BENNINGTON — Just after 9 on Tuesday morning of last week, Jacob Esh tied on his shopkeeper’s apron and prepared for another day of commerce at his Christian book store. He was hopeful about the hours ahead, even as he admitted there had been no customers the previous day.
“The last 4 or 5 years have been slow,” said Esh, who turns 84 on Sept. 3. “It’s not dead, but how do you stay in business?”
December will mark 50 years since Esh leased a small space at an inside mall on North St. and began selling books in Bennington. He later rented other locations for the store, including a former fabric shop at the corner of County St. and Benmont Ave.
In 1982, Esh and his wife, Lorraine, bought a fixer-upper at 110 County Street. The couple, with their two young sons, were a party to two leases – one for a place to live and the other for a place to sell books. This property allowed them to reside and work under the same roof.
Jacob Esh would care for his sons, Christian, 6 years old in 1982, and Timothy, then 4, while running the store. The boys would either be in the store with their father or engaged in activities elsewhere in the house. Lorraine Esh was employed as an X-ray technician.
Days passed quickly, Jacob Esh recalled, because he was so busy.
“The 1980s were good for Christian bookstores,” he said. “There might’ve been 30 here in Vermont.”
Esh believes his is the last store of its type in the state.
New books are the focus of the Christian Book Store – whose official name is Inspirational Bible Book & Gifts – and hardcovers and softcovers occupy much of the space inside the front two rooms of the shop. There are also cards, stickers, cross necklaces, pens, pencils and other items having a Christian theme. Some products are denominational, like gifts for a Roman Catholic’s first communion, but the owner said most are aimed at a general Christian audience.
At one time, according to Esh, about a third of the store’s revenues came from sales of music, including sheet music and recorded music on CDs. Music sales are now at a trickle, he explained, and he blamed it on falling church attendance and the ability for people to download music instead of having to buy a physical copy.
In the second room beyond the front sales area, dozens of CDs and a few audiocassettes were displayed for sale on a table. Still wrapped in their original clear packaging, they are remnants of the Christian Book Store’s once-large stock of music.
One of the CDs, released in 2004 by the artist Allan Hall, entitled “House of a Thousand Dreams,” was priced at $13.98 and likely has sat on the sales floor for the last 21 years.
“These have been here too long,” Esh said. “It doesn’t pay me to have them here, they’re here. They’re inventory.”
Religion was a big part Esh’s upbringing, on a farm in Lancaster County, Pa.
“My parents were horse-and-buggy Amish,” he said. He noted how he was born more than three months before Japan attacked Pearl Harbor in 1941.
Jacob and Lorraine married in 1970, and this was when he began selling religious books from rotating racks that were placed in grocery stores, bus stations, pharmacies and other locations. There were more than 40 of them in service in 1975, when the decision was made to open a retail location for selling Christian literature.
And for many years, Jacob Esh said, the store more than paid its way. They raised two boys on the income provided by Lorraine’s medical job but chose to reinvest most of the profits generated by the Christian Book Store.
“We put a lot of our money back into inventory,” Esh said. “So now I have the inventory, but what do I do with it? Retire? No. You work.”
In 1995, Jacob and Lorraine bought a house on Harwood Hill in Bennington. They expected Lorraine’s mother to come and live with them, Jacob Esh said. The mother-in-law didn’t make the move, but the spouses have resided in the house for the last 30 years.
Only the Christian Book Store remains at 110 County Street.
Six days a week – with Sundays off to spend with his wife – Esh opens the store. It is normally opened by 9 a.m. but some days he is open by 7:30 a.m.
Depending on the day’s trade, including sales made at the counter or orders taken over the phone, Esh may close at noon and return home to tend to his big garden and honeybee hives. If a caller says they need to pick up something in the afternoon, the store is kept open to accommodate the buyer’s schedule.
Esh said he keeps busy by tidying the store. He also sorts through items in the former residence portions of the building. Thirty years have passed since the family moved out and there is a lot of stuff that needs to be donated to charity or otherwise discarded.
These duties help ward off his discouragement about business conditions.
“I’ve got an investment,” Esh said, “and if you want to get your money’s worth out of it, you’ve got to work. The money doesn’t just flow in by itself.”