MOUNT VERNON — The shelves are there. Now they just need to be filled.
The aroma of fresh paint welcomes visitors to the new location for Easton’s Books on First Street. New brown-stained bookshelves sit atop new carpet, some filled, some still empty.
Books, grouped in subjects ranging from aviation to zoology, await customers looking for a good deal.
The bookstore’s new digs — the former Hugo Helmer music store on the corner of Pine and First streets — has gone through a complete facelift since opening in early July.
And the bigger size has bookstore owners Diana and David Cornelius excited for the future.
The two have owned Easton’s Books for over 32 years.
Easton’s buys and sells used books from the store, as well as over the Internet.
“When we started, we were in a small 500-square-foot (space) in the corner of a shop on the westside (of Mount Vernon),” David Cornelius said. “Now we have over 4,000-square-feet of display space.”
The extra space means more books can be displayed, more than 65,000 titles to be exact.
The Corneliuses were forced to move Easton’s Books after the city bought their old building last year.
But they did get some financial assistance from the city for the move, David Cornelius said.
“They hired movers who loaded up all the books and moved them down here,” he said.
The city also paid money to displaced owners to assist in rent payments for the first few years.
The bigger space allows Easton’s to display thousands of books that otherwise would have been hidden in a warehouse, Cornelius said.
He said that the building they’ve moved into is over 100 years old, and to prepare for the new store, he had the old tile floor removed and carpet installed. He also had 40 custom bookshelves constructed.
In addition to display space for books, there are also rooms in the back of the building that will be used to house the Internet sales department, Cornelius said as he walked around the maze of rooms.
The bookstore, which sells any titles and categories of book, also does book buy-backs — paying about half of cover price for most titles.
Customers can get a little more than that amount if they use it as in-store credit, Cornelius said.
He showed off his aviation section, which has recently been beefed up after he bought a collection from the family of a collector who recently passed away.
Cornelius said he’s always on the lookout for book collections that he can buy to resell.
The buy-back industry is key to the store’s survival, and the recent loss of Scott’s Bookstore did not help the store’s situation, Cornelius said.
“Every town with a used bookstore needs a new bookstore,” he said.
While there are still empty bookshelves throughout the store, David said he hopes to have them filled in the next month.
For now, the Corneliuses are back to alphabetizing and sorting books from the recent move.
As for customers, David Cornelius said everyone has been happy with the new location because of its expanded selection. But some were confused.
“I did have someone come in looking for a new guitar string last week,” he said with a laugh.
• Keith Chaplin can be reached at 360-416-2155 or .
