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CHAUCER’S BOOK STORE Santa Barbara’s Much-Loved Bookseller
CHAU CER’S BOO KSTO RE Santa Barbara’s Much-Loved Bookseller!
“Mahri Kerley opened Chaucer’s in 1974, she is a legend in the California book business. In Santa Barbara she has the same presence as the late Julia Child, a cross between genius and mystic with style and wit.” - Montecito Journal
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When Mahri Kerley opened Chaucer’s in 1974, she could not imagine the arrival of chains like Dalton, Crown, Waldenbooks, Barnes & Noble, and Borders. For 36 years the chain stores opened and failed in Santa Barbara. But, Chaucer’s thrived and grew into the region’s most successful bookstore attracting locals and visitors from every corner of the globe.
“My philosophy has always been that if you don’t have it, you can’t sell it,” Kerley explains, “Our stock is eclectic,” she says. “We do a large business in special orders, because our customers know we’ll do whatever it takes to get books for them.” Ed Conklin shares the bookbuying responsibilities with Kerley and helps maintain the store’s stock of more than 150,000 titles in over 300 sections. The children’s book department at Chaucer’s is one of the most popular areas of the store and includes a wide selection of toys and games.
With a modest bequest from her late mother, Kerley bought a small paperback bookshop. “I bought it for $35,000,” Kerley says, “and had no idea how to run a bookstore. If a book sold, I replaced it with two copies instead of one. You can imagine how cramped that space became.” Four moves to increasingly larger spaces finally brought the store to its spacious present location, where Chaucer’s has been since 1990.
Chaucer’s gives back to the Santa Barbara community by hosting book fairs as fund-raisers for the area’s schools, donates 25% of the profits from each book fair to the participating schools and offers a standing 20% discount to teachers. “We support the schools big-time,” says Kerley.
Santa Barbara’s much loved bookseller since 1974 invites you to browse their selection of over 150,000 titles in over 300 sections. Open Monday-Saturday from 9A-9P and Sunday from 9A-8P at 3321 State Street in the Loreto Plaza.
