Poor Richard’s Downtown is a local treasure.
Richard Skorman opened Poor Richard’s Downtown in Colorado Springs in 1975. With their blend of community connection, changings models of food and culture (including a movie theater at one time) and evolving technology, their approach is still one of human interaction, a bit of reinvention and a dash of nostalgia.
Having recently stepped down from his position with city council, Skorman is turning his attention to making Poor Richard’s effectively and efficiently (as he always has) a place to feel at home with the community.
Skorman says, “We always tried to combine things.” When he first opened, the business was called Poor Richard’s Feed and Read. “The books were on the walls, and you could sit at tables.” They also existed as a bookstore/movie theater combination over the years with culinary always a part of the formula.
Before COVID, Skorman explains, they had “toys and books and everything in the back play area.” People could wander around with a glass of wine throughout the whole complex discovering new pieces of culture. “It’s nice to have that mix of different things. It provides kind of an entertainment side to it.”
Transitioning Towards the Future
Skorman’s wife and business partner Patricia Seator says they have done remarkably well through the whole transition into online ordering and online commerce. COVID has hit restaurants in the downtown area especially hard but the reality, she agrees, is that people still want to go out to eat, especially as it becomes safer. At Poor Richard’s, she says, they provide “that human contact, somebody there to help find the right book, help find the right choice for someone else. [It’s] that kind of direct person-to-person contact which is really key to what makes Poor Richard’s Poor Richard’s. It’s always been sort of a community hub in that way.”
Both Seator and Skorman think that in a couple of months the volume of business will come back into the restaurant when the current COVID variant dies down. “We initially postponed our reopening of the restaurant because we wanted to do renovations. The PPP loan was a big help to us as it was to a lot of businesses. But when we were able to start doing the renovations again, it was so hard to get anything done because of the supply chain disruptions….and it was harder to schedule the contractors because of the building boom as well.”
They reopened that renovated section just before the Thanksgiving holiday and then Omicron hit.
Skorman explains, in terms of the restaurant, “We needed to make it more efficient, and we also knew if we were dependent on in-dining, it wasn’t going to be as successful during these COVID times.”
They took out their big gas pizza ovens to be able to move everything behind the counter. There used to be self-serve soup and stew stations but those were moved behind the counter so people could get things safely. Installing electric ovens was key, Skorman explains, because they have 117 solar panels installed on their roof. The restaurant had always been using a ton of natural gas and he adds those prices have significantly gone up as well.
Seator is quick to point out that they still have their stone ovens for the artisan pizza but that the quality of the crust comes out even better with the electric on top of being more efficient.
New Goals to Fuel Effortlessness
Seator says there were other goals in the renovations besides making it safe for COVID. With the large ovens gone, they were able to allow more space in the seating area helping with flow so that there wasn’t as much crowding on the floor. And with that as well, she says, they were getting food out in less than half the time, maybe even a third of the time.
While running a store like this with a restaurant, cafe, books, toys, and gifts maybe sounds simple in a certain way, the reality is that the effortlessness is very complex. “It [can be] very complex,” explains Seator. “I run retail. Richard runs culinary. I used to do all the buying for the bookstore including the books, gifts and greeting cards. I used to do all of that, and we always had someone else doing the toy store.”
Now they have four new material buyers as well as three used book buyers, so it creates a diversity of perspective and selection. “I also have a gift buyer who does gift stationery and [works with] all the local artists. And the lady who handles art has a master’s in museum studies.” This art specialist and an assistant do the merchandising and plan the displays as well so each person on the team has a complex and specific job. She says their stationery and paper buyer does probably the most detailed buying of all.
Skorman is the GM on the culinary side having worked with many of the people there for years, even recently opening a pastry shop. Seator says they like hearing the combination feels simple, direct and easy-to-shop as well as easy-to-order in the restaurant. “But in fact, really, the complexity is sort of mind-boggling.”Skorman laughingly shares, “We create our own quagmire, because we really like to sell things that aren’t that expensive…things that are more ‘every day items’.” He says that they are not going to get into selling bicycles or electronic computers. “We want to have things that are inexpensive and thoughtful, for our regular customers. And even the food, we don’t consider it expensive and fancy. But there’s a lot of moving parts.”
He says they probably order 300-400 items a week just in the restaurant alone. “So, we create complicated businesses, but ones that we think that really cultivate regular customers.”
Focus on Community
Seator relates that Skorman started the businesses over 45 years ago with a community orientation. “It’s always been there. It’s so much a part of Richard, really.” She moved to the Springs from New York in 1990, and became much more involved 16 years ago, when they opened Rico’s Cafe, and then added the gifts to the bookstore. That adjustment created a whole change of perspective in the relationship between the café and the bookstore.
Skorman loves that element of impact they have had with the community. “We’ve had so many people tell us, ‘I met my wife here, and this is where we decided to get engaged. We were here for hours and talked about [this is and that] and got the lead out.’ And just over the years, it’s been great like that, where you don’t even realize it. We’re grateful. If you can have a business that you can make money but also enjoy and appreciate yourself [then] that’s where Patricia and I feel very lucky.”
