Armchair doubles its pleasure with a second location

For DeDe Teeters, business is booming.

Of course, it doesn’t hurt to have a couple of places to do business in, and with the opening of a second Armchair Books last month, Teeters has just that.

After eight successful years in her Towne Square Port Orchard (formerly the South Kitsap Mall) location, Teeters decided to add a second location on the quickly growing southwest part of town, taking a slot in the Bethel Centre, located at 1551 Piperberry Way SE, Suite 102.

After buying the original store last August from co-owner Glennys Gehring, Teeters decided the time was right to expand.

“I wanted to try some different things,” Teeters said. “We’re going to do new and used books in (the Bethel Centre) location, something we’re not doing in the mall store. And I wanted to come down on this end of town. There aren’t many book stores on this end of town.”

Teeters contacted Bethel Centre owner Darlene Piper and arranged to take one of the few remaining openings in the new business park. She said having the Bethel Corridor plan in the works and the sudden shift of new and existing businesses moving to the Sedgwick area of town were major factors in picking the location.

“I think there’s a whole population on this side of town that never went to the South Kitsap Mall because it was difficult to get across town to get there,” Teeters said. “So I thought I would give it a try.”

The new store will mirror the original one in its wide selection of books, ranging from fiction to non-fiction to children’s fare and how-to manuals to greeting cards and gifts.

But Teeters said she is working out a plan to buy and sell used books in the Bethel Centre location.

She’s leaning towards setting aside two days a week for customers to come in and sell their used books, hoping to create a larger inventory of what her customers are looking for.

“Our strongest (area) has always been general fiction and children’s books,” Teeters said. “So those are the two we will continue to focus on. If I find that this end of town has an interest in something different than the mall, then we’ll tweak the inventory to match. But a general bookstore needs to have a little bit of everything.”

Both locations will host author events in the future and Teeters is hoping to start a new reading group out of the new store.

Teeters said the new store is generating a reasonable amount of business already and she is benefiting from the newly opened Baja Outpost Restaurant next door. She said the overflow crowds having been window shopping while waiting for tables, which is leading to plenty of walk-in customers.

Armchair Books is open seven days a week at both locations. The Towne Square hours of operation are Monday through Friday 10 a.m. to 8 p.m., Saturday 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Sunday noon till 5 p.m. The new Bethel Centre store will be open Monday through Friday 11 a.m. to 7 p.m., Saturday’s 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Sunday noon to 6 p.m.

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