Specializing in specialty stores: Stephen Young is doing a growing business in nontraditional markets.(RETAIL NATION)(Stephen Young )(Company overview)

To walk into the 5,000-square-foot book room of the Stephen Young showroom in Los Angeles's Gift Mart is to feel the atmosphere of an old-fashioned library decorated with vintage globes and bird cages, where tables and chairs are arranged to give browsers a chance to sit and relax while deciding what to buy for their stores.

None of these customers, however, own bookstores. Rather, their businesses are specialty stores, and thanks to the efforts and creativity of Young's 24 sales reps, all of whom live in their territories on the West Coast, they are now stocking and selling books that complement the theme of their stores. Young's reps call on "thousands" of specialty stores …