In 2010, Ronald Lundy launched a small-scale bookstore that has grown by leaps and bounds over the years.

Don’t be fooled by the unassuming store front where the business flourishes on Washington’s Main Street; there’s much more going on behind the scenes.

“At any given time we have between 200,000 and 300,000 books here,” Lundy said. “The Smithsonian has actually bought stuff from us.”

The bulk of the bookstore’s inventory is never accessible for viewing by the general public, however.

“We are a 99.9-percent web-based company,” Lundy explained. “So most of our books are sold online. We sell on more than 40 different websites, and we reach markets most people can’t. We sell books to every single country in the world.”

The storefront still has a nice selection of books for the average reader, including novels, biographies and travel books. Movies on DVD are available as are hundreds of collectible vinyl record albums.

But just beyond a black curtain is where the real magic happens. There are usually at least two employees hard at work researching, cataloging and shelving books gleaned from libraries and private collections throughout the state. In addition to the hundreds of thousands of titles at the store, Lundy said he has books stored in two local warehouses.

“We add 2,400 books each day in our database,” Lundy said. “But we have about 8,000 rare, collectible and antique books we can’t touch for two years because we are so backlogged in work.”

While the general public can’t view the behind-the-scenes aspect of the store, avid readers may still request certain titles, Lundy said. If a book is on the shelves, store employees are more than happy to help find it a new home.

The bookstore also has a niche market in used textbooks for college courses, a business facet added in 2015 and spawned when Lundy’s wife Susan was a college student in search of what turned out to be a very expensive textbook.

“We deal with 3,000 students each semester,” Lundy said. “We buy and sell textbooks in Washington and at our Greenville location, as well as online. Our textbook sales have tripled every year.”

The Washington Bookstore provides full- or part-time jobs for 14 employees, a plus for the local job market. They do practically everything; the team handles accounting, marketing, cataloging and general management of the business. Lundy and his wife Susan also operate Market Street Pub, and there are plans under way for a third Washington-based business.

“We run all of our businesses like a family,” said Lundy, who admits he normally works between 12 and 14 hours each day. “We want to impact our employees’ lives; we help them with their credit and we have helped them get cars. We want them to have an ownership in the business.”

Lundy, his wife and their staff have another mission.

“We wanted to create a company that cares about the community,” Lundy added. “We look for ways to make money but still save people money.”

The Washington Bookstore is open daily from noon to 6 p.m. The store is located at 221 W. Main St. in downtown Washington. For more information, call 252-515-2226.