[FRIAM] Book Lovers of Santa FE

Wed Mar 1 18:44:35 EST 2023

FWIW

Searching this US worker-coop directory yielded 10 examples of coop 
bookstores and bookstores registered as "democratic workplaces" which I 
do not yet know the definition of:

    https://www.usworker.coop/directory/

Orca in Olympia is not listed which gives me the feeling that there may 
be (many) more out there also not registered here.  The locations of 
most of these are the usual suspects: San Francisco, Seattle, Asheville, 
Austin, etc.

My favorite coop experience was the Cheeseboard Pizza Collective in 
Berkeley.   When i was there they had a line around the block on 
Thursday and Friday nights (maybe Saturday also) when they opened at 4 
or 5 PM.   As the lore went, every member of the coop worked every role, 
from cook to cashier to cleanup crew "equally"... and they apparently 
had a long waiting list of people wanting to join the coop.   I don't 
know how much profit/pay the members got, but it was reputed to be 
militaristically in it's equality in all ways and was/is apparently high 
functioning enough that people really want to join...

It was take-out only but as your part of the line entered the building, 
you had the option of being handed a "slice" when you ordered to eat 
while you waited to have the order fulfilled (usually less than 5 
minutes, the ovens were running full-tilt all the time).   If not eating 
one in place, they would instead place a single slice on top of your 
box(es) for the person picking up to eat on the way home, avoiding that 
embarassment when you get there and everyone teases you about the 
"missing slice" in the box. "couldn't wait could ya?"!

On 3/1/23 4:16 PM, Steve Smith wrote:
> Excellent! This is the kind of feedback I was fishing for.  I am 
> reading some of Orca's materials on their CoOpness and can imagine 
> that it is a hard thing to pull together without one or a very few 
> strong personalities with the motivation to move it along crisply.   
> That is definitely not me.
>
> I was not aware of *any* bookstore coops in existence so this is very 
> useful and motivates me to maybe look around for other examples.
>
> Peggy has a new employee working there with her who seems pretty 
> competent and motivated, I will maybe stop in sometime when she is not 
> around (not sure when that is because she used to be there *all the 
> time*) and feel out his interest/ability to step up in any 
> capacity...   she is a dedicated but difficult personality and I don't 
> really want to interfere with her process whatever it might be, just 
> see if I can facilitate a "better outcome" to show up.
>
> On 3/1/23 3:50 PM, glen wrote:
>> FWIW, if there were a lot of people interested in helping out a 
>> little bit, consider setting up a co-op. This store here in Oly did 
>> that soon after we moved up here. It was difficult because they 
>> transitioned, rather that constructed from scratch.
>>
>> https://www.orcabooks.com/co-op
>>
>> And I don't see Book Mountain on this list:
>>
>> https://bookshop.org/pages/bookstores
>>
>> It's probably too little/late for it to help Book Mountain now. But 
>> if someone does take over, it would make sense to get on the list.
>>
>> On 3/1/23 14:43, Steve Smith wrote:
>>> I was just in Book Mountain which has been operating in SFe 
>>> primarily as a paperback exchange since 1980 (just before I moved to 
>>> the area) and discovered that the owner, Peggy Frank intends to shut 
>>> down, probably sooner rather than later.  Here is an article about 
>>> her move and rejuvenation of the store a couple of years ago:
>>>
>>> https://www.santafenewmexican.com/news/business/book-mountain-alive-and-well-in-new-location/article_9003513a-3c8b-11ea-a81e-373351759896.html 
>>>
>>>
>>> The new digs and layout were a modest upgrade from what she had 
>>> going before, and has a somewhat wider range of books shelved now, 
>>> though the emphasis is still on high-turnover paperback. She has one 
>>> of the most extensive collections of Science Fiction I think you 
>>> fill find this side of Powells (Portland) or Tattered Cover (Denver).
>>>
>>> I probably unloaded 1/4 of my "2 cords of books" leftover from *my* 
>>> bookstore (Hunt and Gather circa 2006) on her for trade (my credit 
>>> is much too large to begin to drain in the short term).
>>>
>>> What I am hoping is that one of her customers or someone in the book 
>>> loving circle would swoop in and buy it outright.   I have already 
>>> talked to some of the other booksellers in town and she has already 
>>> approached them offering to sell them her inventory, but the ideal 
>>> would be for it to remain a viable business.  Her current 
>>> setup/inventory/curation works and is by far more valuable than the 
>>> mere inventory (which would need to be sorted, shelved, etc. again).
>>>
>>> If anyone here knows of anyone suitable for taking on such an 
>>> operation I highly recommend it, but I suspect the time is short. 
>>> Peggy is just coming out of some health-challenges and I sense she 
>>> will not be willing/able to wait very long.    I am holding out a 
>>> slim hope that one of the other used-sellers in SFe might pick it up 
>>> as a satellite (Op Cit already has had multiple locations).
>>>
>>> In any case, spread the word if you can.   Maybe there is a coop 
>>> model or multiple-partner arrangement that might keep it going and 
>>> help Peggy leave the business cleanly/gracefully.
>>
>>
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