07/25/2026
That’s me five years ago… feeling like I was running a lemonade stand!
I thought it might be fun to go down memory lane and share one story a day as we celebrate our 5th anniversary.
The first several months were pretty rough. Construction headaches, delays, and racing to open before the money we had set aside for rent ran out. We had poured a significant part of our life’s savings into opening the bookstore in the summer of 2021. I was so busy figuring out the endless vortex of policies, contracts, vendor agreements, banking, taxes, marketing, insurance, etc. that two weeks before opening I realized I hadn’t posted any real job listings.
One by one, several accomplished high school students reached out asking if they could work at the bookstore, and I hired almost every one of them on the spot!
That summer was a blur of trying to learn everything, while taking care of my young kids, and a close friend who was living with us while undergoing cancer treatment. Every little thing that slipped through the cracks felt amplified. I felt like I was failing every single day that first year.
One day, one of those employees, Brooke, very sweetly shared that our little fledgling bookstore reminded her of a used book sale she and her troop had run in Girl Scouts.
I nodded laugh-cried... she wasn’t wrong! The bookstore, at that time, did feel a bit like a lemonade stand that happened to sell books. I had absolutely no idea what I was doing, even though I was trying as hard as I possibly could to keep everything afloat.
But people kept showing up, they kept spreading the word, they kept ordering books. I 100% believed in the mission of bookstores, I knew I just had to keep going.
For many years, I’d often wake up and think about Brooke’s comment and ask myself, “How do I make this place feel LESS like a Girl Scouts used book sale?” 🤣To be fair, the Girls Scouts are an incredibly organized bunch, the bar is high.)
Challenge accepted! 🎉
Brooke game me permission to share this story. She’s a senior at Berkeley studying journalism and sociology and is the News Director at KALX 90.7FM. So incredibly proud of her! Tune in to listen to her show! 🫶🏽 💯
