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Volumes Bookcafé Holds Grand Opening
- By Liz Button
Printer-friendly versionVolumes Bookcafé, a new general interest bookstore in Chicago’s Wicker Park neighborhood, celebrated its grand opening on Saturday, April 2.
The 2,800-square-foot store owned by Kimberly George, a former pre-kindergarten teacher, and her sister Rebecca, a former educator with retail and publishing experience, offers an inventory of mostly new books, some used books, a large children’s collection, and a café featuring local coffee, baked goods, and craft beer and wine.
On the morning of the grand opening, Kimberly George hosted a children’s story time, the first of many biweekly story hours planned. Later in the afternoon, Volumes hosted several prominent local authors who signed their books and acted as guest booksellers. Authors taking part in the celebration included Renee Rosen, Nick Freeman, Bryan Gruley, Adam Selzer, Wesley Chu, and Mary Kowal, who also wrote flash fiction on-demand for customers. The day also featured giveaways of signed books, book swag, and T-shirts as door prizes.
Since the Saturday celebration, more local authors have stopped in to introduce themselves and congratulate the sisters.
“The grand opening was amazing,” said Kimberly George. “We had a huge turnout, with a lot of family and friends but a lot from the public as well. Sales-wise we did great. We were pretty much crowded from open to close, and our first story time was standing-room-only.”
Since the store’s soft opening on Tuesday, March 22, things have been going smoothly, George said, thanks in part to Volumes’ amazing staff, whose patience and support have been invaluable.
“The reception from the community has been wonderful,” said George. “We have already had to put in multiple orders to replenish. The kids’ section especially is selling really, really well.”
Over the past week, Kimberly George said she and Rebecca have been observing customer volume at different points during the day, trying to better understand the store’s daily rhythm.
“Our evenings seem to be a little bit noisier than our mornings, but a lot of times we will get a boost in the middle of the day,” she said. “We’re already starting to see many regulars coming in, as well as people from out of town. We also have had a lot of people signing up for our newsletter and our loyalty program.”
George said she was happy to see that, to date, book sales have been higher than café sales. Volumes is a bookstore first, she emphasized, though coffee, wine, and beer are selling well, with some customers ordering different beverages as they work on their laptops throughout the day.
“There’s been nothing but positive feedback so far,” she said. “A lot of people in the neighborhood have been waiting for us to open for close to a year, so we thought they might lose interest, but fortunately they have not.”
The Georges had planned to open Volumes’ doors in June 2015, but after a city building inspection the sisters were told they needed to fund a secondary HVAC system for the space as well as an upgrade to the main water line to the building. In November, the store raised $9,400 via an Indiegogo campaign to help bring the building up to code.
Going forward, the Georges have plans for a Scrabble league as well as monthly parties featuring the store’s selection for Book of the Month. The book for April is Bottomland, a mystery novel by Michelle Hoover (Black Cat).
Volumes will host its first open mic night for poetry and prose on Wednesday, April 6, and welcomes Carly Cylinder, author of The Flower Chef (Grand Central Life & Style), on April 28.