50 years ago, 3 friends took a chance to open a bookstore. Now it’s one of the Valley’s best spots for readers.

Bookseller Kat Ysals is helping others find books at Changing Hands on a rainy Friday afternoon. She knows the store quite well after two years of working there and even longer of being a customer — as a child, she dreamed of working at the community-based bookstore. 

A couple pushes a cart filled with books through Changing Hands. They’ve been coming to the store annually for nearly 20 years: Every time they visit Arizona from their home in Canada, they stock up on books.

Two women are from out of town and thought Changing Hands would be the perfect way to spend a rare rainy day in the Valley.

When Gayle Shanks opened Changing Hands on April 1, 1974, she thought the bookstore would be open for a year, if they were lucky. But 50 years later, the store that started as a dream shared among friends is a community hub for book lovers and visitors alike, with events, book clubs, gifts, local fare and of course, new and used books.

“It’s been an amazing profession,” Shanks said. “I’ve never looked back.”

Changing Hands will celebrate its 50th anniversary March 30 from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. in Phoenix and in Tempe, with music, activities for kids, birthday treats and more. 

Shanks grew up reading. Her favorite book was Little Women, a book her aunt gave her and one that she and her sisters saw themselves in.

As an English Literature major who didn’t want to teach high school English, Shanks said she wasn’t quite sure what she wanted to do. While teaching at an alternative school, she and her colleagues would sit on a front porch together, talking about what they wanted to be when they grew up. 

“That was how Changing Hands was born,” Shanks said.

Shanks and two other volunteers bought everything they needed for the bookstore for the “large total” of $500 and set up shop on 5th Street on April 1, 1974. 

In those first few years, some challenges seemed “impossible,” Shanks said. She and her colleagues didn’t know anything about business, she said, but they did know how to listen.

Shanks and her co-founders would ask people what they liked to read, writing on legal pads any titles that they were missing or books people loved. 

“That’s why we’re so embedded with our community, if you will, because we asked questions,” Shanks said.

The store got its name because of the unique trade-in system that is still a hallmark of the store today. Customers brought in used books and traded them for store credit, allowing the books to “change hands” with each sale.

“The community was so excited to have an independent bookstore in its midst that they just embraced us practically from day one and made it their store,” Shanks said. “We always have thought about our store is not ‘our store’ but their store.”

The store started out with books from customer trade-ins and from books gathered at the Park ‘N’ Swap, where Shanks said she would load up a metal basket filled with books for 25 cents. Once trade-ins became popular, the bookstore no longer needed Park ‘N’ Swap, and now the stores have a mix of used and new books.

Shanks said that Changing Hands has always been “everyone’s store” and employees, customers and the community help make Changing Hands what it is each day.

The original Changing Hands moved to Mill Avenue just three years after opening when inventory became too large for the space. To get all of the books from 5th Street to Mill Avenue, Shanks said community members formed a “book brigade.”

Customers passed boxes of books in an assembly line from one store to the other – box to box, hand to hand – until everything was set up in the new location. Shanks said they had a party to celebrate the move and a musician who played then, Walt Richardson, will also be playing during the 50th anniversary celebration.

The store on Mill Avenue thrived for close to 20 years, Shanks said, before the current Tempe location was opened. In 2014, the Mill Avenue location closed and in 2017, the Phoenix location at The Newton opened.

The Phoenix location has the First Draft Book Bar, which serves tea, wine, coffee, beer, and food as well as meeting spaces and plenty of seating for the community to gather.

Cindy Dach became involved in Changing Hands about 20 years ago, first as a customer before becoming an employee and now a co-owner. She also helped spearhead the expansion of Changing Hands to Phoenix – the midtown location is celebrating 10 years of operation this year – which Dach refers to as “bookstore 4.0.”

Dach is from the East Coast and had a winding path to the Southwest. She worked in the garment industry, as a writer and as a teacher before coming to Arizona.

“Like most people who move to Arizona, you seek, what Changing Hands gives you,” Dach said.

Changing Hands had a small events program when Dach started working there, but with dreams to grow the program, too – and Changing Hands was just the place for her dreams to flourish.

“This is a place where every day you can say, ‘what if?’” Dach said. “That is very much why we’re here for 50 years, because we’ve always said ‘what if?’”

Events at Changing Hands span from author visits and book clubs to trivia nights and panel discussions about current events and politics.

“So much of what happens under our roof that matters,” Dach said. “I often find myself using the sentence, ‘we’re here to preserve democracy.’ And we’re here for it.”

To see upcoming events at Changing Hands, click here.

Much like many small businesses, the COVID-19 pandemic challenged Changing Hands. The storefronts closed, and people could not shop inside – but that didn’t stop business. Instead, employee schedules were rearranged and Changing Hands became a mail-order book service.

“The amazing thing about an independent business is that you can turn on a dime. It’s not like a giant ship that can’t move,” Shanks said.

Changing Hands even put their jigsaw puzzles in the windows of the shops, so people could point and pick out which puzzle they wanted to purchase since puzzles weren’t available online.

But the pandemic wasn’t their first challenge. Being in business for 50 years, Changing Hands experienced the recession in 2008, and endured flooding and a ceiling collapse – but each challenge taught them something new, Shanks said.

 After the flooding and ceiling issues, Changing Hands put all of the bookshelves on wheels, so they could be moved more easily should an emergency call for it.

“For me in 50 years, there’s never been one of these years that I haven’t learned an amazing life lesson, and that’s what’s kept me going,” Shanks said. “What could be better? …  I can’t think of much. I never regretted for one minute that I’ve done this my whole adult life.”

As an independent bookstore, Shanks and Dach said Changing Hands reminds customers of the importance of shopping local. But the store isn’t “anti” big box stores or Amazon – Dach said the independent book community is an “and community.”

“So many people like to say the independent bookstore always has a David Goliath experience. There’s moments where we get to be Goliath, there’s moments where we are David,” Dach said. “What’s important is that people find a book that teaches them a part of the world they didn’t know about, and it takes a whole world to do that. Not just one bookstore.”

While Changing Hands has hosted countless authors, from world-renowned writers to authors just starting out, Shanks said her favorite stories over the years come from the children who visit the store.

“Stories of the kids waiting at the gate – for the gate to go up and racing to the kids section, so excited, holding on to the great, can’t wait till the store opens. And then they’re running there, and they’re like ‘Mommy, Mommy, Daddy, Daddy, read me a book, read me a book,’” Shanks said. “Those kids are going to grow up reading and those kids are going to have those experiences with books.”

The kids’ stories often don’t end when they grow up, Shanks said. Some employees came to Changing Hands as children, dreaming of working at their favorite bookstore.

“When you see these little ones, and then they grow bigger, and then eventually they start working for us. And then they leave, and they get married, and they have kids and they bring their kids in. For me, that’s the big story of changing hands,” Shanks said. “That’s a 50-year story… that’s the part that just touches my heart over and over again.”

That’s Kat Ysals’ story, too – she is a bookseller for Changing Hands who grew up coming to the store, starting in her early teens.

 “It was always my dream to work here,” Ysals said. “Growing up and coming here all the time… honestly it was my happy place and it still is.”  

Each of the booksellers brings a unique perspective to the store. There are artists, writers and musicians on staff, all of whom have their own favorite genres to assist customers in finding a book.  

“Sometimes it’s a little bit like being a doctor. People come to you and they give you a diagnosis of what they want or what they need in their life, and it’s your job to kind of figure out, from all the books that I’ve read, do I have something that will suit their needs,” Ysals said.

What makes Changing Hands special to Ysals is the community the store fosters for everyone who walks through the door – especially minority communities and those searching for a safe place.

“It’s not just my happy place – it’s our happy place,” Ysals said.

Changing Hands will be celebrating their 50th anniversary on March 30 all day at both the Phoenix and Tempe locations with live music, activities for kids, birthday treats and more. Customers can also snag a limited-edition 50th anniversary t-shirt designed by local artists Jon Arvizu.

 For more information on the celebration, click here.

At 12News, we listen, we seek, we solve for all Arizonans. 12News is the Phoenix NBC affiliate owned by TEGNA Inc. 

12News is built on a legacy of trust.  We serve more than 4.6 million people every month on air, on our 12News app, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Twitter, and 12News.com. 

We are committed to serving all of the Valley’s communities, because we live here, too.  

12News is the Official Home of the Arizona Cardinals and the proud recipient of the 2018 Rocky Mountain Emmy Award for Overall Excellence. 

Stay connected by downloading the 12News app, available on Google Play and the Apple Store.  Catch up on any stories you missed on the show on the 12News Youtube channel. Read content curated for our Spanish-speaking audience on the Español page. Or see us on the 12News Plus app available on Roku or Amazon Fire. 

Explore amAZing people, places and things across our state on our 12News YouTube playlist here.