MEET VIENNA
BARDS ALLEY BOOKS & WINE
VENDORS:
Adjacent to an unnamed alley on Historic Church Street in Vienna is a little independent bookstore doing big things in Vienna. The owner is not swayed by the popularity of alternative ways to obtain and consume books. Her answer? She's providing a completely different experience when it comes to book buying. For her customers, it's all about discovery, and the journey. It's world where old and new are carefully melded together by combining the option to order books online from their website, or to peruse shelves and enjoy a glass of wine and a treat at their quaint cozy bar.
The entire staff at Bards Alley has fully embraced what it means to be a small business in a tight knit community by immersing themselves in many of the events that Vienna has to offer. And they've also contributed to the roster of events by collaborating with other local businesses and offering a myriad of ways to get involved - all surrounded by the idea of offering a place for people to gather and read, hear others' or tell their own stories.
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Let's meet Jen Morrow.
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How did Bards Alley begin – was it a process, or a single moment in time for deciding to venture down the entrepreneurial road?
I actually get that question a lot, and people often say “how lucky – you had your dream come true”. But it wasn’t that way at all, I’ve always had the entrepreneurial bug in me – but I wasn’t sure how it would come to surface. I had the opportunity to stay home with my kids when they were really young. And I started thinking – ok, I have this break from working – what could I do if I just really wanted to start fresh. I realized I missed going to a book store. And I thought that Vienna was the perfect community for a book store. It really was a hobby in the beginning because my son had just started kindergarten, and my daughter was only 3. So I just took some free time to research it, meet people in the industry, and I just really liked what I heard. So I just pursued the path of making it happen. And it was probably about 5 years of that kind of research, from the idea to the day we opened our doors.
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In this age of Amazon, and online booksellers, when people can get a book the same day, or download an ebook, how do you view yourself in the marketplace and differentiate yourself from those types of vendors.
That’s a question that I often get – about competition. One of the reasons that I brought in the café when I opened was because I wanted it to be more of an experience. And yes, Amazon, and other online retailers are definitely competition. But I was never really trying to go after those customers. I really felt like there is a community around people who want to shop at indie bookstores and have a more curated experience. When you look at all the inventory we have here – you couldn’t read it in a lifetime, and it's constantly changing, and we’re keeping it fresh. We’re also a destination for lots of events – which you can’t get through that kind of a retailer. Something that you’ll hear from other local businesses is that by shopping local you’re giving back to your community. And that’s another thing we’re very proud of – we provide jobs and taxes back into Vienna. I personally wanted to bring in local vendors, so I buy food from other local and small shops in Vienna. Now we’ve started to think more globally and sustainably – things like packaging, transportation costs, and recycling. When you really look at it beyond getting something quickly and easily and you think about it a little more consciously, then that experience and what it can do for your community (all those benefits) it's more personal and more beneficial. And my staff is amazing. People come in specifically for their recommendations, and that also makes it more personal.
What are some of the local vendors that you work with?
We work with 100 Bowls of Soup in Herndon – people love coming in for the "Bowl of Soup & a Book". We also have hummus and other baked goods that are locally made. We just brought in a card line called Little Goat and she’s based in Arlington. So with our stationary lines, we try to have a diverse selection, because the art of the thank you note, and writing, and keeping in touch kind of goes hand in hand with literature and reading. So we try to offer different things in terms of gifts and anything you might think of related to writing. So those are just a few that come to mind.
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How do you embrace the idea of “slowing down and reading a book” in fast-paced Washington DC and northern Virginia?
It is intense. But a word that comes to mind is “Journey”, but when you come to Bards Alley, or decide to walk to Caffe Amouri for your coffee, you are making choices. And by choosing to come to Bards Alley for that journey, you don’t know what you’re going to find along the way. And there are so many conversations between strangers that I’ve overheard. And customers will recommend books to other customers, or they will find out that they have something in common. And they might be casually sitting at the bar, or they’re a member of one of our book clubs. And you don’t get that with your head down, looking at a screen. I certainly understand that people like e-readers – I listen to audio books in addition to reading traditional books. Its fine to have a mix of all of those things - I just want people to read.
I think, to take that step back and do exactly what you’re describing about making a conscious decision to go that route and not just go for the instant gratification -its just worth more to you personally. And I feel like with a book store – that’s what we’re trying to promote here – is that it’s a destination where you can browse. You may know exactly what you want, or you may want a recommendation from us, and that’s one of our favorite things to do.
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Are there any events that you do here in the store that you’d like to highlight for anyone that might be reading/watching/listening?
We have a lot of book clubs, so if you go on our website, www.bardsalley.com, you can see when they are, and what they’re reading. We also do a story time every Saturday – and this Saturday (March 7th 2020), we have the Paperback Princess 40th anniversary story time, to commemorate that book series. We’ve also started some recurring events, where we celebrate things that we love here. Once a month we have a Shakespeare Sunday, and once a month we have Folklore Friday. And it's really the staff, and guests coming in to talk about those things.
The last Saturday in April is Independent Bookstore day, and we always have a huge celebration. We’re already lining up authors to come in all day, and we’re going to have a popcorn machine, and face painting. We’re also going to have our book hunt – which we’ve done the past couple years. We wrap up the advanced reader copies and hide them around town. We’re going to do something a little bit different with it this year though to hopefully get more people engaged. So it’s a really fun day for us! And I think it will be good for the book industry as a whole. We’re also doing a bookstore crawl between Northern Virginia, DC, and Maryland. With that event, we’ll be giving away tote bags, and if you go to a certain number of bookstores in that event, then you get a prize – that will take place this year. We’re always looking at bringing in authors throughout the year. The fall is always a big season for new releases and we’re looking at scheduling more things in the store to line up with that time.
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We know you’re adjacent to the “nameless” alley – but where did the name Bards Alley come from.
I actually didn’t have this space secured yet when I came up with the name. I was actually at Bazins having a drink and a picture of Shakespeare came up on the television. And it just came out of nowhere – how about Bards Alley? We love Shakespeare in our house – and I love the idea of a Bard – which is a story teller. I really think everyone has a story to tell. I love stories told through music, books, oratory, and all the different ways that you can tell stories. So I love that vision of a bard. The Alley name came through Diagon Alley from Harry Potter – which was a place of discovery. So I really wanted it to be a place where you could just come in and meander through the shelves and discover something new. And it's kind of a mashup between old classics and new classics – storytelling of old and a new classic like Harry Potter. And it really stuck and we kind of evolved the name – now we’re Bards Alley Bookshop Café. And our tagline is "Books, Wine, Kindred Spirits" – that’s the overarching vision.
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How do you involve your business in the community?
Before I opened I sought out the Mayor – and went on one of her Friday walks. I really thought I needed these connections – because I really needed to know how things worked in town from a business perspective. I thought I would just go, and some other council members and residents were on the walk, and I just chatted with them. This was years before I even opened, so I could just take the temperature. Of course – who wouldn’t want an independent bookstore in their town. But there’s a reason there’s not one in every town. The profit margin is extremely low because of the way it's set up because the price of the book is printed on it, and vendors don’t have the same markup that you can do in other retail markets. That’s why we have a combination of books and gifts and stationary and a café. So that was a conscious decision, because I wanted it to be a destination with wine.
Fast forward a few years, I joined the Vienna Business Association because I wanted to hear from other entrepreneurs – people who had been in business a while – and get some things to think about. And the advice that I’ve received from other folks in town has been amazing. And as I got my feet under me I was really surprised that people really wanted to hear from me. I’ve been invited to speak at the optimist club in Vienna, and participate in various community events. We really do try, when we can, to get the resources together to do things like the Halloween parade that we were in last year. We actually created a float! So I need to credit Phil Charlwood for all of the help he’s given me with that. The theme was fairy tales, and we’re a bookstore, and we got third place in one category. And then last year we did the window decorating contest. There are a lot of fun things! The community comes out and they want to see that the local businesses are participating in these events. And even though we’re small and we don’t have a lot of staff, we love what we do! So we really want to put that energy into community events. Hopefully, as we’re here longer, we can do more. I would love to participate in other things like Oktoberfest, do some sponsorships. Another great event coming up is a partnership with the Vienna Wine Outlet, our neighbor here, where an author will come in and they’re going to do a tasting – it's called "Wine For Normal People". The author lives in Virginia, and we have a lot of the same customers. We’re also partnering up with Blend 111, to do some author dinners, just to mix up the type of things we’re doing. There’s only so much we can do here alone, but we have such great venues all around like Jammin Java, the library. We’re talking with the library to do some things in the fall. And it's about taking what we’ve created here and trying to enhance that by working with schools and other parts of the community.
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I LISTEN TO AUDIO BOOKS IN ADDITION TO READING TRADITIONAL BOOKS. IT'S FINE TO HAVE A MIX OF ALL THOSE THINGS - I JUST WANT PEOPLE TO READ.
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THE WAY VIENNA IS WITH THE W&OD TRAIL, YOU CAN PUT YOUR BOOK IN YOUR BACKPACK AND RIDE ALONG THE TRAIL. IT'S A GREAT PLACE TO TAKE A BREAK...
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What kind of advice can you give to the person thinking about leaving a corporate or government job that’s thinking about opening a business – and they already know about the administrative pieces about doing it – what are some of the intangibles that you can offer that person?
For me, it was really hard while I was trying to open because everything was so new. I had never done all of these things. Getting the permits, dealing with the lease - it was so tedious and time consuming. But I always said to myself “no matter what happens in the future, at least I can say that I’ve done this. I’ve calculated the risks, I’m working with experts, I’m getting advice – I’m just going to keep going”. I wish I had taken time to fast forward to when I opened and thought about setting up logistical things around my life and the business side of it. Just keeping the lights on every day, making sure there were people here, the books were here, the dishwasher wasn’t broken. It’s like a second home. Every little thing, whether it’s a lightbulb that needs to be changed – its us doing it. I didn’t really give myself a lot of time to think more strategically on the operations side. And I didn’t really have anyone doing that - and I paid for that (in time). I probably could’ve researched QuickBooks for example – something to help me look at being disciplined about certain things. And there are a lot of things that are unpredictable. And not everything is the same today as it was when we opened.
There’s a kids book called “Beautiful Oops” – and I like that idea of embracing mistakes.
I went to the small business association and I got a mentor, and they had webinars and seminars. And I’m signed up for those. You have to use the resources that are available to you. If you just talk to people – then that’s really valuable. I go to the VBA meetings, and talk to people when they’re in here. I really love talking to people and discovering if someone has gone through the same thing you have or maybe has the solution, or a contact. I have a lot of mentors that don’t know they’re my mentors. But I know I can go to them when I need advice. So its not like a formal relationship.
All the different ages of people that come in here is great. I have a young customer who comes in here who makes his own books, and he wants to sell them. It was really amazing to see him drawing and creating at such a young age. We had a great chat. I can’t wait to see what he does some day.
We also have some amazing published local authors that support us in a big way, who come in and sign books for us. We have regulars that come in for coffee. I have one customer who I had to ask where he went before we opened because he comes in every day. And he went to a big chain coffee shop – but now he comes here because he said its just so much better.
Everybody has different needs, and we’re evolving, and the bookstore industry is also evolving. We’re a member of regional and national trade groups. And we just launched a new online site as part of the national trade group called BookShop.org and its meant to go head to head with Amazon. And we’re on there, and if you go through our link we get a portion of the profits, and affiliates can link through that as well. But I think it's important for people to know that they do have a choice. You can subscribe to audible, which is the behemoth, or you can subscribe to Librofm.com which directly benefits local bookstores. And all these links are on our website. Again, people can make a choice where they’re benefiting local places. So the e-reader site is also coming soon, but we do have the audio books, and coming soon an e-book choice. And it's all because the indies and trade associates are getting together, because it does take all of us together. We’re all so unique. But Vienna is an amazing town to have a bookstore, people are really supportive and I really hope we can sustain our growth. I feel like we’re still in an infant stage, because we’re not quite at 3 years. This is really kind of the tipping point – its really getting to the point in the lifecycle of opening up a small business. Its great that we have support and people keep coming back. And with so many new businesses coming in to town.
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