Locally owned Rainy Day Books has seen plenty of chapters open and close.
The bookstore at the eastern end of the historic Fairway Shops has undergone a change in ownership, weathered the challenges of operating through the COVID-19 pandemic, and managed to stay competitive in the age of large book chains and the online retail dominance of Amazon.
And that’s just a small glimpse into the bookstore’s five decades in Johnson County.
As Rainy Day Books wraps up its 50th year in business, its unwavering place in the local community is on the minds of those who keep it up and running today during what has been another season of change for the beloved shop.
Rainy Day Books was founded in 1975
Founder Vivien Jennings launched Rainy Day Books in the 1970s, which, as the shop’s current manager Annie Krieg said, was a longtime dream for Jennings.
The shop initially opened in a small space at 5244 Norwood St., a few doors down from its current location. By 1978, Rainy Day had relocated to its current spot at 2706 W. 53rd St.
“She did everything by hand — she sewed the curtains by hand, and she got artists at a local organization to help build the bookshelves,” Krieg said. “It was a very community (centered) start, which is fun to imagine.”
By opening Rainy Day Books, Jennings told the Post, she’d aimed to share her own passion for reading with the community.
“I know how important that is, for young children and starting early, to have that love of books and reading,” she said. “You open that cover and all these walls are there, and you just pick the world you want to be in.”
Jeri Peterson, a bookseller who has been with Rainy Day Books since 1986, described Jennings as a good friend and an ambitious businesswoman.
“She was brilliant,” she said. “When Borders and Barnes & Noble were coming, she went and researched their stores (to learn), ‘What do I have to do to compete with them?’”
In 1994, that bookstore is also where Jennings met Roger Doeren — a then-customer who would go on to become her life partner and the store’s chief of operations.
An engineer by trade, Jennings said Doeren used his skills to improve the digital side of Rainy Day Books’ operations and help organize events. Today, the duo has been together for 30 years.
“I thought he was so interesting,” she recalled. “The brains we have are really well-linked, and it just worked out so well.”
Rainy Day Books pioneered the book talk
Customers browsing the shelves at Rainy Day Books can find books in a wide variety of types and genres, from romance and science fiction to memoirs and cookbooks. The variety there, Peterson said, has only grown with time.
“The diversity in our books, authors, characters and our customer base (have all grown),” she said. “It’s a younger, brighter feel.”
But it’s not just the books themselves that have kept people coming back and engaged over the years.
Krieg said Jennings also put Rainy Day Books on the map by bringing acclaimed authors from all over the country to Kansas City for events.
At that time, Krieg said, getting authors to take a chance on a little bookstore in the middle of the country was a hard sell.
“So many authors, in that time of bookselling, were doing national tours, but they were doing it very coastally,” she said. “They were going down the East Coast and then flying over us and going down the West Coast. So (Jennings) kept begging publishers to give them a chance.”
Ultimately, Jennings said, it took time to build establish Kansas City’s place on the map for authors and publishers. But by the time she was preparing to retire from Rainy Day Books, that tune had changed.
“In the end, when (Doeren) and I were sort of transitioning out, authors really were saying, ‘I want to come to Kansas City,'” Jennings said. “The word got out about how wonderful Kansas City is.”
Initially, Jennings and Doeren hosted around 300 events annually.
They drew a crowd of more than 2,000 for their first author event with acclaimed “Interview With A Vampire” author Anne Rice in 1996.
Rainy Day has also hosted book talks over the years with literary titans like Margaret Atwood, John Grisham and Stephen King, as well as celebrity authors like Martha Stewart.
Today, all of the conversations she’s had the chance to have with authors over the years — and the chance to share those moments with guests at their events — are memories that Jennings said she holds dear.
“It has been the most magical, sharing with the community all these years,” Jennings said. “To share these authors with them, and to let them have a sort of up close and personal experience with them. ”
Today, the shop still hosts more than 100 events yearly, including partnerships with libraries and schools.
The store’s 45th anniversary five years ago came during the thick of the COVID-19 pandemic, which forced Rainy Day to temporarily pivot away from hosting its signature in-person events. That led to a loss in revenue.
At the time, though, Jennings said the community and loyal customers eagerly stepped up to help and keep the shop afloat.
“Every time (Doeren) and I go out, we have people come up to us and say, ‘Thank you so much for what you’ve done for the community,'” she said. “And isn’t that a wonderful thing?”
Entering a new chapter
Three years ago, Rainy Day Books changed ownership when local retail company Made in Kansas City acquired the shop.
When Krieg came on board as Rainy Day Books’ general manager earlier this year, she said, it was Jennings and Doeren themselves who showed her the ropes.
“(Vivien and Roger) and I had lunch and genuinely talked for hours,” she said. “Their stories are so amazing, and the history that they hold in their heads is priceless. As someone who is taking on the responsibility of running this very special community place, I wanted to know as much as I could.”
When Rainy Day Books changed hands, Krieg said, at least one thing remained the same: the value of the booksellers who work there, helping customers with recommendations.
“Of course, you have to be well read (as a bookseller)— that is a given,” she said. “Not only do many of our booksellers specialize in a (specific) genre, but they need to be well read and well attuned to books in all genres to be able to help anybody. But I think that the thing they’re really good at is listening, because in order to find the right book for the right person, you’ve got to be asking questions about what they have and haven’t enjoyed in the past.”
Forming a bookish community
What makes a good bookseller? In part, the act of reading itself, according to the team at Rainy Day Books.
Peterson and Peggy Scott, a Rainy Day employee since 2008, each said they both read hundreds of books each year.
“You have to love books (to do this job) — they have to be your everything,” Scott said. “Somebody in the store has specifically hand-picked every single book here.”
It’s not just the reading, though. As Rainy Day Books’ booksellers tell it, it’s also about listening to the people who read them.
In an ideal world where Rainy Day Books has another 50 years on the horizon, Krieg said that could mean more growth, both in terms of physical locations and building more of a digital presence.
After all, she said, 50 years is a big deal. That achievement, especially in the age of large national bookstore chains and online retail, isn’t lost on her.
“It does feel like quite a privilege to be in a spot where we can think about that,” she said. “Where it’s like, actually, even amidst all the challenges of Amazon and of the way that consumer culture has changed, that Rainy Day Books is doing great.”
While an independent bookstore like Rainy Day Books making it to 50 years is a big deal, though, it’s not exactly a surprise to the people who work there.
Ultimately, Scott said, a store like Rainy Day offers more than just books on shelves. It also offers people a bookish community, whether that’s through book clubs or simply chatting up a bookseller during a browse.
“I think people are finding value in supporting local because they know it’s part of their community,” Scott said. “It makes reading and books an even better experience. Not only are (customers) loving what they’re reading, but they’ve gone somewhere where somebody knows who they are, and somebody is taking the time to recommend something individually.”
When she looks back on how the idea she had 50 years ago has impacted its community, Jennings said, it goes beyond what happens in the store too.
She also feels proud of the ways the store has championed literacy in the community, and used its resources to help community organizations like Harvesters and Reach Out and Read.
“It was never (about) retail,” she said. “It was always about this bigger vision, this bigger passion, and leaving something behind that matters.”
In another 50 years, that aspect of lending a hand is another part of Rainy Day Books’ legacy that she hopes to see continue.
“We just created what I consider to be a real strong partnership with the community organizations, businesses, and individuals, and that’s really what I wanted to do,” she said. “I feel really proud of what we did.”
