Open an independent bookstore

I’m sorry I haven’t been posting my progress here, life has been busy. I do have a site for my store, you can check it out here:
http://texturebookstore.com

I twisted up my ankle pretty bad a few weeks ago. It was so slow to heal I went to two bone doctors, one said it was a hairline fracture and I needed a cast. The other said it was just a grade two sprain and all I need to do is wear a brace for the next two weeks. It kinda sucks and I think I made things worse by stomping about on my ankle when it first happened, ignoring the pain. Oh well. That combined with some family issues has me delaying the soft opening of Texture to July 18th. It’s still gonna rock! There is just still so much to do and I don’t want to be hobbling around trying to get everything ready, and not being able to be up and about like I want to.

Wow it’s been forever since I updated on 43things!! I am still working on this goal, it took me a long time but it is finally coming together. I open mid-June! here are a few pics of my storefront in construction, more on my blog http://www.mspmedia.net/texture.html

The owner of the storefront I’m renting just gave me some story about deciding to sell the building all of a sudden, what in the underworld? He totally refunded my deposit including money for stuff I bought for the renovation, but I am devastated. I was planning to open next month part-time and then have a full scale launch in December. Now I have to start all over again with finding a place and getting organized there and all. Good thing I had yet to get business cards printed up with the address, that was something I planned to do this week. ha.

I will not give up on this goal, I will find a great storefront, and I will make this happen. I feel sad but that will pass, I’m not going to get all bent out of shape about this because it’s just not that big a deal. I just need to find another storefront, keep it moving. Your well-wishes will be appreciated though!

I wanted to post pics of the renovation process but I lost them during an upload from my phone. It’s just as well, it’s taking forever for me to get this done. Part of me wishes I had the money to hire people to do this for me but part of me is so happy to be able to do this; to have this great opportunity at seizing my dream, I am just thrilled. My friend Tony is going part-time at his job and said he’d help me with the store, and so is my friend Angela.

I’m working a full-time job, I’m telecommuting from home which is great! because I can get the kids off to school and be home when they get done. I love the job and plan to work it for a while because the store is going to be in the red for a few years. But it is full-time and basically I just have a few hours during the morning to work on store stuff, and one weekend day. My husband works full-time too, he’s a teacher, and doesn’t have a lot of time during the week to help out. I have every confidence though, it will all work out!

I won’t be able to do any work on the store until this Saturday, I will definitely take more pics and post them.

Ok so I’m planning to open a used bookstore. I wanted to open this month, but the storefront I was renting the owner totally sold it. There was a string of robberies across the street culminating in the bike shop owner being beaten into a comatose state, which made the guy near there real nervous about his property. He hinted to me early last month about maybe selling, and he got a great offer which he says he couldn’t refuse and he apologized. My lawyer friend called him up and told him about some break-lease clause so he ended up giving me double my deposit back. The new owners are planning to flip the property to a franchise.

So anyway I am looking around and have visited a couple of other places. I’m going to see a few more today, but I had my heart set on this one place in particular. It is very cheap and totally fits into my idea of a small dusty old used bookstore, and they don’t mind any shelves or whatever I’ll need to put up. But they didn’t want me to sign the lease right away because they had other small biz owners want to break it within a few months. They advised me to walk around the neighborhood and really get a feel for what I’d be getting into.

Folks, I am in this neighborhood quite frequently, I shop at the thrift store there all the time, go to the market near there all the time, etc. I have friends who live in the gentrified section and in the hood section and neither have complained about the nighborhood other than the ratty schools. It’s a racially mixed neighborhood, unlike most of Cleveland. So I was thrilled to find this place.

But I took their advice and walked around one day after a doctor vist with my son Todd. I went into the library, and was shocked. You have to walk through a metal detector right at the door, and to use the bathroom! you have to get a key from a librarian. There were 3 security guard-types and I think they had guns. Least they acted like they did, tapping their holsters/holster area the way some police folk do, you know? None of this was about national security; I asked a librarian what was up. He told me it was because of all the homeless people and poor people hanging out in the library all day. I said I don’t see anyone doing anything wrong and he said Just you wait. Before I could continue some pre-teens came in, and one of the guards immediately marched up to them and told them to Get Out. They just resignedly shrugged and turned around without saying anything, but before the outer door slammed shut one of them shouted a@@hole! Which I might have too under those circumstances. The librarian turned to me and said We don’t allow children and teens in the library without an adult during school hours. Then he smiled down at my son with this totally creepy if-your-mom-wasn’t-here-we’d-toss-you-out-too smile. I just said, Oh, all punked-out and quiet-like.

I was so shocked, I didn’t know what to say, and I was kinda scared if I made an issue out of it or a complaint the guards would come hassle me too. So me and Todd went to the children’s section…and we were the only people there. I know most of the moms in this neighborhood work outside the home but there are stay-home moms there. It was no surprise they wouldn’t come to that library, who would want to bring their kids to such a hostile place. We left shortly thereafter.

So that spurred me to look for another storefront, and the owners of that one were not surprised at my response although they took it the wrong way. They said part of the reason they rent it out so cheap is because of the security costs anyone renting it would have to incurr. But it weighs on my mind. That place is so perfect for me, and I love the neighborhood. and I think about the people who live there, not being welcomed right in their neighborhood library. Then I think, I have so rarely met a snotty or mean-spirited librarian before then, even in racist and classist Cleveland, so maybe that librarian was worn out by alot of, I don’t know, off the wall behavior from the library’s clientle. I am torn. Part of me says I should just go for it. Part of me says be sensible and keep looking. What do ya’ll think?

Whew! I haven’t posted for awhile about the progress going on with Texture. I’m getting more books, figuring out the filing/category system other stores employ, and still running around town looking for a decent inexpensive storefront. I have one tentavively on hold but I have to let the owner know end of this month if I’m going to take it or not. If you have some books you’d like to donate to my used bookstore and are in the Cleveland area, let me know and I will come pick them up. Not in Cleveland? you can mail them, PO Box 110393 Cleveland, OH 44012.

Someone mentioned to me that they have seen many black bookstores come and go. I wondered what they meant, why did that apply to me. I’m not marketing Texture as a black bookstore or afrocentric bookstore. I too have seen such come and go, mostly because they don’t provide a wide selection. Which has always puzzled me as there are thousands of black authors; more than enough to fill a store if indeed you wanted to have a bookstore targeted just to that culture. My store will be a used book store (with a small new books selection) not targeted to any specific ethnic group.

His comment made me wonder, how many people will see my store as a black bookstore simply because I am black. That never occurred to me. When I think of a store or a product or a service or whatever as being ‘black’ I think of something that specifically is targeted to, for, or about black people. Like Spelman is a black college. BET is a black television station/channel. Essence is a black magazine. You get what I mean? I hope no one is disappointed when they see it is just a used bookstore not targeted specifically for black people.

I put up a website for my bookstore:
http://www.MSPmedia.net/texture

I have a storefront, tentatively, the owner said he’d hold it for me no deposit until next month, then I’d have to make a decision. I am going to keep looking around as this place is smaller than I would like and has very little shelving. I’d have to put in some time getting the shelves up and stuff. On the other hand the lease on it is very affordable and includes utilties! something very important in cold Cleveland, OH. I would hate to have to freeze my customers due to not being able to afford a high heating bill.

Ok, so I have gotten a little hateration from a few folks. Nothing major, just little comments and stuff from people close to me about my opening a bookstore. A few friends started commenting about how most bookstores don’t make any money or how indie bookstores can’t compete with the chains and stuff like that. Yeah, I know that.

Another thing that has been puzzling me: so many people immediately say, Add a cafe! Add a vegetarian restaurant! Add a coffeeshop! One of my best friends wants to set up a smoothie bar in my bookstore. I’m thinking to myself as they say all this, Well none of that is my dream. And any of those ideas makes my opening a bookstore more complicated and expensive. I wonder what is there motive for suggesting these things to me. especially when they are not doing it themselves? Is it to make me doubt myself, to add so much additional pressure on me that I quit before I begin?

One of my brothers was so adamant about the vegetarian restaurant, it startled me. He kept saying I wouldn’t make any money just selling books and I really needed to do this. I told him repeatedly, I have no interest in owning a restaurant right now. At one point in my life, I did want a veggie restaurant but not anymore. It would drive me crazy because that is not where my passion lies. I love books. I love writing. I love bookstores. So I write and I’m opening a bookstore. I asked him, why don’t you go ahead and do it? He then replied, Hey I am not even vegetarian, I’m just trying to help you out with ideas for a profitable business. I thanked him and left it at that.