Bailey's Independent Bookstore!
Donation protected
Hello, Fellow Book Lovers!
Bailey’s Bibliomania Bookstore is in need of a little help from our friends!
We have to move to save this brick & mortar bookstore! However, moving is going to require resources that we do not have.
Therefore, we are turning to Go Fund Me to raise the needed funds and we appeal to you for your generous help!
Anything you are able to give—five dollars, or five hundred dollars—any amount is enormously helpful. Your prayers and moral support are just as valuable as well!
At first we resisted the idea of moving and wanted to do whatever we had to do to stay. Bailey’s has been in business for 11 years now and we have made two major moves. We know what it takes—and it is an enormous, expensive undertaking! And with our physical disabilities, it is more so.
During the time since we found out we might have to move, when we were still hopeful we could work out staying where we are now, we became even more set on not moving because we couldn’t find a site large enough or appropriate for our large inventory in Ellensburg.
Then, one day a couple months ago, we took the 10 minute drive to Kittitas and there, on Main Street, was our new bookstore: a beautiful, one hundred year old former ‘mercantile.’ It just needed electricity, wallboard, paint, shelves and lots of books!
Following that, we met the building owner. He is a gentleman who had been waiting for a long time for the right client to come along who would be able lease his space successfully. He is now in the process of doing a major remodel of the store! We have agreed to do tasks that involve personal taste choices such as paint and lighting fixtures.
Our part of the job will be starting soon! We are on a short time-line now: Must start packing in June!
We are pleased to be moving to Kittitas. It is centrally located for many of our customers, and a very short drive from Ellensburg. We personally feel it breathing new life into the challenge—and pleasure—of running our used bookstore. Kittitas is a classic small, small town. As such, we may be able to make a difference there.
It will be a challenge, but we have faced major ones before while growing this bookstore for the last 11 years, from surviving flooding basements to :
-Making two moves
-Squeaking through the Great Recession (cut our sales in half!)
-Surviving two major car accidents
-Coping with a disabling back injury
With each of these, though, the store became a more important part of our lives. And it continued to grow!
(The purpose of outlining these challenges is to explain why we need more help than the average bears!)
One of those wrecks involved hitting black ice and rolling several times off the road. That left Mary in a multiple week coma. After she woke, she had to regain her memory and learn to walk and talk again. She still has double vision and vertigo and soon after the accident, she had to give up her job as Music Building Hall/Event Manager at CWU.
For my part, I was permanently disabled after hurting my back while working as a fisheries biologist on boats on the Bering Sea. I have had too many surgeries and am pretty worthless around stacks of heavy boxes. But I am ok running the till and I’ll talk about anything you want!
Overall, it has been a very good 11 years. We have over 70,000 books.
Our business plan has been to take ALL books that people bring in—no cherry picking. Bring in 10 boxes, get 10 boxes worth of trade credit! With trade credit, you saved an additional 50% on our already deeply discounted books.
The plan really worked—a lot of excellent, eclectic books come in daily from customers of the larger Kittitas County area. We primarily use them for on the shelf and save potentially higher value ones for putting online. We sell on Amazon, Alibris, and Abebooks. If we can’t use them, they are given away free.
We also buy a lot of books. Those are needed to fill in genres not filled adequately by Trade-Ins, or genres that sell particularly quickly—mostly fiction and childrens'. That is a constant expense.
We need to get a lot more books online, quickly to help subsidize the short & long term aspects of the new store. Online books are a must now; the modern used bookstore must have about 50% of it’s sales from online.
With the ongoing major competition of e-books and Amazon, to stay in business independent bookstores not only need to get additional sales online, they also need to be expanding the products they offer customers.
We plan on adding consignment art, local maps, educational toys and local memorabilia to attract new customers.
Plus, we will utilize our classic Steinway piano and capacity for providing lots of comfortable seating to have regular music events. In the past, we have been a venue for Jazz In The Valley.
Up to now, all of our money is simply spent before we sell our books. It goes to rent, utilities, a little labor, supplies, and books. We have not taken a paycheck home in all these eleven years.
To us the store is not primarily about money. We have been happy to be building something substantial and special to us and to the community we in which we live. And we have built something that gives us purpose, given our diminished capacities.
The store now does have a role in our financial future, as we head towards retirement. We have put precious time and resources into what had started as a potential hobby. It is no longer a hobby, and we will continue to give of ourselves to its success in this community.
Plus, we know that this store has become something that is important to our larger community of readers. People come from all over to Bailey’s; from in-state and out of state. And we are blessed to hear compliments about the store all the time, e.g. ‘It is an old-fashioned used BOOKSTORE’. And when bibliomaniacs find one, they remember it and return whenever they are in the area.
Both of our prior moves did cost a lot of money; money that we didn’t have. We had to scrounge and borrow. Those have given us a good idea of the cost of moving: approx. $20,000 each time. Five years since the last move, we have just paid off that debt.
We will use your donations for the following:
-Our part in finishing the space: paint, painters; light fixtures, electricians
-600+ boxes to pack the books in
-Labor to pack 60,000+ books (in an orderly manner!)
-Trucks, equipment
-Labor to load and unload boxes (we have approx 500 boxes stored here)
-The ‘move in’
-Leases (we will have a couple months of duplicate rent)
-Storage facility(s)
-Upgrades to our computer system (i.e. register computer/update CC equipment)
-Fresh books to upgrade inventory in needed genres
-Labor for putting a substantial number of books online to increase cash flow
-The purchase of the new types of merchandise we need to carry e.g. local memorbilia
Thank you for your consideration!
Mary & John Varner (and Bailey!)
Owners, Bailey's Bibliomania Bookstore
Bailey’s Bibliomania Bookstore is in need of a little help from our friends!
We have to move to save this brick & mortar bookstore! However, moving is going to require resources that we do not have.
Therefore, we are turning to Go Fund Me to raise the needed funds and we appeal to you for your generous help!
Anything you are able to give—five dollars, or five hundred dollars—any amount is enormously helpful. Your prayers and moral support are just as valuable as well!
At first we resisted the idea of moving and wanted to do whatever we had to do to stay. Bailey’s has been in business for 11 years now and we have made two major moves. We know what it takes—and it is an enormous, expensive undertaking! And with our physical disabilities, it is more so.
During the time since we found out we might have to move, when we were still hopeful we could work out staying where we are now, we became even more set on not moving because we couldn’t find a site large enough or appropriate for our large inventory in Ellensburg.
Then, one day a couple months ago, we took the 10 minute drive to Kittitas and there, on Main Street, was our new bookstore: a beautiful, one hundred year old former ‘mercantile.’ It just needed electricity, wallboard, paint, shelves and lots of books!
Following that, we met the building owner. He is a gentleman who had been waiting for a long time for the right client to come along who would be able lease his space successfully. He is now in the process of doing a major remodel of the store! We have agreed to do tasks that involve personal taste choices such as paint and lighting fixtures.
Our part of the job will be starting soon! We are on a short time-line now: Must start packing in June!
We are pleased to be moving to Kittitas. It is centrally located for many of our customers, and a very short drive from Ellensburg. We personally feel it breathing new life into the challenge—and pleasure—of running our used bookstore. Kittitas is a classic small, small town. As such, we may be able to make a difference there.
It will be a challenge, but we have faced major ones before while growing this bookstore for the last 11 years, from surviving flooding basements to :
-Making two moves
-Squeaking through the Great Recession (cut our sales in half!)
-Surviving two major car accidents
-Coping with a disabling back injury
With each of these, though, the store became a more important part of our lives. And it continued to grow!
(The purpose of outlining these challenges is to explain why we need more help than the average bears!)
One of those wrecks involved hitting black ice and rolling several times off the road. That left Mary in a multiple week coma. After she woke, she had to regain her memory and learn to walk and talk again. She still has double vision and vertigo and soon after the accident, she had to give up her job as Music Building Hall/Event Manager at CWU.
For my part, I was permanently disabled after hurting my back while working as a fisheries biologist on boats on the Bering Sea. I have had too many surgeries and am pretty worthless around stacks of heavy boxes. But I am ok running the till and I’ll talk about anything you want!
Overall, it has been a very good 11 years. We have over 70,000 books.
Our business plan has been to take ALL books that people bring in—no cherry picking. Bring in 10 boxes, get 10 boxes worth of trade credit! With trade credit, you saved an additional 50% on our already deeply discounted books.
The plan really worked—a lot of excellent, eclectic books come in daily from customers of the larger Kittitas County area. We primarily use them for on the shelf and save potentially higher value ones for putting online. We sell on Amazon, Alibris, and Abebooks. If we can’t use them, they are given away free.
We also buy a lot of books. Those are needed to fill in genres not filled adequately by Trade-Ins, or genres that sell particularly quickly—mostly fiction and childrens'. That is a constant expense.
We need to get a lot more books online, quickly to help subsidize the short & long term aspects of the new store. Online books are a must now; the modern used bookstore must have about 50% of it’s sales from online.
With the ongoing major competition of e-books and Amazon, to stay in business independent bookstores not only need to get additional sales online, they also need to be expanding the products they offer customers.
We plan on adding consignment art, local maps, educational toys and local memorabilia to attract new customers.
Plus, we will utilize our classic Steinway piano and capacity for providing lots of comfortable seating to have regular music events. In the past, we have been a venue for Jazz In The Valley.
Up to now, all of our money is simply spent before we sell our books. It goes to rent, utilities, a little labor, supplies, and books. We have not taken a paycheck home in all these eleven years.
To us the store is not primarily about money. We have been happy to be building something substantial and special to us and to the community we in which we live. And we have built something that gives us purpose, given our diminished capacities.
The store now does have a role in our financial future, as we head towards retirement. We have put precious time and resources into what had started as a potential hobby. It is no longer a hobby, and we will continue to give of ourselves to its success in this community.
Plus, we know that this store has become something that is important to our larger community of readers. People come from all over to Bailey’s; from in-state and out of state. And we are blessed to hear compliments about the store all the time, e.g. ‘It is an old-fashioned used BOOKSTORE’. And when bibliomaniacs find one, they remember it and return whenever they are in the area.
Both of our prior moves did cost a lot of money; money that we didn’t have. We had to scrounge and borrow. Those have given us a good idea of the cost of moving: approx. $20,000 each time. Five years since the last move, we have just paid off that debt.
We will use your donations for the following:
-Our part in finishing the space: paint, painters; light fixtures, electricians
-600+ boxes to pack the books in
-Labor to pack 60,000+ books (in an orderly manner!)
-Trucks, equipment
-Labor to load and unload boxes (we have approx 500 boxes stored here)
-The ‘move in’
-Leases (we will have a couple months of duplicate rent)
-Storage facility(s)
-Upgrades to our computer system (i.e. register computer/update CC equipment)
-Fresh books to upgrade inventory in needed genres
-Labor for putting a substantial number of books online to increase cash flow
-The purchase of the new types of merchandise we need to carry e.g. local memorbilia
Thank you for your consideration!
Mary & John Varner (and Bailey!)
Owners, Bailey's Bibliomania Bookstore
Organiser
John Varner
Organiser
Ellensburg, WA