungry for more," Shanks said.

Changing Hands Bookstore at 50: Still going strong

Thanks to the community support, Changing Hands Bookstores has enjoyed 50 years of passing down the tradition of reading from generation to generation.

"I couldn't even begin to comprehend how much time and how many purchases I've made there over the years, and every bit of it is fabulously well spent," Moriarty said. "Changing Hands is an absolute gem. We're ridiculously lucky to have them and the amazing people who've kept it going for 50 years."

As for the future, Shanks simply wants things to keep going as they are.

"Someone came in the other day and said, 'My mom brought me into the store when I was still in her womb, and this was the first place she ever took me, and I grew up in your store,'" Shanks said. "It's a really good feeling and I think in great part because that's why we wanted to be in business."

"I hope we have many more generations of readers who grow up in our store and continue to support us."

Meredith G. White is the entertainment reporter for The Arizona Republic | azcentral.com. You can find her on Facebook as Meredith G. White, on Instagram and X, formerly known as Twitter, as @meredithgwhite, and email her at [email protected].

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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Changing Hands Bookstore celebrates 50 years in AZ: 'An absolute gem'