Bluebird Books is spreading its wings.

 

Those who have visited the bookstore at the corner of Main and Sherman in recent weeks likely have seen the signs of expansion at the back of the business. And while work isn't expected to be completed for a few more months, owner Melanie Green is excited for the opportunity to offer new services to customers.

 

The biggest change will affect not the publications on the shelves but what people eat and drink while shopping or socializing.

 

Bluebird already sells a small selection of coffee and pastries, but the addition of a kitchen will allow the store to expand its menu. Green said plans are to serve more specialty coffees, smoothies, teas and Italian sodas. Bluebird also will add an increased pastry selection and will introduce hearty breakfast options and light lunch fare like wraps.

 

"I've always wanted to offer a cafe," Green said Wednesday. And when paired with a quiet and relaxing bookstore environment, "it just makes a lot of sense."

 

For her new coffee products, Green turned to a familiar source: her brother, owner of Radina's coffeehouse and bakery in Manhattan, which already supplies the bookstore's signature "Bluebird Blend." "He's consulting with me on everything," she said.

 

Once the kitchen is operational, Bluebird will do all of its baking on-site. Green said she'll need to hire a baker and potentially add a couple of barista positions to her current six-person staff.

 

The bookstore also is creating a new classroom and event/meeting area. Utilizing a portion of the interior next door, the room will provide a larger place for store programming like book clubs and children's workshops and also will be available for use by outside groups.

 

Click here to read the full article.

 

-The Hutchinson News, February 26, 2015

 

 

Tattered Cover Book Store will leave its location in Highlands Ranch Town Center in April for a smaller space in the Aspen Grove shopping center in Littleton.

 

Owner Joyce Meskis said in a news release that the local chain is at the end of its 10-year lease for the location near Highlands Ranch Parkway and Dorchester Street.

 

"While we are grateful to have served the Highlands Ranch community in a wonderful location with a great landlord/tenant relationship, we are at the end of a 10 year lease and our need for a store of that size has changed with market conditions," Meskis said.

 

The Tattered Cover at Aspen Grove will feature a newsstand, coffee shop, author event space, and ample parking for its customers.

 

Although the store will occupy a smaller footprint, it will stock the same number of volumes now available at the Highlands Ranch location, Meskis said.

 

Tattered Cover Book Stores have been contracting in size as the independent bookseller has expanded its reach with smaller outposts, including newsstand-style stores at Denver Union Station and Denver International Airport.

 

-The Denver Post, March 6, 2015

 

 

Worth Sharing 

 

How did you get your first bookselling job? In 1992, I [Robert Gray] answered a small classified ad that said a position was available (in a bookstore 30 miles away) and applications were being accepted. I knew how to be a bookstore customer, but had no idea what being a bookseller might entail. Naturally, I applied.

 

Perhaps that blind tumble into booksellerdom is why I loved a Help Wanted notice that hit my e-mail inbox Wednesday. It was part of an e-newsletter from The Twig Book Shop, San Antonio, Tex., and store manager Claudia Maceo. I immediately knew it was worth sharing. Here's the ad:

 

HELP WANTED

 

Able-bodied, book smart, people-friendly, industrious, technologically savvy, part-time employee willing to work for peanuts and a few perks.

 

Bookselling is hard! If you are not ringing up sales for customers, you are researching titles and authors for customer requests, dusting shelves, mopping floors, shelving and alphabetizing books, calling customers, sleuthing the whereabouts of elusive books, moving heavy (35-50 lb.) boxes of books, arranging cards and envelopes, and setting up chairs for author events.

 

Sometimes you even go to offsite sales where you must not only find the location, but you must lug books in to the site, conduct sales involving making change from a cash box, and then repack the remaining books to lug back to the store. Once back, the sales must be reported and books accounted for.

 

After all that (and more), you end up spending your meager wages on books that you cannot possibly live without and at the fabulous restaurants and other fabulous retail establishments that continue to spring up at Pearl.

 

If I have not burst your romanticized bubble of a bookseller's life, please e-mail me your resume. ... I will e-mail you back regarding the possibility of an interview.

 

Hiring soon!

 

I had to know more, so I asked Maceo what inspired her to craft the best bookseller Help Wanted ad I've ever seen. She replied that her first bookselling job, like mine, had come from a more standard classified: "That is pretty much the kind of e-mail I responded to about six and a half years ago, when I had retired from teaching. Our sister store, Viva Bookstore, e-mailed that they were accepting applications, and I responded. The manager had not been very specific and had received a huge number of applicants. It was the memory of her being overwhelmed that motivated me to make it realistic enough to deter the curmudgeonly, the faint of heart and weak in muscle."

 

Making the real job of bookselling irresistible meant a preemptive strike against naiveté. "As you are aware, many people still cling to the image of a bookseller sitting at the counter reading. Ha!" Maceo said. "My intent was also to educate about the complexity of the a bookseller's life in this day and age of bookselling. Again, as you know, bookselling is not like other kinds of retail. Can you imagine posting the bottom line of our need to hire in a more serious tone? We would attract the people who would expect to sit at the counter reading."

 

To read the full article, please click here.

 

-"Deeper Understanding" by Robert Gray, Shelf Awareness, March 6, 2015

 

 

"Hemingwasted: A Loving Look
at Literary Lushes" 

 

For Independent Bookstore Day on May 2, Brazos Bookstore, Houston, Tex., has created a coloring book called Hemingwasted: A Loving Look at Literary Lushes, which takes an irreverent look at some of history's literary geniuses. Hemingwasted contains 16 pages featuring legendary authors paired with quotes on the subject of drinking (e.g., Ogden Nash: "Candy is dandy, but liquor is quicker").

 

Brazos is making the coloring books available to other bookstores for IBD, at $5 per copy; contact marketing manager Benjamin Rybeck: ben@brazosbookstore.com 

 

-Shelf Awareness, March 11, 2015

 

 

Link to this map on your website and Facebook page!  

 

Following is the link to the searchable map created for Independent Bookstore Day by the American Booksellers Association.

 

MPIBA is urging bookstores who are participating in IBD to link to this map on their website and Facebook page. There is also an alphabetical listing on this page showing all bookstores who are participating in IBD on May 2, 2015.

 

Click here for the Independent Bookstore Day map and bookstore listing.