Haslam's Books: Serving St. Pete's Readers Since 1933

Haslam's Books on Central Avenue is one of St. Petersburg's oldest retail businesses, selling new and used books to Florida residents and tourists since 1933. Ray and Suzanne Hinst now own and operate the business that Suzanne's grandparents founded in downtown St. Pete. Their 30,000 square-foot store has more than a quarter-million titles and seems to keep growing.

The store has seen several downtown locations in its time, first at 9^th St. and 7^th Ave. North, and has continued to thrive in its current location at 2025 Central Ave. since 1964.

Haslam's has had its share of authors visit the store over the years, from Jack Kerouac in the 1960s to John Updike in the 1970s to crime fiction and adventure author Randy Wayne White for a book signing last month. 

The store remains active with signings and events, but maintains its central stream of revenue as an independent seller of books with no sales via the Internet.

Ray Hinst points out that Haslam's was actually one of the first book stores to sell books on the Internet but that soon after they decided to focus on the bricks-and-mortar business.

He talked with Patch about the retail book business.

Q. Who are your main customers?

A. Our strength has always been something for everybody. We offer the broadest spectrum of books that we are able to establish a market for. Our strength is being able to sell modest numbers of a wide variety of things. We try to stay up on or ahead of what the community is going to demand.

Q. Are you affected by the tourist season?

A. Because there are fewer and fewer book stores our size, there are many communities in which people don't have an opportunity to visit a place like this. As a result, when they have the opportunity, coming here to St. Pete and St. Pete Beach to visit, this is a logical place to come if they have an interest in books.

Q. What is it like to be able to own the building and run a retail store in this day and age?

A. You can't grow a business like this anymore in this country. How could you afford it? It is probably a phenomenon, which we are seeing a change in – the idea of the big, super book store. When we first moved here it was a fraction of this size, and we added on over the years. Being family-owned and operated has allowed us to do that. Being in a community which has always supported books and reading has made a difference too.

Q. What might newer residents of St. Petersburg not know about Haslam's Books?

My father-in-law (Charles Haslam) had a radio and a TV show, “The Wonderful World of Books,” for decades and that was an opportunity for the Tampa Bay area to have authors come through who otherwise would not have stopped here. There were a lot of celebrity authors in the '60s, '70s and '80s... We had Lawrence Welk, Skitch Henderson, Spiderman (Marvel comics 1970s), Gloria Swanson, Lillian Gish, William Buckley and many others.

Q. What are your goals looking forward?

A. To continue serving the community and provide the printed word as long as it exists and there's a need for it... Maybe on-demand [publishing] is what will come, it's hard to say. But accessibility to the printed word is probably as unparalleled now as it has ever been.