New owners see Fable as a bookstore and a place to belong

WENATCHEE — Renee Olson was scrolling Facebook one night when she saw that Fable Books and Blooms was for sale. She sent her friend Rachel Findlee a message set to the tune of “Do You Want to Build a Snowman?”

“Do you want to buy a bookstore?”

“It was a joke, total joke,” Olson said. Findlee laughed, then contacted owner Morgan Mott the next morning to ask what buying a bookstore would involve.

The answer was interesting enough that the two friends kept talking. They loved books, and they did not want to see the downtown Wenatchee store close. After visiting Fable and seeing the space Mott had built, they decided to buy it.

“We both love books. We both love the community,” Olson said. “We both did not want to see this go out of business.”

The purchase gave shape to a conversation Olson and Findlee had started about a year earlier. Both had been through significant personal changes and losses, and they had begun asking what they wanted to do next. They wanted to build something together, though neither had a bookstore in mind until Olson found Mott’s listing.

What persuaded them was more than the inventory. Fable had chairs, a puzzle and room for people to linger. Its rainbow-decorated windows signaled the welcome they felt when they walked in.

“It’s not just to come buy stuff from us, but it’s a place to be,” Olson said. “It’s part of the community.”

Olson and Findlee have known each other for about 11 years, since working together. Findlee also worked at Hastings, a bookstore she remembers fondly as both an employee and a customer.

They are approaching their first months as owners as a chance to learn the store and its customers before making larger changes. Jacquie and Agneta, the store’s two employees, are staying.

“They’re just so knowledgeable, so friendly,” Olson said. “They’re absolutely wonderful people. And we are so happy that they wanted to stay with us.”

Some changes will come quickly. The new owners plan to rearrange the store and make more of its existing space available to customers. They have placed an order to expand its small Spanish-language section and intend to give those books a more prominent location. They also want to add young adult titles and manga, carry more work by local authors and continue Fable’s banned-books section.

Olson and Findlee said they want readers to help shape those selections, particularly where their own reading experience does not tell them what customers are looking for. Their goal for the Spanish-language section goes beyond stocking translations of books they already know. They also want to hear which authors and titles Spanish-speaking readers would like to find there.

“We can pick books that we like and buy them in Spanish, but also we know there’s probably awesome books of authors we’ve never heard of that the Spanish-speaking community maybe would want,” Olson said.

The owners plan to keep the welcome they found at Fable while adding more reasons to visit. They are considering book clubs with what they described as “a twist” (which sounds like it might be wine), along with author events, poetry readings and book-related craft nights. They hope to begin introducing some of those events in the first quarter of 2027, after they have learned the business and made it through the holiday season.

A Little Free Library is planned for outside the store. Inside, they hope to offer grab-and-go drinks, including coffee. Those arrangements are still taking shape.

The “Blooms” side of the name will change, too. Fable plans to continue selling grab-and-go flowers from local florists during the growing season. Olson and Findlee do not plan to make floral arrangements themselves.

Readers who cannot find a title on the shelves can request a special order. The owners also described a way for customers to support Fable when shopping from home, though the store does not plan to sell books directly through its own online checkout at the outset.

Olson secured wenatcheebooks.com for the business. The site will link customers to Fable’s page on Bookshop.org, where they can order books online while choosing the independent store to benefit from the purchase. A separate link to Libro.fm will let audiobook buyers select Fable as the store they support.

The plans for online sales matter to a small bookstore, but Findlee’s ambitions for the physical space may say more about the business she and Olson want to run. When buying Fable became a serious possibility, she bought a book about “third places,” the places outside home and work where people can spend time together.

“The only one I ever personally felt like I had was Hastings, whether I worked there or not,” Findlee said. “It was a place where you could just go get a coffee and walk around and look at everything.”

She wants Fable to offer some of that freedom: somewhere friends can meet, children can discover books and customers can sit down without needing to justify the time they spend there.

“If they buy something, great, and if they don’t, it was still a success because they came here and they felt comfortable and enjoyed their time here,” Findlee said.

Asked what success would look like a year from now, the owners pictured a busy calendar and a steady flow of people. They want to see customers browsing, reading, doing puzzles and talking. Olson also hopes the business grows enough for Findlee to leave her part-time job and work at Fable full time.

For now, they are getting to know the shelves, the staff and the customers, with the first holiday season ahead of them. It is a considerable undertaking for an idea that began as a song in a late-night message.

Andrew Simpson: 509-433-7626 or andrew@ward.media