The store is a true mom-and-pop shop as it is owned and run by husband and wife duo Gerome (“Jerry” or “Jer”) and Pam Chamberlain, who also live above the store. For 28 years, they have been a staple of downtown New Ulm. However, this year will be their last. The Chamberlains have decided that after Christmas, they will be officially retiring.

Jerry Chamberlain joked that they initially started the business as a form of early retirement. The two had both been working in the corporate world.

“I was a database administrator back when they had Windows 3.1,” Pam said.

“I was a cross between a legal secretary and legal assistant,” Jerry said.

Photo by Journal photographer Renee Dietrich A photo of Jerry Chamberlain that originally ran in an April 14, 1997 edition of The Journal. The photo was featured in the article introducing Bookshelves & Coffeecups to New Ulm.

The couples were nearly 40 and realized they did not want to live the rest of their lives in the corporate world. But what type of business should they open?

“Pam is a master knitter, I am a musician,” Jerry said. “Do we open a yarn or a guitar shop?”

While deciding what type of shop to open, the Chamberlains realized they were spending a lot of time at bookstores. They began taking note of what features they liked. Then one day they went into a Boarders Books and noticed there was an espresso station.

“We thought, if they can serve espresso in a new bookstore, why not in a used bookstore?” Jerry said.

Today, espresso in a bookstore is commonplace, but in the mid 1990s, it was still a novel idea.

Pam Chamberlain makes prepares an espresso drink for a customer. am said one of the secrets to keeping Bookshelves & Coffeecups going for 28 years is she and her husband Jerry have “high standards” when it comes to coffee

“We were ahead of the curve with the idea,” Pam said.

The Chamberlains had an idea for their shop. Now all they needed was a location.

“We were looking over outer Minnesota because we knew if we did this in the Twin Cities, the overhead would have killed us,” Jerry said.

The couple traveled around Minnesota and Wisconsin, looking for the right town to open their shop.

“We were specifically looking for a town with a college and an active downtown,” Pam said. They were not finding what they were looking for. Then at a class reunion, a classmate suggested New Ulm. They first visited New Ulm in 1996 during the city’s Streetscape program.

Pam and Jerry Chamberlain recently added a new sign to their storefront announcing their plan to retire and thank the community for 28 years of business.

“All of downtown was torn up for Streetscape,” Jerry said “But this didn’t slow people down.”

During a second visit in July, they witnessed a Crazy Days vendor market and realized New Ulm could work for their book and coffee store. A few months later, they saw an ad in the Minneapolis paper for the sale of 123 N. Minnesota St.

“It was a teeny-tiny ad on the lower left, only four lines wide,” Pam said. “I wouldn’t normally notice that but it was New Ulm, and it was what we wanted.”

The Chamberlains began leasing the building in 1997. A year later they would purchase it outright.

In the early days of Bookshelves & Coffeecups, the couple received a lot of advice from their neighboring businesses. Jerry said one of the secrets of their longevity was keeping things simple.

Bookshelves & Coffeecups has operated at 123 N. Minnesota St. since April 1997. Come this December, the store will close as owners Pam and Jerry Chamberlain are retiring.

“We didn’t want to get too complicated,” he said. The other secret was to remain flexible.

In the earlier days they would buy, sell, and trade books. Over time, they stopped buying books and kept it to selling and trading.

“It was on-the-job training,” Jerry said. “If this doesn’t work, try something else.”

Over the years, the Chamberlains have been able to roll with the changes. Their shop was able to compete as other stores began selling coffee.

There was also the rise of electronic e-readers and online book selling. But their shop survived by keeping to the basics. They keep quality books and make quality coffee.

“We have high standards,” Pam said. “We’re not a high school student making his first cup of coffee.”

Jerry said there were times when they struggled to make ends meet. He once changed the store hours to open early and get the morning commuters. It worked, and they received more customers.

Sometimes working together for days on end can be a challenge.

“Imagine working with your spouse 7 days a week for 28 years,” Pam said.

“And then when you close the store, you’re still living with that spouse,” Jerry said.

But they make it work. Jerry is the extrovert, and Pam is a little more quiet. Together they were able to work through any challenge.

Pam and Jerry agree that the best part of their business were the great customers they met.

“A lot of our customers turned into friends, a lot of our friends turned into best friends,” Jerry said.

It is for this reason that even though they are closing Bookshelves & Coffeecups, the Chamberlains will not be leaving New Ulm.

“We have more roots in the Brown County-New Ulm area than we have anywhere else,” Jerry said. “We like it here. We have decided we are going to stay here.”

The building is currently listed with True Real Estate. The plan is to keep the business running till Christmas. For the past 10 years, the Chamberlains would take the week between Christmas and New Year’s off. They decided to make it the closing time.

In the meantime, the store is offering greater discounts on their books. The idea is to help honor customers with trade-in credit. Normally, the store would offer book trades at two for one and sell at half price. Now books are selling at a quarter price. That means people with trade credit have a one-to-one credit.