An indie bookstore 'saved by a tweet'
Broadway Books in Portland, Oregon, turns 20 this month, no small feat for an indie bookstore. We don鈥檛 usually feature individual booksellers here, but we were so touched by this tale of a local, independently-owned bookstore beating the odds that we had to share it here.
You may remember Broadway Books as the bookstore that was saved by a tweet in 2008. When Broadway was approaching the holiday season back in 2008, the economy crashed and sales slowed so dramatically that owner Roberta Dyer wasn鈥檛 sure her bookstore would make it through the winter.
鈥淲hen we were approaching our seventeenth Christmas season, the economy tanked and we were really afraid,鈥� said Dyer in about her bookstore.
When Dyer鈥檚 son Aaron Durand learned that his mom鈥檚 bookstore might not make it, he decided to do something about it. Durand wrote a blog post in a last-ditch effort to save his mom鈥檚 bookstore. The post read, 鈥淚 have a credit card that has $1000 left of credit on it and I want to spend that money helping people get to my mom鈥檚 store.鈥� He promised to buy a burrito for anyone who spent more than $50 at Broadway Books.
Once Durand tweeted the plea on Twitter, the story went viral and Durand鈥檚 blog, which normally got three or four hits a day, got hundreds of visits. The community rallied around Broadway 鈥� they were literally running out of books, remembers Dyer 鈥� and business boomed.
鈥淚t just exploded and we had the best holiday season we鈥檇 ever had,鈥� said Dyer. 鈥淭hat was鈥ears ago and every single year since we鈥檝e done better and I think it all started with that one little tweet.鈥�
Here鈥檚 to Broadway Books and 20 years of community support in Portland 鈥� and here鈥檚 to hoping many more like it can continue to survive and thrive.
Husna Haq is a Monitor correspondent.
