{"id":3992,"date":"2005-12-05T10:56:52","date_gmt":"2005-12-05T15:56:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/?p=3992"},"modified":"2024-10-27T15:28:22","modified_gmt":"2024-10-27T19:28:22","slug":"unabridged","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/?p=3992","title":{"rendered":"Unabridged Bookstore"},"content":{"rendered":"

Happy 25th anniversary to Unabridged Bookstore in Chicago<\/a>!! I used to live right around the corner from Unabridged – a fanTAStic bookstore – and still, whenever I go back, have to stop by and visit the place. I like to support them. I always bought books there when I lived in Chicago, as opposed to Barnes & Noble – well, first of all – it was so convenient. I could basically roll out of bed and be there. But also: survival of little shops like that is important to me. It’s nice to know some things do not change. That place is a part of the cultural landscape of Chicago – they are a part of the larger community – people have great affection for that bookstore, and rightly so. I frequent the big chain bookstores, of course I do – but I’m not committed<\/i> to them in the way I am to bookstores like Shakespeare & Co. or Unabridged. If I stop shopping at Barnes and Noble, they will not even notice. But I feel like my business – with these wonderful little stores – really matters to them. It helps them survive. Very important to me.<\/p>\n

Listen to owner Ed Devereux’s answer to the question “How have you prospered?”<\/p>\n

One of the reasons is because of our mission\u0097we’ve always wanted to sell just books, in a bricks-and-mortar store, in a neighborhood. At the beginning Walden and Dalton had a certain mix; in fact the percentage of sales from non-book items at several Walden stores was larger than from books. We don’t even want to have an online presence; we want to hand-sell the books to customers in the store. Also, all along I decided that I wanted to have only full-time help, no part-timers. That way you get people who have a better knowledge of books and a better knowledge of the store. And by paying them more than most bookstores and providing them with full benefits, people here stay a long time. So you have very little turnover, and everyone gets to know your customers thoroughly, by name, by face. <\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Yup. You always saw the same people working there. And better yet: they all knew something about books (unlike many of the bozos who work at Barnes & Noble – people who have never heard of Hemingway, for fuck’s sake.)<\/p>\n

Anyway: Happy birthday, Unabridged! Live long and prosper!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Happy 25th anniversary to Unabridged Bookstore in Chicago!! I used to live right around the corner from Unabridged – a fanTAStic bookstore – and still, whenever I go back, have to stop by and visit the place. I like to … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[15],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3992"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3992"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3992\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":194863,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3992\/revisions\/194863"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3992"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3992"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3992"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}