The Story Cellar is bringing back the idea of a used bookstore to Wausau
Wausau's new cozy bookstore
There’s something about a used bookstore that feels different from other types of stores. The dusty old books. The cavernous feel, the feeling of discovery.
The Story Cellar on Wausau’s near west side doesn’t have books that are dusty exactly, but it’s got the same cozy feeling one expects of the best used bookstores. And it adds an element of coffee.
The Story Cellar opened Nov. 30 at 205 Callon Street in the west side of the Wausau River District business area. The business is co-located in the building that once housed River District Antiques. Located in the same building are a massage therapist and a dermatologist. (In fact, we featured Above and Beyond Dermatology in Wausau last year.)
The owner, Laura Spaeth, has loved and collected books all her life, and she long dreamed of opening her own bookstore. Finally her husband prompted her to just do it, so last summer she started collecting books for her store.
When searching for a location, she wanted something that felt like the right vibe - wood floors, something that had the vibe of an old bookstore. When her real estate agent showed her the Callon Street building, it seemed just right. “I thought it was perfect,” Spaeth told me from behind the register.
She got the keys on Oct. 30, she says, and by Nov. 30 had the store ready to go, just in time for the Small Business Saturday event.
The store’s interior underscores Spaeth’s profession. She works as a freelance graphic designer after having worked on the staff at Roastar.
Not only is that reflected in the decor, which gives a cozy but stylish vibe, but in some of the non-book products she sells. Lining some of the shelves are bags of coffee, and Spaeth explains that all of the coffee featured are ones whose bags she helped design. One is from Hawaii and another is by a Wisconsin-based roaster. There’s a brand of granola too.
Spaeth also brews some coffee for those who are looking for an afternoon perk up. “Yeah I have no intentions of being a full-on coffee shop,” Spaeth says. It’s meant to appeal to the afternoon coffee drinker and as a sampling of the coffee she sells. She changes it up on a monthly basis, Spaeth says.
But the real focus is on the books. A customer described her selection as “late-model” used books. Most books are recent and in pretty good shape. “I didn’t want it to be like one of those really old, dusty, floor-to-ceiling bookstores,” Spaeth told The Wausonian. “I wanted it to be a little lighter than that.” Spaeth adds that she enjoys those kinds of bookstores too, and always seeks out used book stores when she travels.
Besides shelves of books, she has some reading nooks for children and adults, and as I walk in a child leaves with his mother having just tested it out himself.
Spaeth says that books are back among the younger set. She’s seeing a pretty steady stream of people selling their books at The Story Cellar and those including younger folks. BookTok (a trend on TikTok) is helping to make books cool again amongst younger readers. She thinks the trend started during COVID. “I think people started to look for things to do once they stopped making new seasons of their favorite shows,” Spaeth says.
For Spaeth and The Story Cellar, that ought to mean a new customer base that will keep the story busy for years to come.
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