Closed -- for the Season Only!

 

Summer and fall 2021 -- what a great business season in Northport, not only for books but also for paintings, and we thank our customers and clients, friends all, for rewarding our passions and endeavors with their patronage. Although November has been (until this morning's hard frost and despite recent snow that preceded frost by about a week) exceptionally mild, we are at least partially launched into our seasonal retirement. Not yet on the road but catching up on odds and ends of business, housework, home projects, and yard work.

We look forward already to seeing you again in Northport when we re-open, sometime in May of 2022. Again, thank you so much for contributing to our successful season!

It Isn’t Rocket Science

Here until the rest of the month

Bookselling, my calling in life, doesn’t require knowledge of higher mathematics, let alone astrophysics, but there are crucial numbers involved in the survival of any bookstore, numbers that can also be called simply “the bottom line.” A recent article in the weekly Northern Express relayed the sad news that Traverse City’s 50-year-old Bookie Joint on Union Street is closing – not due to the owner’s desire for retirement but because the dreaded bottom line figure wasn’t panning out. 

Sad news!

“I was robbing Peter to pay Paul,” said the current owner, who bought the business fifteen years ago. “And Peter was going broke.”

 

The 50-year mark is one I don’t expect to see for myself (as a bookstore owner), but the 30-year mark is only two years away and very do-able, I think. At times in the past I’ve attributed my business success (survival, I suppose would be the more modest word) to stubbornness, but stubbornness alone wouldn’t have kept the door open for the past 28 years. 

People buying books in the bookstore – that is the essential ingredient for keeping a bookstore alive. Not mere compliments or wishes of “good luck” from browsers as they walk out the door. People buying books. That keeps a bookstore in business. 

The end of October is coming up fast, and Saturday, October 30, will be the last day of my 2021 season – but we will be back again in May of 2022 because of all our dear, wonderful, loyal book-buying customers! So please, all of you, know that I am grateful beyond my puny words for your patronage. Still --

 

Thank you 

from the bottom of my heart 

for a wonderful 2021 bookstore season!!!

What Does It Take?

What does it take, that is, for a Leelanau near-native (her parents came to Leland when she was 12 years old) to make a living and raise a family at the same time, right here in Leelanau, rather than moving away and only returning in retirement? Michelle White is someone who knows the answer first-hand, because she has what it takes. And it makes sense, growing up where she did, that cherries were Michelle’s inspiration. 

Entrepreneurship isn’t for everyone, but readers can learn how one woman launched an award-winning startup here in northern Michigan — her struggles, hard work, determination and perseverance, and the lessons she learned along the way. 

On a Pit and a Prayer: How I Grew a Business, Lost a Business, and Found Faith, Family and Love

by Michelle White

Traverse City: Mission Point Press, paper 154pp.

$16.95