Park Hill Bookstore: News Flash
Books Are Still Popular (and other fun quirks)
My volunteering began after retirement, perhaps around 2000. There was a computer on the desk, for some purpose. The manager at that time made an arrangement with a fellow to work on a system so we could sell books online. It was a very new concept. That system has morphed several times. Now die-hard bookstore workers have established a bookstore website and the system to sell books on Amazon.
During 2007 there was grave concern whether the store could weather the depression. So much was on the internet, would readers stay loyal to actual books? Surprisingly, a national news item verified that, according to Amazon and bookstores from coast to coast, reading books was becoming more popular. Park Hill Community Bookstore and Tattered Cover enjoyed an increase in our customer base.
When the Board decided to change to a low-flush toilet, an Arvada plumber donated his service to make the connections. The walls in that treasured resource (i.e. the bathroom) had been covered in a cheery yellow chintz with patterned flower since The Flood. I knew the Wesco fabric outlet had wondrous spring and fall sales of their curtain and upholstery materials. Some, for $1 a yard. I found a handsome upholstery woven with circa 1800 champion French race horses and jockeys that provided an androgynous atmosphere. I googled some of the horses, and they indeed, were champions.
Amazon participation had some fun quirks. A fellow from the East Coast phoned in. He had seen we had an obscure and expensive psychology tome. He was coming to Denver the next week. Would we hold it so he could get it on his visit?
I’m proud we generously provide teachers with books for their students and that the store is a vendor at the Home Tour parkway event. Parents of families in Park Hill drop in when visiting their children. Former Park Hill residents visit us to say, rolling their eyes, that they’d left Park Hill 25 years ago. It is a special pleasure to chat with tourists from other nations who love bookstores and somehow found us.
— Ann Long, Longtime Volunteer