The rest of the Joe & Marcia Hackman story

When Joe Hackman graduated from Eastern Mennonite University, he took a job as a teacher in a Christian school rather than going to work for his dad at Hackman’s Bible Book Store in Allentown.

“Dad never forced me to work at the store,” Joe said. “He knew the work is overwhelming. There are so many naysayers. Why don’t you do this or why don’t you do that, they say. So much criticism.”

Joe also got married, so he felt teaching might not adequately provide for him and his wife. He could no longer think only of himself. His wife Marcia’s father gave the newlyweds a piece of advice: “If you’re going to move, move now; don’t wait.” They took the counsel, and J. Walter Hackman welcomed him aboard with open arms.

“Dad immediately made me manager at age 24,” Joe said. “He wanted me to succeed. He was a tremendous encourager.”

So, did you fulfill a dream wish for your dad?

“No, my dad’s dream was that we would be happy and succeed, and like I said, he never forced me,” Joe said.

And Marcia quickly added, “and we would never have done that to our kids.”

Joe and Marcia celebrated their 40^th wedding anniversary in November. Joe celebrated the 40^th year in the bible book store business, the first 10 as the manager and the last 30 as the owner.

And this week, they sat down with me to talk about those four decades and the impending end to one huge entrepreneurial success story.

The 70-year run began with Walter Hackman going door-to-door selling Bibles and other books that were loaded in the trunk of his car. A year later, he went to a truck – the slogan “Book Store to Your Door” was splashed on its side.

There was a small store on S. 6^th Street near to Good Shepherd Home, then a move to a larger space on St. John Street near Zandy’s steak shop, then to 7^th Street-MacArthur Road in Whitehall and finally to its present 20,000-square-foot building on Mickley Road.

Hackman’s was twice named Store of the Year by the Christian Booksellers Association. Those came during what Joe calls “the golden years, and they were really golden.” Joe said the store was doing $4.3 million in sales at the time of the World Trade Center terrorist attack on 9-11-2001. But they believe that unforgettable day played a role in changing their world – and everyone else’s.

Since then, there has been a steady decline in the business. In the midst of it, Joe, who, according to Marcia “has hardly ever had visions,” had one about seven more years of operation for Hackman’s.

Fast forward to 2017. “All this past year,” Marcia said, “he kept trying to do things and nothing would work. Finally, I said, ‘It’s seven years.’”

The annual anniversary sale at Hackman’s, which in many years past was like the store’s answer to “Black Friday” because of its high customer traffic and sales, was a major disappointment in October, and that was the last straw for Joe and for Marcia.

“I say, the Lord kicked me out,” Joe said. “We are an industry in crisis. You can almost see the whole industry tumble. The only thing is, if you have low overhead, you might have a chance.”

That pretty much brings us up to today. But defeat and despair are not what Hackman’s or its owners are all about. At first glance, people who hear Joe Hackman said, “I am a man filled with flesh and inadequacies, but God ran the store” may scoff and ridicule, but there’s much more to the story.

I talked with Joe and Marcia for more than 2 ½ hours. They were more transparent than I ever imagined they would be. I know I won’t cover it all, but these are things that need to be known.

·         While Joe and Marcia were having photos taken for the story that appeared on the front page of The Morning Call this morning, a man and woman were shopping for a Bible. The man asked if Joe would autograph the Bible. Then the man and woman wanted to have their picture taken with Joe. He granted both requests. When the couple left, Joe told me the story: the man was released last summer after serving 24 years in prison for murder … the man made a profession of faith in Jesus Christ while in prison … the woman with the man was his mother, a Hackman’s customer and friend for whom the Hackmans had been praying for years and who told Joe her son was so proud to meet him. “This blew me away,” Joe said.

·         Marcia, on life after May 1: “We’re having our sixth grandchild in January; they’re all 8-and-under, and I would like to do a lot more with my grandkids. It’s a zoo when they’re all here, but I love it. I want time to help people … to garden … and I have to start cooking again, although I may have to take cooking classes. We have friends from church and I want to entertain more. I don’t need to travel the world. I have a 90-year-old mother. I’d like to volunteer at a retirement center. I’m not worried about what I’m going to do. I’m not so sure about him.”

·         Joe, same question: We just re-did our cabin; we’re building a 2.5 clinic for Amish who have rare diseases from being intermarried. Bottom line, I plan to spend good time with them. I’m excited about the possibilities … I want to play tennis, get in shape … I simply want to encourage people the rest of our life; there’s so much in the church, and our grandchildren … She’s building an office for me in the basement … we want to do a picture book for our grandchildren – by December or we’ll never do it. My oldest son is going to help. A book about the book store, not to sell, just for the grandchildren.”

·         Millennials, including their children: I mentioned that I had recently read somewhere that millennials were buying more books and I wanted to know if that was true. Marcia: “They buy online and read articles on their phones, yet all our kids are into Christianity” Joe: “You might not believe everything they do, but they are really committed Christians. It’s a cultural switch, not negativity.” Marcia: “The biggest difference I see is, I accepted Christianity, and the millennials ask why? It’s not that they are necessarily against it, but they want to know why. So many things to take children to, Sunday morning and night … travel, sports … I fear for the next generation.”

·         The family: “From the day we made this decision, there was no turning back,” Marcia Hackman said. “We didn’t call our kids and ask what do you think. They knew it was hard for us the past number of years.” As for the Hackman children, all have successful careers and no interest in taking on the load they have watched their parents carry all their lives. They are all involved in service of some kind, and I have a pretty good idea where that comes from. Joe Jr. is a pastor at Salford Mennonite Church in Harleysville; daughter Elizabeth Kennel has three children and teaches English as a Second Language in Allentown, and son Brian is a therapist with WellSpan Philhaven, a behavioral healthcare facility in Lancaster. Joe Hackman also has four sisters – Rose Martin, Rebecca Hess, Jenny Fitting and Libby Bauman. They haven’t been involved with the store since their high school days. But if you’re a Facebook person, you can find a post from Libby that has the same hominess of one of her mother Ruth’s old “Reflections” columns that appeared in the Saturday morning call for 22 years – technically, they were  paid ads, but the words struck chords with the readers.

·         Things they’d like to forget: The preacher who was caught stealing books by stuffing them into his big overcoat … the guy who apparently needed sheet music for a Sunday morning, so he ripped pages out of the book … the guy who stole $1,000 worth of  leather Bibles … the woman who swooped about $2,000 worth of jewelry … Marcia Hackman says: “I had put out all this 10,000 Villages jewelry and I went over there and half of it was gone. It just ticked me off so bad; it was like, I’m done. So much stealing. So sick of the stealing.”

·         The final days: Joe Hackman said, “I think we will be busy to the end … I never thought it. Churches who buy here are coming in and buying ahead. Large churches are not customers; 80 percent of the churches under 100 are our customers.”  Marcia added, “Large churches have business managers, and budgets are tight, and they are going to go for the best price.”

·         Whom do we serve?: While Hackman’s may be considered primarily Christian, Joe Hackman said, “Dad always taught me ecumenical.   He was a Mennonite, also a pacifist; he never wavered from that. But he had an amazing way of connecting with people. We feel we do that, too. Muslims, whether the church likes it or not, anyone is accepted. We still have our beliefs, but everyone who went through the store was, hopefully, treated the same way.” Marcia remembered a time when “we were turning people away non-stop when we didn’t have Catholic items in the store. We went to dad [Walter Hackman] and said, ‘You have to do it.’ He saw it. He did it.” The store also has an area for Jewish product, and Joe Hackman said that some evangelicals even requested a copy of the koran (the Muslim bible) to study that faith. “I was crucified” when he put the koran on the shelf, he said. “I believe in Christ all the way, but so much in religion these days is so divisive. I won’t miss that.”

·         Role-playing owners: (Closing) is going to be hard for her,” Joe Hackman said of his wife. “Probably is,” she said, adding, “It’s fine. I enjoy the store, the product, that it’s a warm place for people to come; enjoyed the financial part, loved the whole thing. As the business grew, I had fun, the gift shows, looking for new things. But I have business mind enough to know when it’s time … He (Joe) took care of getting the people in, the promoter, the guest parties. I hated those things; I was behind the scenes. He enjoyed it. We each had our roles.”

WHAT HAPPENS NOW TO …

·         Women’s Bible study: “A lot of women who attend are not connected to a church,” Marcia said. “This is a safe place for them. Jessica Seneca and Linda Williams have done a great job. Women become Christians. It’s something that keeps us going. Women shop and buy. They feel comfortable. They’re looking for a new meeting place, not a church, maybe toward the Quakertown area. They get about 40 at a shot, probably 2,000 since the program began. Maybe someone will open a home.”

·         Seminars, etc.: “The ministry part” of Hackman’s is “at the highest level it has ever been, so many things, like Dr. Stoll on health,” Joe said. “Yet as strong as we are in ministry, there is less in the store. People in ministry are not shopping."

·         M: M is a homeless woman who sometimes comes into Hackman’s and washes up in the restroom. She comes in to cool off in the summer. When she’s wet, she reeks. She sleeps behind one of the large stores in the area. The staff at Hackman’s know her. M is “one of the least of these” of whom the Bible speaks. Hackman’s is her Good Samaritan.

·         W. W is an older man, apparently lonely, who comes into the store and just sits. One of Hackman’s employees invited W to his home for Christmas. Who will invite W next Christmas? He, too, is “one of the least of these.” Hackman’s is his refuge in time of trouble. What happens after May 1?

·         The building: Joe Hackman: “Our prayer would be ministry, No. 1, but I still have bills to make and I can’t say take it for ministry. The building is tied up in my retirement and that’s where we’re at.” He has had contacts from several churches, a religious denomination, a sports ministry, even a media source. When people call him, he refers the calls to the person handling the real estate business. “I’m neutral,” he said. “It would be wonderful if it was faith-based, but I can’t control that. It’s just walls.”  

The reaction to a Facebook post announcing the closing of the store has gone almost viral – at least locally. When I first looked at it about 24 hours after it was posted, it had drawn 293 comments. I’m sure that number is up greatly by now, but when I looked Saturday evening, it also had 671 “likes” and 451 “shares”.  I’m sure those people who shared it with friends also drew comments.

Joe Hackman had a big stack of those comments on his desk the last time I saw him in person this week. I told him he and Marcia should have lots of tissues and hankies ready because they’re going to overwhelmed by the outpouring of love the majority of the Valley will give them.

Oh, sure, there will be those haters of Christians and Christianity in general who will look for a way to get in a cheap shot at two of the finest people I know. Joe and Marcia Hackman have been tested by their God many times over the years, but their faith has not failed them.

Several times during our interview, Joe Hackman mentioned the importance of a verse in the gospel of Matthew. “Rejoice and be glad for great is your reward in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets before you.” (Matt. 5:12).  

And I like this one from 1 Peter 3:17: “For it is better to suffer for doing good, if that should be God’s will, than for doing evil.” Amen.