Friday, March 11, 2011

A Wee Opening at Tannery Books

The past two weeks have been absolutely crazy as I prepared to open my new bookstore, Tannery Books, and volunteered with church events that included missionaries visiting from far away. Of course, I didn't plan all that to happen at the same time! Very little went according to my ideal schedule — my counter didn't arrive until two nights ago, the floor wasn't finished until about two weeks ago, the sign had some delays and didn't go up until yesterday... I still don't have a digital version of my logo. On the positive side, I've been blessed over and over. Family members did the professional work (at a good rate for me and some business for them), and people gave me some books and furniture.

A week and a half ago: I can put the shelves in!

This past week: Sorting and pricing books


Irish tea and "biscuits"
People kept asking me, when is the grand opening? With all the doubt and waiting for the basics before I could bring in the books, I couldn't guarantee anything grand. So I told them it would be a "Wee Opening," in keeping with March's Irish theme.


With all the chaos, I was up until 4:30am this morning pricing books and cleaning up. I still hadn't cleaned the new counter (a large glass display case that has been stored in a garage for some time) and I hadn't even started pricing the antique books. One goal I really wanted to meet, but didn't, was to have some flyers to hand out with basic information like store hours and trade-in policies. But people didn't seem to mind. I started an e-mail list and said I would send them information later.

My counter/display case — future home for antique books

People stopped by all day to browse, chat and wish me well. A few bought books, and one friend brought me a trunkload of books as a donation. It was a great opening day!

Tannery Books — Opening day!

4 comments:

Jayne said...

Congratulations, Beth. I have been following your journey through your blog. I am always amazed at your ability to juggle so many projects at once!!

Elizabeth Saunders said...

Thanks, Jayne! It has been amazing.

Amy Coffin, MLIS said...

Congratulations!

Elizabeth Saunders said...

Thanks, Amy!