Help us GROW Up!

Summary- Downtown Raleigh's Children's Bookshop asks for support to stay open & convert workshop space into adult book corner. Foot traffic is down 70-80% amid Covid and several neighboring shops have closed. #SmallBusinessRelief

Read With Me Children's Book & Art Shop turned 3 this past April! While we didn't publically celebrate because of the devastating effects of Covid, we are so very grateful for all of your support these past 3 years. Every day that we get to connect with you and share our love of reading with your children is a dream come true. Thank you to all of our friends near and far!

While our experience with Covid is similar to other small, locally-owned businesses around the world--being closed for months, limited capacity at reopening, dramatically decreased foot-traffic and sales, no cash flow for inventory or staff, etc--we've really been trying to stay positive and focus on making changes to build a stronger, more community focused, more sustainable business.



What have we done to pivot?
We now offer free local delivery to Raleigh, Cary, Apex and Garner with $5 shipping elsewhere in the US, along with curbside pick-up. We've invested in developing an amazing and robust e-commerce experience (coming Sept 2020!) and we now offer personal and appointment shopping. We've also started a middle-grade virtual book club and hosted our "Beyond the Book" summer camps online. Behind the scenes, we've done a deep cleaning, migrated to a new POS and accounting system, collaborated with other local businesses on reopening safely, and attended numerous hours of professional development. And of course a lot of reading. It's part of the job =)

So why are we asking for your help? 
Read With Me is unique in that we are a children's bookstore, local art gallery and workshop space. We created this kind of specialty store with the focus of bringing the community together around the art of storytelling. With Covid being an unwelcome visitor for the foreseeable future, we believe that the safest path forward and one that will best serve our community in the short and long-term is to transform our current workshop space into a Grown-Up Book Corner,. 

(current workshop space below)


If you've visited our shop in downtown Raleigh, you've seen our mural "Grow UP With Books". To us this reflects both our shelving by age system--because our shelves are arranged by age-level with the youngest readers' books at the bottom shelf to young adult books at the top shelf--but also that readers are grown, not born. Identifying as "a reader" takes time and a lot of positive experiences with books. You're NOT a reader? It's never too late to discover, or rediscover, the joy that can be found in storytelling.

The owners' long-range plans have always included expanding into a general bookstore with the same level of curation and accessibility that our children's store has been built on. Last winter we added two shelves of adult books as requested by parents and visitors. Our online sales are currently about 30% adult books. When all signs keep pointing in one direction, it's wise to listen. It's time to grow up even further!

What will the funds be used for?
First and foremost, the funds will be used to carefully curate a fantastic, diverse collection of adult books. Next, we'll need to add 8-10 new bookshelves, furnishings, new signage and new paint in the new Adult Book Corner (ABC). If we are fortunate enough to receive any additional funds, we will use them to add depth to our current children's inventory so there's a much better chance of you finding the book you need without having to order it first =) Lastly, if we're unbelievably lucky enough to have more funds, we will hire back a part-time bookseller. We've come up with a few incentives that we think you'll love. Read more below.

While under normal circumstances, we would be using our income and bank loans for these purposes, right now that's not possible. So we're turning to our community to ask for your help so that we can begin to create this space for you sooner rather than later. While this change is bittersweet considering how much we love hosting creative classes and birthday parties in our store, we truly believe this will in the short and long-term be the best way to pivot during these trying times and ensure we're here in the future.

Timeframe
Ideally, this transformation will be finished by Nov. 1, 2020 (by which time you will have either already voted by mail, participated in early voting, or are ready to vote in person with mask on November 3.) We will also be using the name Read With Me Bookshop more often to reflect our growing age offerings. While we hope to only keep our Go Fund Me open Sept-Oct 2020, if we don't reach our goal, we will keep it open until our goal is met.

I truly hope that soon we'll all be able to safely gather and share our love of stories together. In the meantime, please say hi online or pop-in and let us know how we can best help you right now and in the future. We're currently open for shopping and appointments Wednesday-Saturday 12p-4p.

We're thinking about you and appreciate you. You got this and with your help we will too.

Warmly,

Christine Brenner
owner, Read With Me Children's Book & Art Shop

To learn more about Read With Me, visit www.ReadWithMe .us.
Shop online at Shop .ReadWithMe.us and Libro .fm/readwithme (audio books). We're often on Instagram at ReadWithMe_Raleigh and on Facebook at ReadWithMe.NC.


Incentives
Every supporter of our campaign to transform our workshop space into the ABC -Adult Book Corner- is so greatly appreciated. If you would like one of these incentives below, please note it within your pledge of support. There are 3 levels: Page, Chapter and Book.

Page Level $250
If you're able to support us at the $250 "Page" level, we will offer you as a "thank you"
-your name will be added to a personalized dedication plaque in store and you'll receive a $25 gift card.



Chapter Level $500
If you're able to support us at the $500 "Chapter" level, we will offer you as a "thank you"
-your choice of one book on display (on shelf) with personalized shelf-talker for one month (see example above), a $50 gift card, included in our online "community reads recommended book list" and a social media shout-out plus be added to the dedication plaque.  

Book Level $1500
If you're able to support us at the $1500 "Book" level, we will offer you as a "thank you"
-a special display table with up to 5 books of your choice with personalized shelf-talker for one month (see example below), a $150 gift card, included in our online "community reads recommended book list" and a social media shout-out plus be added to the dedication plaque. 


Thank you friends near and far for your support at every level.

Stay well, be kind, and read often.



(pictured above: Civic Kids Story Hour)

(pictured below: Author Alan Gratz and owner of Read With Me, Christine Brenner)





Note: no supporters will receive a portion of sales profits from recommended books other than self-published authors who may qualify for a consignment agreement. We make no promises about the number of recommended books that will be sold. Read With Me will have final approval of recommended titles.