Island Books and Crafts in downtown Sault Ste. Marie, Mich. celebrated Independent Bookstore Day on Saturday, welcoming those who still love to turn pages rather than read on a tablet.
Independent Bookstore Day occurs annually on the last Saturday in April to highlight the unique ways local bookstores and booksellers contribute to their communities.
This special one-day national event started back in 2015
There are around 2,600 independent book stores in the United States and every single one is unique.
Island Books and Crafts is definitely unique with so much more than its thousands of available books.
Kelli Jarvi-Townsend and her husband Les own the corner bookstore located at the intersection of Portage Avenue and Ashmun Street.
They opened up the doors in December 2010.
"I was still working, but Les was retired. I have always wanted to have a bookstore. When Les retired, he really wanted to move up here (from Shelby Township just north of Detroit) and we found this place, so we decided go ahead with it," she said.
The moment they saw this building, they knew it was for them.
"We love this store. It's wide open with all the windows. We looked at other places in town and did not think we could afford this place, but it worked out," she said.
Granted, with over 20,000 titles covering just about every subject, there shouldn't be any reason not to stop in. However, over the years, Kelli and Les have had to adapt to changes in the market and the economy by making changes inside the store.
"It is tough working against Amazon, but we curate for the people who live around here. We know what they like. We also carry a lot of the local authors. And we host events with local authors. You can't get that on Amazon," she continued.
They have also continued to broaden their special gifts area ranging from pictures, to wood-working, to jewellery and more with most of the products from local entrepreneurs.
"It's very important to have local people making this stuff and they have a place to display their items. It helps them and it helps us," she continued.
Despite the expansion of books available on tablets, Townsend said they still get a lot of the younger people in here. "We have a lot of books in our children's and young adults sections," she added.
For those who love audio books, Townsend said they have that option available on Libro.fm.
"Independent Bookstore Day, it is a big deal. It's a nation-wide event. It gets the word out that, yes, we are still here, even after this one day event," Townsend ended.
