Popular SLO County bookstore reopens with new name — and a fresh focus on crystals

When San Luis Obispo County’s historic Halcyon Store closed its doors June 5, Grover Beach bookstore owner Kassi Dee saw an opportunity to expand her shop’s offerings into the world of rocks and crystals.

“This perfect opportunity opened up,” said Dee, owner of Nan’s Books & Crystals.

After learning that the owners of Halcyon Store in Arroyo Grande planned to “retire and go travel,” Dee recalled, she offered to buy up their inventory.

Dee said she’s collected unique stones as a hobby for years, and was excited to try her hand in selling them to her customers.

Now, customers at Nan’s can browse for rocks and crystals alongside new and used paperbacks and hardcovers.

Books and crystals “work well together because they’re both really passionate hobbies,” Dee said. “When you’re an avid reader, you read and read and read, and when you’re an avid believer in the energy and metaphysical aspects of crystals, you really believe in it and get crystals for everything.”

Bookstore is SLO County fixture

Originally known as Nan’s Pre-Owned Books, Dee’s store has been a South County fixture since 1987, since her grandmother, Nan Fowler, opened the original location in Arroyo Grande.

The store and its collection of more than 50,000 books moved to 1328 West Grand Ave. in Grover Beach in since 2001.

The sudden death of Dee’s mother in 2019 accelerated the family’s plans for who would run the business when Fowler retired, and ownership of the store passed to Dee in 2020.

“We always say that being a business owner runs through our blood, because my entire family for generations have all been business owners,” Dee said. “It’s almost a passion or a learned skill over the years.”

Rock hounds welcome at rechristened Grover Beach store

The addition of crystals to the shop’s inventory means a new name and a new focus.

After she purchased the Halcyon Store’s inventory of crystals, Dee said she visited other crystal shops on the Central Coast to learn how their businesses operated.

Dee closed the store for a day in early June to move in the new inventory, interspersing displays of glittering stones on and among the shelves of books.

Since the store reopened as Nan’s Books & Crystals on June 10, so-called “rock hounds” have started showing up more often, which Dee said is a good sign for the future of the rechristened business.

“The responses online were just absolutely incredible,” Dee said.

In the store, stones are organized by type and shape, she said. Offerings include pendulums, necklaces, jewelry and polished and unpolished raw stones.

Each item is labeled with a sign and a brief description of the different qualities and benefits —physical and metaphysical — of the stone.

Many crystal hobbyists will collect a wide variety of stones for different uses and properties, Dee said, from headaches to anxiety and stress.

“Rose quartz is for self-love and gets rid of that negative self-talk,” Dee said. “The wall pendants are for when you’re doing readings and stuff.”

Some of Dee’s favorite gemstones include labradorite, which is iridescent like a fish scale and said to reduce stress and tension, and carnelian, which she said helps with confidence.

“When we had our opening, one of our (South County Chamber of Commerce) board members said ‘You don’t need more confidence,’ and I’m like, ‘That’s why I’m confident,’ ” Dee said. “It’s not me, it’s the rock!”

Popular shop still has cats, pun-laden sign

Although Nan’s Books & Crystals has expanded its inventory, the store retains many of the hallmarks that have made popular with local residents.

Fowler still works as a part-time employee of the store alongside an iconic duo of feline friends, Jay Catsby and Scout Finch.

Dee said in-store cats have been a part of the Nan’s tradition since she started working there as a teenager. The two current cats were adopted from North County Paws Cause, and serve as the store’s customer greeters and unofficial mascots.

Jay Catsby “loves when people sit in the mysteries (section) or in the Think Tank,” which is a part of the store full of legal and reference books, Dee said. “He just wants to curl up and snuggle. We have people who come in probably for 10 minutes, and they go back there and they get stuck for an hour.”

Another staple of the store is a sign that displays a rotating selection of puns submitted by the store’s loyal customers. That practice continues under Dee’s watch, she said.

“Sea monsters eat fish and ships for lunch,” the sign read in early June.

To this day, the bookstore has never repeated the same joke twice, Dee said, thanks in large part to a meticulously cataloged sign pun hall of fame known as the Readerboard.

As owner of Nan’s Books & Crystals Dee participates in as a board member of several South County community organizations, including the 5Cities Homeless Coalition; the Grover Beach Parks, Recreation and Beautification Commission; the South County Chambers of Commerce and the Grover Beach Community Foundation.

Dee said her ties to the community drive her to continue her family’s work.

“I love being around people and around the community, and I want to do more in the community in the future,” Dee said.