When the building next door to her home in the Mt. Airy section of
Philadelphia, Pa., became available, Sheila Avelin (and her partner)
bought it, renovated it "top to tail" and opened the Big Blue Marble
Bookstore last November. The three-story townhouse has 1,200 square
feet of book space and 300 square feet of café space.
Big Blue Marble features a community room that resembles a small living room, with couches and armchairs and comfortable seating for ten. "My business model was to have the store be a community center, a place to hang out even it you're not buying a book," Avelin said. "We have parent-baby groups, a 12-step group, a public school parent's group, a poetry class and a knitting circle. We're trying to be good neighbors."
Avelin also aims to be a "general bookstore, but tailored to the community." She said she strives to have her selection of books reflect the color of the neighborhood, which includes social workers, teachers, rabbis, stay-at-home and part-time working moms and "many local writers who want me to sell their books." (Avelin averages a visit a day from a self-published local author.)
Mt. Airy is nothing if not diverse. Even Oprah has apparently taken notice: the neighborhood is scheduled to be featured in an upcoming issue of O Magazine this spring.
Located near a rabbinical school and a theological seminary, the store has big Jewish, African-American and gay and lesbian sections. Born to Kvetch: Yiddish Language and Culture in All Its Moods by Michael Wex "is absolutely the top of our bestseller list," said Avelin. (Joan Didion's The Year of Magical Thinking is in second place.)
The store also does well with " 'smart fiction'--more New Yorker magazine type authors like Alice Munro and Bebe Smith." Sales of backlist books are also strong, with Tender at the Bone: Growing Up at the Table by Ruth Reichl ("a Jewish author") lately doing well.
The anchor of the Mt. Airy neighborhood is a food coop that has been in business for 30 years and has more than 3,000 household members, Avelin said. There is a yoga studio, and a new café, with a maternal wellness center, is moving in to town. "There's a lot of interest in health," Avelin noted. Mt. Airy is also a very wooded area, with a park, hiking trails and horses. (For the nature-lovers, the store has a migratory bird section.)
"Philly's population is about 72% Democrat, and our neighborhood is to the left of the city," commented Avelin. Sustainable development is a popular theme, and the store has a large ecology section, with many organic cookbooks and gardening books. "We carry a lot of books about simplifying your life. We're very home-oriented."
Other defining characteristics of Mt. Airy are a large commuter population and a lot of young families. "The neighborhood is having a baby boom right now," said Avelin, who herself recently became a mother. "I feel like I have twins: the baby, who is getting ready to turn one, and the store." As a result, the Big Blue Marble is "very focused on families" both in terms of books and accoutrements. For example, the store boasts a "good solid changing table, not one of those folding down ones," said the new mom.
About a third of sales are children's books; sales of both picture books and young adult titles are strong. Recent bestsellers include the Dragonology books, Diary of a Wombat by Jackie French, Little Ladybug (which includes a finger puppet) by Lenz Mulligan Rights, and Dog Train: A Wild Ride on the Rock-and-Roll Side, an audio CD by Sandra Boynton and Michael Ford.
In addition to the twice-a-week parent-baby group, the store runs a series called Mother Talk, which has featured local writer Miriam Peskowitz, author of The Truth Behind the Mommy Wars: Who Decides What Makes a Good Mother?, and Andrea Buchanan, author of It's a Boy: Women Writers on Raising Sons and Literary Mama.
To prepare herself for the role of bookstore owner, Avelin served as an "apprentice," as she put it, in several bookstores over the years, including Politics and Prose in Washington, D.C., and two Madison, Wis., stores, Books for Murder and the Rainbow Bookstore, a small radical/anarchist store that operates as a collective. While there, she was involved with the store's Web site, hiring decisions, book sections and "lots of back end stuff." Avelin has also taken small business classes and attended booksellers' school, which she found extremely useful. Before opening the store, Avelin was a teacher. She still thinks of herself primarily as a teacher but "just didn't want to work in schools any longer."
A Borders in the next town influenced Avelin's decision to include a café in the store. "I wanted people to know they could have coffee here, too," she said. Even the coffee fits in with the multicultural, integrated neighborhood theme. Avelin orders from the Thanksgiving Coffee Company, which features "fair-trade certified, Ugandan coffee grown by Jewish, Muslim and Christian farmers who are part of a cooperative." The baked goods, not surprisingly, are all locally made.
The store's main competition is online, Avelin said. "The threat to us is people who buy from Amazon." To counter this, the store fills a lot of special orders, often rush orders with next day delivery from Baker & Taylor. "We really stay on top of the special order shelf."
Avelin's strategy seems to be paying off. "Business has been good," she said. "We had a really good Christmas season. Overall, it has been better than we expected faster than we expected. Turnout for events has been great. We're not breaking even yet, but coming closer."
Though Avelin is thrilled to be the new bookseller in town, she offers this word of advice: "Don't open a store and have a baby at the same time."
The Big Blue Marble Bookstore is located at 551 Carpenter Lane, Philadelphia, Pa. 19119. Its Web site is www.bigbluemarblebooks.com.--Maria Heidkamp
Big Blue Marble features a community room that resembles a small living room, with couches and armchairs and comfortable seating for ten. "My business model was to have the store be a community center, a place to hang out even it you're not buying a book," Avelin said. "We have parent-baby groups, a 12-step group, a public school parent's group, a poetry class and a knitting circle. We're trying to be good neighbors."
Avelin also aims to be a "general bookstore, but tailored to the community." She said she strives to have her selection of books reflect the color of the neighborhood, which includes social workers, teachers, rabbis, stay-at-home and part-time working moms and "many local writers who want me to sell their books." (Avelin averages a visit a day from a self-published local author.)
Mt. Airy is nothing if not diverse. Even Oprah has apparently taken notice: the neighborhood is scheduled to be featured in an upcoming issue of O Magazine this spring.
Located near a rabbinical school and a theological seminary, the store has big Jewish, African-American and gay and lesbian sections. Born to Kvetch: Yiddish Language and Culture in All Its Moods by Michael Wex "is absolutely the top of our bestseller list," said Avelin. (Joan Didion's The Year of Magical Thinking is in second place.)
The store also does well with " 'smart fiction'--more New Yorker magazine type authors like Alice Munro and Bebe Smith." Sales of backlist books are also strong, with Tender at the Bone: Growing Up at the Table by Ruth Reichl ("a Jewish author") lately doing well.
The anchor of the Mt. Airy neighborhood is a food coop that has been in business for 30 years and has more than 3,000 household members, Avelin said. There is a yoga studio, and a new café, with a maternal wellness center, is moving in to town. "There's a lot of interest in health," Avelin noted. Mt. Airy is also a very wooded area, with a park, hiking trails and horses. (For the nature-lovers, the store has a migratory bird section.)
"Philly's population is about 72% Democrat, and our neighborhood is to the left of the city," commented Avelin. Sustainable development is a popular theme, and the store has a large ecology section, with many organic cookbooks and gardening books. "We carry a lot of books about simplifying your life. We're very home-oriented."
Other defining characteristics of Mt. Airy are a large commuter population and a lot of young families. "The neighborhood is having a baby boom right now," said Avelin, who herself recently became a mother. "I feel like I have twins: the baby, who is getting ready to turn one, and the store." As a result, the Big Blue Marble is "very focused on families" both in terms of books and accoutrements. For example, the store boasts a "good solid changing table, not one of those folding down ones," said the new mom.
About a third of sales are children's books; sales of both picture books and young adult titles are strong. Recent bestsellers include the Dragonology books, Diary of a Wombat by Jackie French, Little Ladybug (which includes a finger puppet) by Lenz Mulligan Rights, and Dog Train: A Wild Ride on the Rock-and-Roll Side, an audio CD by Sandra Boynton and Michael Ford.
In addition to the twice-a-week parent-baby group, the store runs a series called Mother Talk, which has featured local writer Miriam Peskowitz, author of The Truth Behind the Mommy Wars: Who Decides What Makes a Good Mother?, and Andrea Buchanan, author of It's a Boy: Women Writers on Raising Sons and Literary Mama.
To prepare herself for the role of bookstore owner, Avelin served as an "apprentice," as she put it, in several bookstores over the years, including Politics and Prose in Washington, D.C., and two Madison, Wis., stores, Books for Murder and the Rainbow Bookstore, a small radical/anarchist store that operates as a collective. While there, she was involved with the store's Web site, hiring decisions, book sections and "lots of back end stuff." Avelin has also taken small business classes and attended booksellers' school, which she found extremely useful. Before opening the store, Avelin was a teacher. She still thinks of herself primarily as a teacher but "just didn't want to work in schools any longer."
A Borders in the next town influenced Avelin's decision to include a café in the store. "I wanted people to know they could have coffee here, too," she said. Even the coffee fits in with the multicultural, integrated neighborhood theme. Avelin orders from the Thanksgiving Coffee Company, which features "fair-trade certified, Ugandan coffee grown by Jewish, Muslim and Christian farmers who are part of a cooperative." The baked goods, not surprisingly, are all locally made.
The store's main competition is online, Avelin said. "The threat to us is people who buy from Amazon." To counter this, the store fills a lot of special orders, often rush orders with next day delivery from Baker & Taylor. "We really stay on top of the special order shelf."
Avelin's strategy seems to be paying off. "Business has been good," she said. "We had a really good Christmas season. Overall, it has been better than we expected faster than we expected. Turnout for events has been great. We're not breaking even yet, but coming closer."
Though Avelin is thrilled to be the new bookseller in town, she offers this word of advice: "Don't open a store and have a baby at the same time."
The Big Blue Marble Bookstore is located at 551 Carpenter Lane, Philadelphia, Pa. 19119. Its Web site is www.bigbluemarblebooks.com.--Maria Heidkamp