05/11/2020
Ok bookworms, get ready for a long post about our situation.
I have always striven to be as open and honest as possible while serving this community. When you shop at The frugal bookworm you walk right into a piece of my heart. This store represents my hopes, dreams, and aspirations. I'm going to share our situation with you because you deserve to be apart of this journey. You, our customers, are the ones who made all this possible after all!
We went into this year looking for a new and, possibly, bigger space. We had saved up money and were looking to move to a location that would better serve the role we wanted to play in the growing literacy community in tulsa. A place that would engender growth and a jumping off points for local authors, artists, and community based programming.
Unfortunately, we never know what the future holds.
The covid-19 pandemic has changed so much for all of us. We closed our doors to keep you safe and then waited to see what every new day would bring.
Because we are such a small business we were not eligible for the small business loan programs offered by the government. Without employees on payroll we didnt have the option of the forgiveness through PPP. Most of our helpers at the store are volunteers. And friends and family we have roped into giving a helping hand. We used our small nest egg to pay our rent and keep the lights on. Weve spent the last 45 days trying to figure out what our best option would be. We decided that it would be irresponsible to take out a loan from a more traditional source if we cannot guarantee that we could pay it back. We dont want to risk having to close our store entirely. This store and our community means too much to us to make risky bandaid solutions. And so we have had to make some tough calls.
We are moving online for now. The lease in our current location is ending on may 31st. And while our landlord has been as supportive as possible we cannot afford to renew at the rate of our current rent.
Lee ann and I have poured our hearts, souls, and wallets into keeping this store alive. We bought the store three years ago from the previous owner with our own money. And like any business owner we have invested countless hours into making it function. However, if we have any hope of reopening a physical store front one day we have to re strategize the way we do business.
To put it plainly, this really sucks. We love and cherish all of you so much and we want to continue to offer you affordable books and to donate books to children and adults in need.
This isnt goodbye. We are working so hard to set up an online store that will allow all of you to utilize your remaining book credit. We are also trying to set up a phone service so that our older customers or customers without internet access can call us. We plan to offer free local delivery for phone orders or for any of our customers who cannot afford to order online. We hope to be able to save enough money to open a new storefront as soon as possible. There are so many things we want to do and people we want to help. This is just a set back in that path.
We are still working out all the details. We are essentially starting from scratch. Moving online is scary. Without a storefront its hard to predict sales and our ability to rebuild or a timeline. But we believe we have a role left to play here. And we arent going to give up. We will continue to involve all of you in our journey as it unfolds.
I'm still working on a few things before we have to really start packing. We would like to offer individual shopping hours by appointment to you all. Because we want to keep you safe. I know that the state and government are relaxing their policies but you all mean too much to us to risk your health in a selfish way. But we also want to give you the opportunity to use your credit and stock up before we begin the hectic process of moving and getting an online shop set up. We are also going to offer all gift cards, whether it be in store in the next 2 weeks or online/phone shopping with us in the future. If you supported us on Ko-fi in exchange for a gift card we will also be honoring that. Once we are set up and ready to launch online then we will start reaching out as well as posting on our social media about how to use them. I will have more details in the next few days. Please be patient with us. This is all new, and we are just trying to make the best choices we can as a business and as a family.
If you would like to support us and cant make it in to shop by appointment (once we set dates and times for that), I'll will have our Ko-fi in the comments below.
Thank you all so much for your continued love and suppprt. You have no idea how much it means to us. I have loved getting to know all of you. Talking books, family, pets, hobbies has been something I will treasure. I look forward to the day when we can open in a new location and I can welcome you all in with open arms
For now please be safe out there. We hope to see you soon.
