Ojai Patrons Wrote the Book on Honesty : Business: When Bart’s shop closes for the day, some of the merchandise remains available outside on the honor system.

Bart’s Books in Ojai believes in doing business on the honor system.

When the store is closed, customers may still buy books from a dozen four-shelf bookcases mounted on outside walls.

The honor system is in effect all day on Mondays and every night of the week from the time the store closes at 5:30 p.m. until it reopens the next day at 10 a.m.

And very few of the bookstore’s customers ever abuse their privileges and neglect to drop their money into the box sitting outside.

“We feel good about it,” said bookstore owner Gary Schlichter, 56. “It’s a tradition going on since the store opened 26 years ago. Very seldom does someone take a book without paying.

“It restores your faith in humanity,” Schlichter added.

The outside shelves are always stacked with about 1,000 used books--paperbacks, hardbacks, a mix of fiction and nonfiction--all selling from 15 cents to 50 cents. Prices are marked on each book.

“Sometimes a person lacks the correct change or leaves an IOU. They’ll come in when the store is open and say: ‘Here’s the money I owe you,’ ” said Schlichter.

People on foot, bicycle, horseback, in cars and trucks patronize the store after hours.

“If the overhead lights aren’t strong enough for them, they will often use vehicle headlights or flashlights to help read the titles or browse,” Schlichter said.

“Bart’s Books is a bookstore that makes everybody feel good and proud of their hometown. It speaks very well for Ojai and the basic honesty of people who live here,” said Ojai’s mayor, Nina Shelley, 69.

Ojai, population 7,000, is a picturesque Ventura County town with quaint shops and popular restaurants. Located in a valley rimmed by the Los Padres National Forest, it is home to many writers and artists.

Real estate agents say they point out the bookstore to potential home buyers, citing it as an example of Ojai’s small-town style. The image, they say, helps sell houses.

“I drive my clients by Bart’s and describe the honor system. . . . They are in awe,” said Goldena Stallings, a real estate agent.

Jack Randolph, 53, the store’s assistant manager, said out-of-towners constantly tell him that the system would never work where they live, that the books would be cleaned out overnight.

“They’re all curious about what happens when it rains. The shelves have a large overhang and the books are fairly well protected. We may lose a few in a driving rainstorm but it doesn’t happen very often,” Randolph said.

The bookstore is housed in a 55-year old home, two garages and a large patio jammed with shelves containing more than 100,000 used books.

Books are arranged by topic, from travel to the occult. The kitchen of the house is full of cookbooks. Hallways have travel books. History is in a garage.

The books come from estate and library sales as well as from individuals who bring boxes and shopping bags full of volumes to sell or trade. Many of the contributions come from people who are moving or cleaning out a house.

People from all over Southern California find their way to Bart’s.

Lilibeth Bishop, 31, of Malibu, a writer for Women’s Journal, a popular Philippines weekly, told how she looked all over the Los Angeles area for “Elmer Gantry” and “It Can’t Happen Here,” two Sinclair Lewis books long out of print.

She found them at Bart’s.

“If you can’t find a book anywhere else, chances are you will find it here,” she said.