Paying It Forward

Jesse Pelayo makes reading affordable and accessible to the masses

There used to be a time when more used bookstores peppered the Southern California landscape. But like all worthy businesses that rise and fall with the economic tide, books became expendable and sales petered out. Friends of the Library used bookstores have arisen to take over this niche while maintaining dwindling public library budgets, only to see the best $1 bargains snatched up by dealers who turn around and sell the exact same books at eight times the purchase price.

Literacy in our world comes at a significant price if you don’t use public libraries, and while publishers can bitch and moan about the profits they lose out when people sell their clients’ wares secondhand, many times it’s the only way we can afford to keep up with literacy trends, which makes Jesse Pelayo’s story even more remarkable, and one would hope, sustainable, in this economic climate.

Back in 2006, this technology advisor for the Los Angeles Unified School District who ran the “No Child Left Behind” program at his high school campus looked around and discovered that inner city kids had limited access to affordable books. So the enterprising schoolteacher got up and took action. Jesse opened a small chain of used bookstores hawking clean, gently read books (some which are current Top 10 bestsellers selling for cover price at retail stores) for $1 to $2 a pop.

What’s more, when you finished this book you could pay the favor forward by donating it back to the store for ongoing sales, whose profits Jesse pumps back into the community through book fairs and straight-up donations to the kids.

Walk into any of Jesse’s five Southern California strip mall locations and what you’ll find are clean and brightly lit spaces with titles organized neatly on shelves, not dingy or moldy-smelling pages. Part-time employees lovingly stock shelves and encourage browsing customers. Some stores even offer comfortable couches you can kick back on and relax. As the defunct Crown Books saying goes, “Why pay full price?”

That’s not to say that you’ll find everything you possibly wanted on Jesse’s recycled shelves. But if you wanted your hard-earned dollars to count to do something good while helping sustain Jesse’s future, leaving no child behind on the literacy charts would qualify as a worthy endeavor.

The Dollar Book Fair, locations in Cerritos, Buena Park, Montebello, Laguna Hills and Moreno Valley; www.dollarbookfair.com.