ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, October 25, 1996 TAG: 9610250052
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: B-6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MEGAN SCHNABEL STAFF WRITER
After struggling for several years with debts and reorganization, a downtown Roanoke bookstore and gathering place has received a needed financial boost from a new owner.
Books Strings & Things, a fixture on the Roanoke City Market for the last decade, has been purchased by Roanoke lawyer Rick Patterson. Terms of the sale were not disclosed.
But long-time customers shouldn't worry about losing their bookstore, Patterson said. The store will retain its name, as well as its eclectic inventory of books and music, he said. Former BS&T owner Richard Walters will manage the store; Patterson will be involved only as a behind-the-scenes investor. The six employees also will remain with the store.
What will change, however, is the size and scope of the store's inventory. By mid-November, Patterson and Walters said they plan to more than double the selection of best-selling and hard-to-find books and recordings.
"We are putting the money into this to make it bigger, better, faster - like it was four or five years ago," Patterson said.
BS&T will again stock a wide variety of books and music from both large and small publishers. The store always has specialized, Walters said, in being a "series of niches" rather than attempting to compete with mass-market book and music chains.
Walters started BS&T in Blacksburg in 1965. Both the Blacksburg store and the one in Roanoke, which opened in 1986, quickly became popular downtown hangouts.
But the company was hampered by what Walters called "mountains of debt," reported in 1993 as $500,000 for renovations and inventory for the Roanoke store. BS&T never fully recovered. In April 1994, Walters filed for bankruptcy protection; this past March, he closed the Blacksburg store to focus resources on the more profitable Roanoke location.
Patterson purchased BS&T from Charlotte, N.C.-based NationsBank Corp., which had a lien on the assets since the bankruptcy filing. The company now does business as Books Strings & Things of Roanoke.
Patterson has no plans to reopen a BS&T in Blacksburg. He and Walters, however, want to launch a World Wide Web site that will include reviews and prices; eventually, they'd like to set up a system to allow New River Valley patrons to order by mail.
"Richard's a friend, and I've always liked this store," Patterson said. BS&T is a downtown anchor, he said, and an integral part of the market-area dynamic. "As it is revitalized, the whole market area is revitalized. They feed off each other."
LENGTH: Medium: 53 linesby CNB