Once the mission was clear–I wanted to open a bookshop–clarity was needed. I tested the waters with friends and social media acquaintances and narrowed the field to USED books. Why?
People still buy used books at retail. When readers know exactly what they want they order it online and get it the next day. Indie bookstores can’t compete with the low prices because they can’t buy the vast quantities that an online or retail giant does. There is definitely a set of shoppers that make a point to purchase books from indie shops and we absolutely love those people because they generally pay more and wait longer. Bless them.
But businesses can’t depend on the kindness of strangers and so I opted for used books. I joked that I could likely fill a small shop with books from my own home library. Here’s where the magic began: as soon as I made tentative noises about opening a used bookstore, people began to throw books at me. Word spread and I got emails from local strangers with books they wanted to pass along. Friends of friends invited me to raid their book collection before they moved overseas. My sister-in-law sent a big box of books from Florida! My garage began to fill up and up and up. My fancy NordicTrack hasn’t been usable in over a year, so piled is it with boxes of books.
Okay, I had books to sell. Now I needed to move forward. I needed a name! I began doodling and pondering and figuring things out. My favorite bookshop name I didn’t pick is the Page and Worm. It was meant to be in the style of an English pub and it would have been pretty fun and maybe it will happen someday.
But, one–I didn’t know how many people would get it, and two, I wanted a name that would honor my late father. David’s Books, I thought, would inevitable lead to questions about where David is, and I didn’t want to deal with that.
Bear. My dad’s nickname for me. The word made me happy, I love bears, and it would remind me of my dad everyday. Fairly quickly it came to Bear and Bee and I started doodling logos. I went to my friend Brian Kunz, a kickass designer and hilarious D&D companion, with my doodle and he came up with options. We moved away from the beehive element due to the association with a certain religion and a pile of books made much more sense anyway.
The name was locked and the logo was loaded. I registered Bear and Bee Books as an LLC with the State and applied for a business license. I kept “used” out of the name which would allow me expand or pivot to include new books in the future.
Now my bookstore needed a place to live.
Coming in Part 3…
Trixieland 