Bookstore Helping Hands

Hi my name is Trish Triumpho Sullivan and I am raising funds to sustain a bookstore in downtown Salinas.

We need the help of our community to stay in downtown and are asking for your assistance. If you value books, reading and access to both, please consider assisting us to stay in Downtown Salinas.

Downtown Book & Sound is a new & used independent book and music store in Downtown Salinas. We opened our doors just before the pandemic hit, and the City of Salinas closed Main Street for construction.

In summer and fall of 2021, things were looking up: The remodeled Downtown opened up with the new Salinas sign ( gift form the Rotary) arching over Main Street and the people came back. Increased foot traffic, sales and community support sustained the store enough to hire a crew of six!

Then in January of 2022, tragedy struck again: the City of Salinas (at the City Manager's request) approved the Oldtown Farmer's Marketplace move to the 300 block of Main Street.

This may seen like a good thing to many of you, but closing Main Street on what was the busiest day of the week and giving parking over this event was detrimental to many of our small downtown businesses.

The reality of these actions: some businesses closed permanently or moved away from Downtown and some of us have tried to hang on after losing the best sales and foot traffic day (Saturday) to a weekly street closure. Over all more than 40 small businesses have gone away since the pandemic/construction/weekly street closure.

We've been able to hang on these past two years not taking a salary and putting all the money earned back into the store. We were not able to replace staff as they left for college, so it's just been a Mom & Pop 'volunteer' effort.

To be clear, neither I nor my husband has received compensation for running this bookstore. We have been blessed by a community who supports books and reading - stepping up to help us to open the store in the first place. Thank you to all of you!

How can you help? Share a little holiday love and come in to buy a book, record or other gift for the holidays. Purchase a gift for yourself or people you love. If you can't do that, please consider a donation to support a community treasure - a bookstore. Thank you in advance for your generous thoughtfulness. I am sincerely grateful for you.