About this episode

Carrie Rollwagen interviews Kristen Iskandrian about the challenges and realities of running an independent bookstore.

What does it really take to open a bookstore, survive a pandemic in your first year, and then expand twice in six years? In this episode of The Localist, Carrie Rollwagen sits down with Kristen Iskandrian, co-owner of Thank You Books in Birmingham's Crestwood neighborhood. Thank You Books opened in December 2019, just months before COVID closed everything down. Six years later, they are expanding for the second time and doubling their footprint. Kristen talks about why retail leases matter more than most people realize, how Thank You Books learned what worked by listening to their customers, and why the book business is one of the hardest small businesses to run. They get into sideline items, signed first edition subscriptions, why bookstore margins are so thin, how to host author events that actually pull a crowd, and what it really means to build community around a store. Carrie spent years in bookselling before The Localist. She was co-founder of Church Street Coffee and Books and managed Jonathan Benton Bookseller. This conversation goes deep into the business, the dream and the reality of running an independent bookstore. Watch the full episode on YouTube…

People in this episode

Host: Carrie Rollwagen

Guest: Kristen Iskandrian

Topics covered

• bookstore
• entrepreneurship
• retail
• community building
• COVID-19 impact
• business challenges

Keywords

• bookstore
• Thank You Books
• entrepreneurship
• retail leases
• COVID-19
• author events
• community

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Thank You Books, MAKE Birmingham, Libro.fm, Bookshop.org

Places: Birmingham, Crestwood

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