A Movable Feast
Wow, what a weekend. I'll probably blog about the football/PrideFest experience later in the week but the best part was the bookstore move. Years ago I worked for Tattered Cover Bookstore, one of the finest indies in the country. It's a very special place.
They'd been in their current location for nearly 20 years, and it was time to move. They'd been a mainstay in the Cherry Creek neighborhood for more than 30 years, but were unable to come to new lease terms with the landlord of their 50,000 square foot building.
Tattered Cover is a community-minded business, and anytime they make a move or anything like that, customers come out of the woodwork to help. I didn't want to miss this one. I've got some great memories of my years as a TC employee and I'm always excited to be part of anything they do.
Last night at 6:00 pm, owner Joyce Meskis made the store's final "closing announcement"--May I have your attention, please. The time is now six o'clock an the Tattered Cover is closing for the evening..."--to a round of applause, and then the tape guns started. Keep in mind that the store stayed open for business as usual all day on Saturday. This is a three-story bookstore!
Hundreds of us learned our assignments and got to work, packing boxes (Spine up, in shelf-order only!), labeling, moving boxes to pallets (40 boxes per, 30 pallets for the first shift), and moving pallets to trucks (Two to the new building before the end of first shift, with the third ready to go first thing in the morning.)
In addition to the work part of it, I got to see old friends Jim, Hank, Ellen, Ruthie, Steve, Jocelyn, Neil, Suzanne, Cathy, and many more. That was cool. It's amazing how many people are still there--and I haven't worked there in 12 years. I can't believe that the guy we honestly (I mean honestly) thought might be the Unibomber still works there. He was (is?) a freaky-scary guy but one helluva cook. I spent Thanksgiving at his house once with about a dozen others and it was magnificent. Well, magnificent and weird being surrounded by dark and surreal art, antique weapons, and every book imaginable on military history and Adolph Hitler... Yep, he's still there.
It was so fun to talk about old times and great memories--doing overnight inventory in our pajamas, the time we dismantled (fully) my manager's office while she was on vacation, the "tribute to onions and garlic" potluck, and the time Scott and I called from London, interrupting Rich's performance review, to tell him we'd just seen the Queen.
The part of the evening that gave me the warmest fuzzy of all was hollering out to Jim, the phys-ops manager, "Hey Jim, it's warm in here--would you mind turning up the AC?" To which he gave his standard (and meaningless) reply, "I'll get right on that, Kay", complete with a wink and a smile.
We ended up ahead of schedule last night, and they stayed ahead of schedule today. Nigel and I went over to the store after the England v. Ecuador match (Eng-a-land!) and took some pictures for one of our book industry trade journals.
I was blown away.
The Bonfils Memorial/Lowenstein Theater has been empty in Denver for years. I remember going there with my mom when I was a kid, but I don't remember it being open for at least the 20+ years I've lived right in Denver. It's a beautiful old theater, in the art moderne style. It's on the National Register of Historic Places. It's a gem.
And now it looks like this:
It's going to be an amazing bookstore. The poetry section is in the orchestra pit! The newsstand is in the lobby! The business and psychology sections are on the stage (and if you look up, you can see old red velvet curtains and riggings)!
As soon as TC made the announcement of the move, the naysayers appeared. Customers wrote and called--some expressing their support--but many expressing their disappointment that Joyce would leave the Cherry Creek store (or "Creek" as it's known in TC-speak). They said she was making the biggest mistake of her career, blah blah blah.
I've been a long-time supporter of the move. Joyce is a pioneer. She opened her first Creek store on 2nd Avenue before the area was the upscale shopping destination it is today. She opened a store in Lower Downtown (LoDo) when there was little there beyond her friend John Hickenlooper's brewpub. Maybe you've heard of him; he's our mayor now. She is a mild-mannered and modest maverick--how's that for some alliteration?
Now, she will be a part of the East Colfax redevelopment. East Colfax has a jaded reputation. It can be rough--it's where you find the hookers, the dealers, the hourly motels, the tattoo parlors, and a whole lot of Denver color. But there are also homes that sell for more than half a million dollars just off it. Our condo is on Colfax, less than a mile from the new TC store--yay, property values! There is so much happening on Colfax today, from live music to bars, restaurants, "Greek Town" and much, much, more. Joyce Meskis has, once again, proven she is an astute business woman and I cannot wait to shop at her new store. Thank you, Joyce.
As lovely parting gifts last night, we were giving wicked cool Tattered Cover t-shirts, but honestly, I would have done it even without the promise of a t-shirt. Well, maybe....
They'd been in their current location for nearly 20 years, and it was time to move. They'd been a mainstay in the Cherry Creek neighborhood for more than 30 years, but were unable to come to new lease terms with the landlord of their 50,000 square foot building.
Tattered Cover is a community-minded business, and anytime they make a move or anything like that, customers come out of the woodwork to help. I didn't want to miss this one. I've got some great memories of my years as a TC employee and I'm always excited to be part of anything they do.
Last night at 6:00 pm, owner Joyce Meskis made the store's final "closing announcement"--May I have your attention, please. The time is now six o'clock an the Tattered Cover is closing for the evening..."--to a round of applause, and then the tape guns started. Keep in mind that the store stayed open for business as usual all day on Saturday. This is a three-story bookstore!
Hundreds of us learned our assignments and got to work, packing boxes (Spine up, in shelf-order only!), labeling, moving boxes to pallets (40 boxes per, 30 pallets for the first shift), and moving pallets to trucks (Two to the new building before the end of first shift, with the third ready to go first thing in the morning.)
In addition to the work part of it, I got to see old friends Jim, Hank, Ellen, Ruthie, Steve, Jocelyn, Neil, Suzanne, Cathy, and many more. That was cool. It's amazing how many people are still there--and I haven't worked there in 12 years. I can't believe that the guy we honestly (I mean honestly) thought might be the Unibomber still works there. He was (is?) a freaky-scary guy but one helluva cook. I spent Thanksgiving at his house once with about a dozen others and it was magnificent. Well, magnificent and weird being surrounded by dark and surreal art, antique weapons, and every book imaginable on military history and Adolph Hitler... Yep, he's still there.
It was so fun to talk about old times and great memories--doing overnight inventory in our pajamas, the time we dismantled (fully) my manager's office while she was on vacation, the "tribute to onions and garlic" potluck, and the time Scott and I called from London, interrupting Rich's performance review, to tell him we'd just seen the Queen.
The part of the evening that gave me the warmest fuzzy of all was hollering out to Jim, the phys-ops manager, "Hey Jim, it's warm in here--would you mind turning up the AC?" To which he gave his standard (and meaningless) reply, "I'll get right on that, Kay", complete with a wink and a smile.
We ended up ahead of schedule last night, and they stayed ahead of schedule today. Nigel and I went over to the store after the England v. Ecuador match (Eng-a-land!) and took some pictures for one of our book industry trade journals.
I was blown away.
The Bonfils Memorial/Lowenstein Theater has been empty in Denver for years. I remember going there with my mom when I was a kid, but I don't remember it being open for at least the 20+ years I've lived right in Denver. It's a beautiful old theater, in the art moderne style. It's on the National Register of Historic Places. It's a gem.
And now it looks like this:
It's going to be an amazing bookstore. The poetry section is in the orchestra pit! The newsstand is in the lobby! The business and psychology sections are on the stage (and if you look up, you can see old red velvet curtains and riggings)!
As soon as TC made the announcement of the move, the naysayers appeared. Customers wrote and called--some expressing their support--but many expressing their disappointment that Joyce would leave the Cherry Creek store (or "Creek" as it's known in TC-speak). They said she was making the biggest mistake of her career, blah blah blah.
I've been a long-time supporter of the move. Joyce is a pioneer. She opened her first Creek store on 2nd Avenue before the area was the upscale shopping destination it is today. She opened a store in Lower Downtown (LoDo) when there was little there beyond her friend John Hickenlooper's brewpub. Maybe you've heard of him; he's our mayor now. She is a mild-mannered and modest maverick--how's that for some alliteration?
Now, she will be a part of the East Colfax redevelopment. East Colfax has a jaded reputation. It can be rough--it's where you find the hookers, the dealers, the hourly motels, the tattoo parlors, and a whole lot of Denver color. But there are also homes that sell for more than half a million dollars just off it. Our condo is on Colfax, less than a mile from the new TC store--yay, property values! There is so much happening on Colfax today, from live music to bars, restaurants, "Greek Town" and much, much, more. Joyce Meskis has, once again, proven she is an astute business woman and I cannot wait to shop at her new store. Thank you, Joyce.
As lovely parting gifts last night, we were giving wicked cool Tattered Cover t-shirts, but honestly, I would have done it even without the promise of a t-shirt. Well, maybe....
posted by Kay at
4:30 PM
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