27 Nov 2010 00:55:58
The Book Worm Bookstore has been a strong force in the downtown area of Powder Springs, Ga., for the past five years. Since opening their doors in October 2005, the store's owner has filled the delightful bookstore with thousands of books, donated to charitable causes and hosted multiple community events. The Book Worm's owner, Susan Smelser, has a passion for the success of her indie bookstore, as well as the success of other small businesses in her area.
Here's what Smelser said about business during the holiday season.
What has been your biggest challenge as an independent book store owner?
Being a small indie store means lots of overhead and little means of help. We cannot afford full-time employees and run on volunteer fuel, which is great but often is overwhelming to not have a few people working each day. Our biggest problem would be that people do not realize if they don't frequent the business or refer new customers to us and the other merchants, we may not be able to stay in business. We support everyone and hope that they can return the favor by saving money at our store while keeping us in business.
What are you hopes and expectations with holiday shoppers this season?
We have a theory that we just need to get a new customer to come in one time and they will be back again and again. Keeping karma in mind, we pay it forward a lot with specials, helping in the community with donations and support and feel it will come back to us. It is just the right thing to do. With the opening of a new store in town, Pear Tree Interiors and "newly reorganized" Country Store next door to us, we feel it is going to be a great holiday season. Just this week we are seeing more new business walk in the door, so we have very high expectations.
Are there any books that you think are must haves for shoppers to pick up this year?
For the young adult crowd, we recommend the "Diary of a Wimpy Kid" series by Jeff Kinley. We keep running out because they are such fun, along with any Rick Riordan books. Teens to 60-year-olds still are buying up the "Twilight" series and Charlaine Harris' "True Blood" series, so we always keep those in stock. "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" series by Stieg Larsson is still going strong, as well as "Room" by Emma Donaghue. I personally tend to recommend our local authors first as we have some great talent in the area like Patricia Sprinkle, one of the store's favorite mystery and general fiction authors, along with Raven Hart and Joshilyn Jackson and many, many more.
Here's what Smelser said about business during the holiday season.
What has been your biggest challenge as an independent book store owner?
Being a small indie store means lots of overhead and little means of help. We cannot afford full-time employees and run on volunteer fuel, which is great but often is overwhelming to not have a few people working each day. Our biggest problem would be that people do not realize if they don't frequent the business or refer new customers to us and the other merchants, we may not be able to stay in business. We support everyone and hope that they can return the favor by saving money at our store while keeping us in business.
What are you hopes and expectations with holiday shoppers this season?
We have a theory that we just need to get a new customer to come in one time and they will be back again and again. Keeping karma in mind, we pay it forward a lot with specials, helping in the community with donations and support and feel it will come back to us. It is just the right thing to do. With the opening of a new store in town, Pear Tree Interiors and "newly reorganized" Country Store next door to us, we feel it is going to be a great holiday season. Just this week we are seeing more new business walk in the door, so we have very high expectations.
Are there any books that you think are must haves for shoppers to pick up this year?
For the young adult crowd, we recommend the "Diary of a Wimpy Kid" series by Jeff Kinley. We keep running out because they are such fun, along with any Rick Riordan books. Teens to 60-year-olds still are buying up the "Twilight" series and Charlaine Harris' "True Blood" series, so we always keep those in stock. "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" series by Stieg Larsson is still going strong, as well as "Room" by Emma Donaghue. I personally tend to recommend our local authors first as we have some great talent in the area like Patricia Sprinkle, one of the store's favorite mystery and general fiction authors, along with Raven Hart and Joshilyn Jackson and many, many more.
