There is a wall near the back of Pages & Prose on Oak Street that Rebecca Thompson calls the Promise Wall. It's covered, floor to ceiling, in handwritten notes: reading promises made by customers, a book they commit to finishing, a genre they promise to try.
"People take them seriously," Thompson says, standing in front of it with obvious affection. "They come back months later to update their note. You can't do this on Amazon."
AGAINST THE ODDS
Thompson opened Pages & Prose in the spring of 2018, when every data point in publishing suggested she was making a mistake. Three independent bookstores had closed in the greater Port Laken area in the preceding decade.
"I knew the statistics," she says. "I also knew that every independent bookstore that was thriving had figured out the same thing: you can't compete with Amazon on convenience. You have to compete on experience."
THE PROGRAMMING ECOSYSTEM
Eight active reading clubs meet monthly. Saturday morning story time draws 20 to 40 families weekly. The Blind Date with a Book display (wrapped books described only by three cryptic sentences, available for $15) has generated more customer conversation than anything else in the store.
THE PANDEMIC AND THE PROMISE
In March 2020, Thompson closed the physical store and spent 48 hours convinced she'd lost everything. A longtime customer named Patricia Osei launched a crowdfunding campaign without telling her. It raised $41,000 in 11 days.
"This isn't my store," she says now. "It belongs to the people who fought to keep it open. I'm the steward. That distinction matters to me."
Pages & Prose is open daily from 9 AM to 9 PM at 456 Oak Street.