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Business & Tech

St. Paul Couple Opens Chapter2Books in Downtown Hudson

Brian and Sue Roegge opened the Hudson book store to start the second chapter of their lives after Brian ended his banking career and Sue quit substitute teaching.

Chapter2Books, Hudson's new downtown book store, is a new beginning for Brian and Sue Roegge of St. Paul, MN.

Brian ran a credit union for 18 years, which merged into a bigger credit union and squeezed him out of his job. After Brian was laid off and couldn't find work, he and his wife decided to end his 30-year career in banking to get into the book-selling business.

Sue was a teacher and worked at the Minnesota Historical Society. She also is an environmental activist and one of the few people in the area who has been trained by Al Gore to deliver his "An Inconvenient Truth" presentation. She has been substitute teaching recently and gave it up for the opportunity to start the book store with her husband.

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"We were kicking around ideas of businesses to buy, looked at a few franchise ideas and just nothing turned us on," Brian said. "Then, we saw an ad for a book store for sale down near my hometown in central Illinois."

The couple drove down to see the book store, examine its inventory and its financials and came to the conclusion that they could do better on their own.

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"Why would we pay this much money for someone else's mistake?," Brian said. "We could start our own for the same cost or less."

After that realization, Brian and Sue began looking for small towns in the Midwest without book stores. They found several and began digging further into research when Sue called the Midwest Booksellers Association based in Golden Valley, MN. The association recommended Hudson based on the fact that it had recently lost the Back to Books book store in its historic downtown district.

"We don't have to pack, move, sell our house, disrupt our lives... Hudson here we come," Brian said.

They commute just 23 minutes from St. Paul to the shop, and spend their days among shelves of books in the 848-square-foot space in the heart of Hudson.

"We love this retail street," Sue said. "We love the history in the store fronts and a lot of the homes. It's a nice, historic town."

The couple says the store will offer all sorts of events and services that you'd expect from a local book store, especially the direct one-on-one attention with customers.

"I've realized in the last few weeks that I have become a curator of books," Sue said. "It actually is an important function to help people whether they're looking for a gift book or expanding what their kids are reading."

Chapter2Books Opens as Borders Closes

While Hudson's modest downtown book store is opening, big box bookseller .

Sandra Hall, a Hudson resident and eight-year Woodbury Borders inventory employee, stopped in at Chapter2Books on Wednesday to meet the Roegges.

"I wanted to congratulate them," Hall said. "I love being around books, and if you need any volunteer help, I would be most happy to do it."

Hall isn't yet sure on when she'll be shown the door. Specific store closings haven't yet been announced, but she suspects that inventory workers like her will be eliminated before cashier clerks.

Grand Opening

Chapter2Books is planning a grand opening celebration for early August. The store is located at 422 Second St. and its website, which is still under construction, is Chapter2Books.com.

The shop is open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Saturdays, from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Thursdays and Fridays, and from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Sundays. But Sue says that they often arrive early and leave late.

"We're basically open if you see us inside," Sue said.

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