Do YOU love Rosebud Book Barn?

Can our community get behind this local treasure following the recent robbery?

Yes, you can!

Donate the cost of a book to a fund set up to try and help the owners appreciate just how important Book Barn is to us.

Rosebud book Barn and Art supplies provides a unique service on the Mornington Peninsula. It is a location people from all over the peninsula travel to, to buy a book (or 3!), art supplies or even a game from their extensive range. It’s extremely helpful owner and team of staff, who have always assisted their customers in every way they can, now need your support to show them how valued they are.

Two weeks ago, Ryan, the Manager of Rosebud Book Barn, arrived at work to find what no shop Manager wants to find: a smashed door and Police investigating a break-in. Both equipment, and the cash tills, were missing. Heartbreaking, especially for a family-run business, but this was only the beginning of their woes.

When I dropped in at Book Barn on Friday and chatted to the owner Matt, he seemed extremely despondent and said that he felt like this might be the last straw. What many of us customers were unaware of, is that Matt has been fighting to keep this amazing shop going for over 20 years. When he began working there in 2005 the shop had a leaky roof. Since then, the landlord has occasionally patched the roof he has refused to replace it (not ideal especially in a bookshop!!) and Matt has footed the bills for all the damage done to so far to his stock. He and his staff have also had to clean up the floods of water leaking into the shop.

While we have “sweet dreams,” Matt is lying awake at night worrying that the roof will cave in-this has literally happened in sections before.

It has come to crunch time for Matt. The landlord has now refused to pay for the repairs to the door and has refused to use his building insurance to cover the repairs either. As a tenant Matt is unable to insure the doors. The roof leak gets worse by the year and puts Book Barns stock at great risk of water damage. The carpets desperately need replacing. The staff are constantly doing repairs to keep it safe for their customers.

Matt simply cannot afford to replace all that is lost and needs repair. His, is a family-run business, and doesn’t have great reserves of cash to fall back on. Whilst we probably can’t afford to pay for a new roof, or to replace the damaged carpet, we can get behind this family business by donating anything we can afford to compensate the owners for what they have lost. Let’s get behind this local business and show them how much we appreciate their presence in Rosebud! If every grateful Book Barn customer donated the price of one book, I am sure the total would help Matt and his family immensely.