Iconic Bookstore Closing After Nearly Half a Century of Service

By BARBARA MARTIN MORO/Staff Writer

“Ding, dong.” 

“Howdy!” John Johnson said from behind the counter. 

From the floor to the ceiling, the wooden shelves that Johnson once built with his father stand half empty. The last of The Pea Picker Bookstores is nearing the end of its service to East Texans almost half a century after its foundation. 

In 1975, Johnson’s family opened the first of The Pea Picker Bookstores in Athens, Texas; at the time, he was a 29-year-old computer programmer. Before the founding of their first bookstore, the family owned a weekly newspaper also called The Pea Picker because, according to Johnson, Athens is considered the world capital of black-eyed peas. The new business kept the same name. At one point, The Pea Picker Bookstores had five locations: two in Tyler, one in Athens, one in Beaumont, and one in Winnsboro. 

The store became a family thing. His mother established the way the books must be organized, horizontally, so visitors can read the titles without needing to bend their heads, and so books are better protected from damage; and his father and sister also worked in the stores.

Johnson recalled how his father, a veteran and later a banker for many years before the opening of the bookstore, used to say that after the opening of the bookstore, “that’s the most fun he had ever had in his life.” 

The iconic store has been, for many years, the heart of the Johnsons and a place of encounter for East Texans. 

“One time there were standing about four people talking about the same book, and one of them I knew was a federal district judge here in Tyler, and there was a guy that drove a truck, and one of them worked at a tire company, and then a housewife, and they were standing there talking about the same book; they read about the same kind of fiction,” Johnson said. “You cannot tell a thing by looking at somebody; just like a book, you don’t know by looking at the cover.” 

According to Johnson, the best time of the year for selling books was from the day after Christmas through March; nonetheless, around 2010, sales started to drop. Johnson believes the main reason is the increasing popularity of eBooks. Last summer, Johnson decided to close definitively. 

“The electric bill was making more than we were. It was so hot. Our profit was going down, and I could not do it another summer,” Johnson said. 

Johnson carries with him the memories of the store’s golden days: “people coming in looking for a certain book, and they find it, they are so excited: ‘I have been looking for this for 10 years, I can’t believe you have it'” 

The store will finally close its doors on Feb. 14, the 49th anniversary of the foundation of the first store. Until then, all the books are being sold for $1, and Johnson will keep welcoming old and new visitors. 

“Thanks to all the customers, children, and grandchildren. Thanks a lot; it was fun,” he said.