Everett book store A Gathering Grove caters to all

A spirit named William stopped by A Gathering Grove last week to talk about heaven, reincarnation and the unquantifiable nature of time.

The Everett-based bookstore played host to the gregarious, Irish-accented character during a spirit channeling Tuesday. While psychic reader Ann Inman sat channeling William with eyes tightly closed, bookstore patrons gathered around, asking where they'd lost their keys, if loved ones would suffer when they died, and just where William goes when he's not here.

No, it's not a scene from your neighborhood Barnes and Noble. But it's a pretty common sight at A Gathering Grove, a bookstore and coffee shop in downtown Everett.

Store owners Steve Kropf and Shannon Bath, a married couple, opened the store last July with the intent of creating a space for people of all religions. Fittingly, the store's shelves house titles including "Jesus and Buddha," "Sensual Dreaming" and "A Year of Living Biblically."

The bookstore is a lifelong dream fulfilled for Bath, who describes herself as a student of metaphysics and "by no means an expert on religion."

She adds: "I just want people to walk in here and open their minds a little more, open their hearts."

One evening last week, customers sat at tables and on leather furniture, working on laptops and reading.

Books aren't the only things to read. Bumper stickers are plastered on the coffee bar, telling patrons to "teach respect for the earth and all living creatures," among other things. There are posters, banners, flags -- most promoting similar messages.

Kropf tends the coffee bar during the day, while Bath works as an accountant in Seattle at Sound Community Bank, which granted the couple a small business loan to finance the start-up last year.

The store started as an idea long before that, something Bath talked about often.

Her husband, a coffee chop manager and bartender by trade, wasn't convinced it would work at first. But following a stint at school seeking a more clear career path, he realized he didn't want to be a 40-year-old engineering student.

That's when Bath made a push for business ownership, first proposing an alternate version of her bookstore idea.

"I said, 'Fine,' " she recalled. "If you're going to bar-tend for the rest of your life, let's own the bar."

Kropf said he didn't want a bar. And when the couple visited Soul Food Books -- a bookstore and cafe in Redmond -- he finally understood what his wife wanted to create.

"I walked in and said, 'We need something like this in Everett,' " he remembered.

That was in the summer of 2007. A year later, they opened the doors at their Oakes Avenue store, housed in a brick building that was once the Lion's Club bingo hall.

That was just months before the recession took hold, leaving consumers with less disposable cash and small businesses with declining revenue.

Marketing was a unexpected obstacle for the couple, though they've recently found a niche on Facebook and Yahoo news groups. But though they're making enough to pay the rent, they've found customers have been slow to discover the spot.

Customers from the New Age movement seem to have found them first, Kropf said.

Weekend concerts on a stage tucked in the store's corner have helped raise its profile. But Kropf and Bath are well aware of the often-quoted statistic that most small businesses fold within five years of opening.

"We have almost one year down," Bath said.

Kropf said it's the people who choose to shop at small, locally owned businesses who have kept the store afloat so far.

"The people who come in are the people who are aware of small business," he said. "If you're just looking for a cheap book, you'll go to Amazon."