Struggling bookshops turn to online fundraisers to keep lights on and the pages turning

[question everything]

In the cozy confines of Once Upon A Crime in Minneapolis, thousands of volumes of murder, mayhem and mystery crowd the shelves and creep up the walls. The shop has survived three decades, a change of ownership and millions of whodunits. But it’s struggling to stay in business in the middle of Uptown construction gridlock that snarls traffic and chews up parking spaces.

(snip)

Book clubs meet at the shop. Authors come here from across the country for readings. But for small business, small setbacks — like the headaches from an ongoing, yearslong highway construction, or a new bike lane that gobbles up parking spaces in a part of town where parking is already scarce — can create huge problems.

The parking issue won’t kill Once Upon A Crime. Not if the readers can help it. Hundreds are trying to help — flooding a new GoFundMe page — www.gofundme.com/keep-once-upon-a-crime-books-open — with almost $20,000 in donations, money the bookstore can use to update its website, offer new amenities or even search for a new location with ample parking and more square footage.

(snip)

Once Upon A Crime isn’t the only Minnesota bookstore that is fundraising to keep the lights on and the pages turning. For decades, scholars and theologians searching for rare and vintage volumes knew their books could probably be found in Stillwater, Minn.

Loome Theological Booksellers is a gem of shop, where readers wander the book-stacked catacombs in the basement, Gregorian chants fill the air, there’s a discount on your purchase if you can guess the age of the ancient tome sitting on a pedestal, and where it’s easier to find the bathrooms if you know your Latin (hint: seek out the necessarium). It’s a space that draws in book clubs and author readings and solitary browsers, drifting from volume to volume for hours.

(snip)

In June, Hagen launched a GoFundMe campaign — www.gofundme.com/protect-our-independent-bookstore — to try and offset the cost of moving the shop to its new location on Main Street in downtown Stillwater. Although the fundraiser is still well short of its $120,000 goal, almost $30,000 in donations rolled in.

More..

http://www.startribune.com/struggling-bookshops-turn-to-online-fundraisers-to-keep-lights-on-and-the-pages-turning/502033152/

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I love the Once Upon a Crime but have not been there ever since... well, getting to any part of the city is a bother. I switched to the library, instead.. And donated many mystery books to retirements homes. They loved them!

[geardaddy]

1. The removal of parking all throughout Uptown

is going to kill many small businesses.

[progree]

2. I used to haunt Half Price Books and Magers & Quinn in Uptown

Looks like Magers & Quinn is stilll there

I don't see Half Price Books there anymore (closest is St. Louis Park)

There was a book store in Calhoun Square years ago -- Borders then Odegards -- nothing now?

I haven't spent much time in Uptown for almost 20 years.

[liberalhistorian]

3. I love Magers and Quinn

and especially enjoy all of the author appearances and book signings. I also love Dead Media (a particularly fascinating little place) and the bookstore owned and managed by Louise Erdrich and her daughters, Birchbark Books.

I really miss all of these places, as well as the range of culture and choices in the twin cities, since graduating from seminary there in May and having to return to my home base in a neighboring, much more rural and far less cultured, state where hubby is. My last week in the twin cities, a couple weeks after graduation, I spent a day patronizing all of these favorite places and doing my part to keep them going financially.

I think the bookstores that are struggling are those that are the specialty shops, like Once Upon a Crime and the theology one mentioned (obviously, I love theology, lol), since, like department stores, people can visit general bookstores and get the whole range of genres so they're less likely to make a stop at a shop with just one genre.

An exception to that is the rare and out of print bookstore on Snelling in St. Paul, which is a large and fascinating place. The clerks told me last time I was there that they have a rich customer base with all of the universities, colleges, seminaries, research places, etc., in the twin cities alone. That place always makes me wish I had tons more money than I do!