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Business & Tech

Spiral Bookcase Celebrates First Birthday

The shop had a number of fun events and activities Saturday

Ann Tetreault stands in her newly minted “curio room” at the , Manayunk’s lone bookstore, situated on Cotton Street right next to .

The small space at the back of her store, she explains, will house books on medical oddities and the like. Call it a scaled down version of the Mutter Museum.

In reality, Tetreault, who celebrated her year anniversary in Manayunk’s commercial district on July 17, wanted a place where customers could sit and relax, take in the atmosphere, and page through some of the best used books around.

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As she chats with Patch the morning of July 16, after an all-nighter of revamping the former storage space into the parlor-like nook, Tetreault gets nearly teary-eyed. After all, she always wanted to run her own bookstore, and now that dream has come to fruition.

“I still pinch myself knowing that I own a bookstore,” Tetreault said.

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For the first three months, Tetreault, who lives in Manayunk with her husband, Adam, spent her time split between Washington D.C., where she worked in the copyright office of the Library of Congress, and Manayunk, where she spent the weekends familiarizing her neighborhood with her business, which is the only used bookstore in the community.

Those first few months were hard, since the new entrepreneur had to perform a juggling act. Getting a new business up and running is hard enough as it is, but when its owner is spending four days a week three-plus hours away, it can be that much more daunting.

But her hard work has paid off. Today, Tetreault, who runs her business full-time, has a steady stream of regulars, as well as those fresh faces who stumble upon the shop, which, at around 550 square feet, is rather small, but is filled with lots of titles, perhaps between 5,000 to 7,000, the business owner guesses.

“Now we have even more books than I can even process right now,” she said.

As for running her own business, Tetreault said there are ups and downs, but the pros definitely outweigh the cons.

Sure, she’s been known to put in countless hours, which includes working even while she’s away from the store. (Tetreault says she’s constantly reading book reviews, searching for new products and networking outside of shop hours).

But the rewards of having her own operation makes everything worthwhile.

“As challenging as it is, it’s probably the most rewarding thing also,” she said. “We have established a very nice core of regular customers from the neighborhood.”

Tetreault has even taken her work outside of the confines of the bookstore, putting on things like author talks and booksignings at nearby Pretzel Park.

Her decision to open a bookstore in her own neighborhood, Tetreault said, is one she hasn’t regretted one bit. Not only does she start to recognize those who walk through the doors, but she also has developed camaraderie with other business owners in town, since she spends her time, and money, at other local shops.

“We obviously have a common interest,” Tetreault said. “We want our businesses to succeed.”

Now that she has reached a year in the community, a milestone for this first-time entrepreneur, Tetreault is able to reflect on her time building bookshelves by hand, perusing the Internet for new titles and developing a niche.

“We saw the need for a bookstore in Manayunk, which is why we started it,” she said matter-of-factly. “[It was] the right place, the right time to get this space and to make it happen.”

To learn more about the Spiral Bookcase, visit www.thespiralbookcase.com.

 

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