In a recent article reprinted in the UTNE Reader from Gastronomica, Dylan Gottlieb presented the demographics of the Yelp users: they are urban dwellers, disproportionately young, white, childless, wealthy, and highly educated. Most importantly, he reports that Yelp’s data suggests … Continue reading →

Yesterday’s news was filled with stories about shopping during the Thanksgiving holiday weekend. The Nightly Business Report examined the results in context of industry trends due to technology and customer expectations. NBR used the term “blurring” to describe why Black … Continue reading →

I guess it all started with my mom, a single mother raising two girls without a lot of resources, she learned to fix things. The local hardware stores, like local bookshops, were pressed to show their competitive advantages when the … Continue reading →

This month we were fortunate to get to an item that’s been on our “Bucket List” for some time … visiting New Zealand. You might recall that the city of Christchurch had a nasty earthquake in 2011. Homes, churches, and … Continue reading →

I think we’re at a tipping point in developing alternatives for affordable retail space … Mark and I recently visited Nashville, our former home town, and loved traveling East Nashville, a community blossoming with home renovations and new cafes and … Continue reading →

Publishers Weekly does such a good job in reporting on research that affects the book industry and their recent snapshot on today’s educational e-book market prompted me to think about how the results will affect the sale of print books … Continue reading →

As we hear and see the horrific stories of oppression in Syria, Iraq, Pakistan, and the growing number of countries being dominated by ISIS, it’s not only the physical brutality that is disturbing, but the limitation of education and free … Continue reading →

The dream of owning a bookstore can be so strong and most people we encounter have spent years following different career paths and one day acknowledge that the bookstore dream just won’t go away. In our years of working with … Continue reading →

Last week during our full week workshop, we discussed book industry trends and talked about the future of reading and interest in bookstores. In this high tech world, it seems we still thirst for something real: real conversation, real friends, … Continue reading →

Bookstores typically aren’t pioneers when it comes to technology. We use book industry databases to help us navigate the growing world of books and can’t easily survive without the bookstore computer systems to manage the business, but otherwise, bookstores thrive … Continue reading →