Bookish for a Bookstore…
On March 1st, 2026 I drove (a very short 4 blocks) to our local bookstore to vendor at their first Makers Market hosted on the bookshelves of their store.
First off, thank you to Erin and Derik who were lovely enough to open up their bookstore to us makers, and have a safe place to be able to sell what we love doing! As well as a thank you to all the other markers for coming out and having the best time we could have had on a chilly wintery-spring day.
Second, I wanted to talk about things that I experienced and heard from customers in my little section.
What surprised me the most? I think that biggest thing that surprised me for this was that, for a local small bookstore, this market, was not as busy as I thought it could have been, but also at the same time, it was busier than my last market at a coffee shop in Franksville.
What products did people love the best/ sold more? I was glad to see that the bookmarks are still doing good at a bookstore, but also, I had a couple people get my new items that are for sale, the Tea Wallets! Now, granted I did make a lot of them in hopes that people would purchase them, but in all honestly, I didn’t think that even 1 person one buy one from my section so soon! But both of those, the bookmarks and tea wallets, were the only things I sold/ people seemed to look at the most while at this market.
How different it felt from coffee shops? Considering I have had two pop ups at coffee shops so far, they were very different to selling at a bookstore. Normally at a coffee shop, there always seems to at least a steady flow of people coming in and out, but for the bookstore, it was really the first 2 hours that it was like this, then it seemed to be dead the rest of the time with maybe 1 or 2 people coming in here and there, like the other makers’ family and such.
What were customers interested in? I did have a couple people ask me for other fabrics for the e-reader sleeves I had brough, but they were a little disappointed in the price range I had them. Unfortunately, because they are quilted and use extra fabric, I have to make them a bit more costly to justify making them. That’s really with all my book sleeves, minus the hardcover ones, that I do not quilt, but still use more fabric for. I also had a few people asking for paperback book sleeves, which of course I had some cut out at home, just not fully made to be able to bring them to sell. But that was really all. Oh! I did have one person possibly interested in one of my mobile sip and paint events for their workplace. I do hope to hear from them soon!
Growing my small business is always one of the things that I hope to be able to do to be able to one day have this as my full-time gig. Markets like this one is one of my favorite reasons why I do this. So I can connect with people and see what makes them happy and what would bring a cozy feeling to their day. It makes me even more excited to keep creating cozy, bookish pieces for this community.
