For three hours — and only three hours — every Saturday afternoon, Columbia’s oldest bookstore opens its doors to the world.
Adams Walls of Books is a locally-owned bookstore run by CoMo native Nancy Adams Duncan and features 65,000 books.
Duncan’s grandfather initially owned the store, which was later owned by her father and now she herself. While the store has changed its merchandise for more than 60 years, it still has the same location.
Despite the enormous amount of in-store books, there isn’t a whole lot of time for customers to make a purchase. The store is only open from 1-4 p.m. every Saturday.
Duncan says the store’s limited hours were initially established to accommodate Duncan’s work schedule, but then were used as a reason to get her father out of the house after Duncan’s mother passed away.
But the store’s hours aren’t the only thing that makes it special: it also doesn’t take credit or debit cards as a form of payment.
“There are swipe fees with cards, and I would also need to install a second phone line,” Duncan says, adding that the policy hasn’t caused any problems for the shop thus far. “Our books are very fairly priced and I would have to increase prices to offset costs from accepting cards.”
While Duncan prefers to just call the store “Adams Books,” the store definitely lives up to its full name.
“I’d like to just call it ‘Adams Books’ but my dad wanted to call it ‘Adams Walls of Books,’” Duncan says. “The store is covered in books and has books from the floor to ceiling on the walls. There are also stacks of books in front of some walls, so Adams Walls of Books is an accurate name.”
Duncan considers the store to have a diverse inventory. The store carries mainly classical literature but has a lot of modern verses and natural history texts. Duncan says she primarily customizes the books she buys for repeat customers, but carries a little bit of everything.
Another aspect of the store Duncan says she is particularly proud of is its customer service.
“I think we are different from other stores for many reasons, but the main one being that I try to cater to all my customers,” Duncan says. “When I am out shopping for books, I will buy books that I think a certain customer would like, then tell them about it when they come back in to shop.”
Duncan says she loves serving her customers, and that they make her enjoy coming to work.
“The store is only open for three hours, but I look forward to those three hours every week,” Duncan says. “I love the customers, and I learn something new every Saturday from the customers.”