Wide World Books and Maps New Owner

A few weeks back we mentioned that Wide World Books and Maps changed ownership. In the post, we implied (because we thought) that the reason it was sold was that it was in trouble financially. Turns out it’s doing quite well, thank you very much, the old owner was simply looking to retire (or at least “enter a new phase” in life), and was planning to close it if it couldn’t be sold. Shortly after that post, we popped our heads in to see if we could find out more.

The story began, as so many good ones do, with a bit of happenstance. Julie Hunt, behavioral scientist at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and avid traveler, was in WWBM picking up a travel guide when she bumped into a friend, a travel author. He mentioned to her that WWBM was for sale and a light bulb went off in her head. A few months later, and she owned it.

Despite the frequent inquiries from her colleagues, though, Julie has no near term plans to leave her gig at the Hutch. Maybe it’s the satisfaction of the good work she’s doing there, or maybe it’s the fact that owning a boutique travel books store doesn’t deliver the same financial support that a fully funded grant does, but either way, she’s going to be splitting her time for the foreseeable future, learning and growing the store evenings and weekends.

In case you’re worried, it didn’t sound like she had any plans for big changes quite yet, she’s taking a if-it-ain’t-broke-don’t-fix-it approach, getting the hang of how things work.

Of course, if you have suggestions, pop on in and say hi. You know, lots of great adventures have started with an innocent visit to that store.