As he looks back on 50 years of running Poor Richard’s, founder Richard Skorman says the key factors in his longevity are flexibility to change with the times and survive setbacks, come up with creative ideas to meet his loyal clients’ needs and desires, hire knowledgeable employees who have stuck with him and, not least, marrying Patricia Seator, who has guided the business’s retail operations.
“It was fortuitous for me to marry somebody who turned out to be a great retail merchant,” Skorman says. “I was never great at knowing what people would want. We’ve been full partners since 2005.”
Skorman started selling used paperback books in 1975 out of a house on North Tejon Street. That one-room shop has evolved into a four-business complex — Poor Richard’s Restaurant, Poor Richard’s Books & Gifts, Little Richard’s Toy Store and Rico’s Café and Wine Bar — that is a Downtown Colorado Springs landmark, cultural center and gathering place.
Skorman, who grew up in Akron, Ohio, moved to Colorado to attend Colorado College and fell in love with the region. When he was a 22-year-old senior, he bought the stock of a bookstore that was closing and displayed it on shelves made from ammunition cases he purchased at Surplus City for 29 cents apiece. When he had to attend classes, he would leave a cash box for self-service.
Two years later, inspired by his friend Kimball Bayles’ Trident Bookstore and Café in Boulder, Skorman opened Poor Richard’s Feed & Read at his current location, 324 N. Tejon St. The concept was unique in Colorado Springs, and it was immediately popular.
In 1982, Skorman started showing indie films that weren’t being screened anywhere else in town. The same year, the business closed for three months after an arson fire, but friends and customers returned in force as soon as it reopened.
Skorman moved to New York City in 1986 to write a book about art films that were coming out on video, selling the restaurant to two trusted employees. There he discovered New York-style pizza and met Seator, who became his movie buddy and then romantic partner. Skorman and Seator returned to Colorado Springs after the book, “Off Hollywood Movies: A Film Lover’s Guide,” was published in 1990. They repurchased the business and sold the cinema to Bayles, who later moved it to 115 Pikes Peak Ave. and opened Kimball’s Peak Three Theater.
Seator was the driving force behind opening Poor Richard’s Books and Gifts in 1992, launching Little Richard’s Toy Store in 1995 and creating the outdoor patio behind the restaurant. The couple bought the building in 2008, and the popularity of the Beanie Babies that Seator stocked in the toy store helped them pay it off just before the pandemic struck.
Skorman and Seator wanted to encourage people to hang out and recognized that parents needed a way to occupy their kids. They created a play space for children in the back of the bookstore and, for a time in the early 2000s, they operated a children’s bookstore. Rico’s Café, created to offer patrons a quiet place to enjoy coffee, a drink and a meal and which carried a selection of gifts curated by Seator, replaced it in 2005. The gift business helped them survive during the Great Recession, a time when many independent bookstores were folding.
Skorman and Seator also expanded their clientele by inviting groups and clubs to meet at the restaurant, offering them specials like a $5 pizza slice with a drink special.
“Sometimes you’ll see 20-30 people from a French class speaking French, or a Christian Science group going through their scripture,” Skorman says.
Poor Richard’s closed for 18 months during the pandemic, but Skorman and Seator made some improvements to the restaurant and started an online retail business during that time.
Skorman’s latest venture is a nonprofit volunteer group that meets weekly to clean up trash, Richard’s Rubbish Roundup. As of late 2024, 850 volunteers picked up 55,000 pounds of trash and more than 1,000 needles.
Skorman has been active in supporting community causes, from LGBTQ issues to open space conservation. He served four terms on Colorado Springs City Council, and Poor Richard’s has been involved in numerous community efforts such as benefits and bringing 2,000 victims of Hurricane Katrina to Colorado Springs.
Those efforts happened organically, Skorman says, “because of who we were and the people who worked for us.”
At age 72, he still finds it a blessing to come to work, but Skorman and Seator, 71, are open to selling the business, possibly to employees, or to the right buyer.
“We’re very clear about not selling to somebody that’s going to change it a lot,” he says. “The combination has been successful for us, and we hope it will continue.”
