Willbloom Books, a mobile bookstore based in Weaverville, N.C., will open a bricks-and-mortar shop later this fall, at 58 Weaver Village Way in the Weaver Village shopping center. Asheville's 828 News NOW reported that for nearly a year, owner Lindsay Johnson's bookshop had been a mint-green bus that toured around Western North Carolina as a pop-up. Her ultimate goal, however, was always to establish a permanent shop for the town where she lives.
"The bus was always the first stepping stone in this eventuality of opening up a brick-and-mortar," Johnson said. "I did the best to make sure what I was wanting to create and wanting to bring to Weaverville was gonna be wanted, received, all of that good stuff. I've had so much excitement, so much feedback from the community about really wanting a physical bookstore for families to go into. People have loved the bus, but it's... a unique model, and it's not always the easiest thing to do. Driving around your place of work is interesting, to say the least."
While organizing the pop-ups and three book clubs, she also kept a lookout for retail space. "Finally, something came available a couple of weeks ago, and I snatched it up as quickly as I could, because retail space goes so quickly and it's so hard to come by," she said. "It's so close to downtown Weaverville.... This is great because parking is super easy... I think this spot, because it is kind of tucked away a little bit, it's a little calmer back there. I think it's gonna be a really great spot for a bookstore to be."
Johnson plans to decorate the shop like an inviting "cozy cottage," with the goal of offering a community hub: "Yes, it's a retail place of business, but it's also gonna hopefully foster community for people and deepen ties with the people in town. That's what I'm really the most excited about, people being able to come to the store for dozens of different reasons."