Around Indie Bookstores

Hooray for a New Kids' Bookstore

This week, the Small Business Blog on WashingtonPost.com reported on the opening of Hooray for Books! by Trish Brown and Ellen Klein, two former staffers of A Likely Story, which closed in November 2007. Brown and Klein have taken over A Likely Story's old space and have hired three part-timers, also veterans of the old store.

The Washington Post reported that the new store will feature morning story hours on Friday and Saturday; child safety-seat inspections from a licensed inspector; a summer camp; and a career camp showcasing people with different professions, such as a canine police officer, firefighter, photographer and restaurateur.

New Bookstore to Open in Salem, Oregon

JoAnne Kohler will open Tea Party Bookshop in downtown Salem, Oregon, by the end of July, about two blocks from the former home of Jackson's, according Footnotes, the newsletter of the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association. The store will feature strong fiction, mystery, children's, green living, and metaphysical sections, plus sidelines in about 1,400 square feet of retail space on the ground floor. There will also be about 1,000 square feet on an upper floor to be used as an event space. "

Kohler told Footnotes that the name for the store came to her while she was reading Stacy Mitchell's Big-Box Swindle on the way back from the last ABA Winter Institute. It was Mitchell's reference to the Boston Tea Party as being the first instance of Americans rebelling against a corporation controlling their buying options that inspired Kohler.

Maine's SoBo Book & Bean Has a New Owner

Seacoastonline.com reported that as of June 1 South Berwick, Maine's SoBo Book & Bean has a new owner -- Marie MacDonald, a full-time editor and writer. MacDonald's plans for the "iconic stop for gently pre-read books, conversation, and snacks and beverages" include restoring the bookstore's special order capabilities, carrying select new books, expanding the existing menu with a whole-foods/vegetarian focus, and hosing an active calendar of special events and community gatherings.

A grand opening celebration is still in the works, but already on the store's schedule for June and July are a knitting circle, a collage workshop, and monthly art exhibits.

Amazon Bookstore Cooperative Saved From Closing

Last week, the Minneapolis St. Paul Star Tribune reported that Amazon Bookstore Cooperative, the nation's longest-operating feminist bookseller, had been saved from closing by a supporter who bought the local landmark with her IRA money.

The store's savior is Ruta Skujins, a St. Paul native, who had worked for 33 years in the corporate world, but always dreamed of owning a bookstore, according to the Star Tribune, which noted that the purchase made her the first sole owner of the store that was founded in 1970 as a workers' cooperative.

The Amazon Bookstore Cooperative website features a letter to customers that explains that, as details for the transfer of ownership were being worked out, the bookstore was beginning to restock the store and was once again taking special orders.