For many years Bestwick's Market, a butcher shop/meat market, in March of 1978 the building was purchased by a family originally from Missoula but transplanted to Pennsylvania. There, they had run a used book store since 1966, in the meantime accumulating a huge stock of books. For five years after opening the Montana Valley Book Store in Alberton, they commuted back and forth between Alberton and Pennsylvania, each time bringing back hundreds of books. Eventually the remaining 84,000 (or so) books were shipped to Alberton to stock the store. At the current rate of consumption they should last until 2025 or 2030, not counting books which are constantly being donated to the store.
has become quite well known and, with their online presence and worldwide shipping, they have no shortage of customers. As a matter of fact, several news stories on the bookstore have been printed and broadcast over the years. The following story, originally published in
Alberton's bookstore home to 100,000 books
GINNY MERRIAM The Missoulian | Feb 1, 2003
ALBERTON - Every once in a while - like lately - a rumor goes around that Keren Wales is closing her Montana Valley Bookstore, home of 100,000 books.
But the speculation is always untrue. Wales is looking forward to the store's 25th anniversary in March.
She lives in it with her 12-year-old son, Sam, in a cozy apartment at the back. And she's been working in bookstores since she was 8 years old.
In two enormous containers stored east of the seniors' center downtown, she still has most of the nearly 84,000 pounds of books that came out by truck two years ago from her mother's bookstore in Pennsylvania when her mother retired. That was about 2,500 boxes of books from the Gwynedd Book Store outside Philadelphia. Now they're working their way through the bookstore in Alberton.
The general rule is Wales buys books for one-fourth of the original price, then sells them for one-half. But lots of books are donated, left on the porch sometimes or brought in by people cleaning house.
Many of the customers are regulars, but most are not locals. Book collectors make the Montana Valley Bookstore a stop when they're traveling. Truck drivers put the book-store on their maps.
One trucker, for instance, a Polish man who's an avid reader, comes through every two months. He brings a sack of books to trade in. Wales puts on the coffee pot...
...Soon, in 1966, they opened the Gwynedd Valley Bookstore in an eight-bedroom Victorian house that held bookstore and family. In 1973, Kenneth visited Montana to survey the Sawmill Gulch acres thinking he should sell them, and he fell in love with Montana again. Then he discovered Alberton, then a busy railroad town. He started thinking of another bookstore there. But nothing was for sale. He went home.
"He prayed about it," Keren said. "He said, 'Lord, either close or open the door.' And the next day, it went for sale."
"It" was Bestwick's Market, a 4,500-square-foot butcher shop and meat market built in 1910. The Waleses bought it. For five years, they traveled back and forth, bringing out books, building shelves, organizing.
They opened in March 1978, becoming a two-store operation with several thousand miles between the enterprises.
From the Montana Standard