Queen on the Scene

If you love books, and you’ve lived in the area awhile, you’ll know why this turned up in my Facebook memories this morning.

Daedalus books, located on Gerwig Lane in Columbia, closed in March of 2018 and its passing did not go unnoticed.

Daedalus Books Warehouse Store Closing, Away from the Things of Man, Eric Freed

Last Call, Village Green/Town²

It exists now as an online entity which does nothing for those of us who loved to noodle around the store in person. It’s just not the same. That serendipitous joy of discovery is gone forever.

I didn’t feel quite so wistful seeing that memory pop up today because of this:

From Queen Takes Book:

MARK YOUR CALENDARS, BOOK LOVERS! We are officially open on April 4th. Doors open at 10am. See you there!

We’re getting close to opening day! No, sorry O’s, I mean the official opening of Queen Takes Book, Columbia/HoCo’s newest bookstore. It will also be Columbia’s only Indie bookstore, which means “Mom and Pop” rather than part of a chain.

Long-time Columbians - - people who have lived here longer than I have - - lament the passing of an era where Mom and Pop businesses were more the norm than big box stores. I hope that they will be coming out to support Queen Takes Book. In this case, Mom and Pop = Katie McNally and Tim Pinel.

The truth is we’ve all gotten used to the lower prices on many things which are afforded to us by the purchasing power of large national and international retail chains. This problem is compounded by the lure of online giants like Amazon. For a mom and pop store to survive today it must overcome this hurdle: independent merchants invariably must charge a bit more than the chains.

Will Columbia and the surrounding area be committed enough to the concept of an Indie bookstore to vote with their pocketbooks? I hope so. One of the special things about independent small businesses is the relationships that owners can build with customers over time. Large chains, where frequent employee turnover is a given, rarely foster that kind of customer service. A fond memory I have of Daedalus still makes me smile:

So nice of the manager at Daedalus Books to come on the loud speaker and warn people that it was about to pour, in case they had their windows down. #itsthelittlethings

So mark April 4th on your calendar and start saving your pennies.

Upon my retirement I wrote a post about making my reduced income stretch to fit my new back yard birding hobby.

Birds and Budgets Village Green/Town² 6/10/2022

Looking at the location of this new book store I am realizing that I am in a lot of trouble.

Birds and books and budgets, oh my!

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