NewCanaanite.com (https://newcanaanite.com/tag/elm-street-books)
Local photographer Jane Beiles has published a planner titled, “52 Weeks: A Pictureful Planner for Inspiration & Organization.” Her first customer: Elm Street Books.
‘Who Knew?’ is sponsored by Walter Stewart’s Market.
The fun thing about getting older (besides knowing where all the candy is hidden) is that you start to enjoy giving gifts more than receiving them. There’s a midlife shift toward benevolence, whether brought on by parenthood, maturity, or working with a therapist to develop a more sensible attitude toward hoarding Legos. Turns out, ‘tis actually better to give than to receive.
And when the holiday season rears its $960 billion head in mid-October, we all start to get the Gift Sweats. Not that we won’t find anything; that’s impossible when consumer culture confronts each of us with 4,000 to 10,000 advertising messages per day. But we fear that it won’t be the right thing.
This week on 0684-Radi0, our free podcast (subscribe here in the iTunes Store), we talk to Manda Riggs, co-manager at Elm Street Books, about how the locally owned bookshop is faring amid the pandemic and what sort of in-store activity it’s seeing now, as well as some good fiction and nonfiction recommendations this spring
Here are recent episodes of 0684-Radi0:
For today’s Q&A, we reached out to Elm Street Books owner Susan Rein and co-managers Manda Riggs and Melissa Thorkilsen. The store is open 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. for curbside pickup. (Those seeking to order books can do that through the Elm Street Books website or by calling 203-966-4545 or emailing children@elmstreetbooks.com or frontlist@elmstreetbooks.com.)
Here’s our exchange. New Canaanite: How are you faring at Elm Street Books? Susan Rein: We are closed to people coming into the store but we are answering the phones, responding to messages, taking orders on our website and through our emails and able to put books outside the door for people to pick up and we are mailing orders as well. Our sales are certainly not what they usually are but we are gratified that our customers seem to be anxious to keep reading and putting puzzles together and celebrated the arrival of the Easter Bunny, such that they are choosing to support the store in this unsettling time. We are hoping that, like us, our customers feel like our products are “essential” to their wellbeing and continued stimulation.
On a gloomy day this week, I nipped into Gelatissimo to escape the rain. I was there to find out owner Nuccia Mazzonetto’s favorite local product or service as part of NewCanaanite.com’s “Biz on Biz” feature.
Inside, I found Mazzonetto behind the gelato counter, serving two teenage girls with heaping cups of the frozen treat, while out the back a staff member churned fresh gelato as I watched. When asked what her favorite local product or service was, Mazzonetto struggled to decide. Eventually, she landed on Elm Street Books. “I love the book store,” she said.
Mazzonetto said her favorite part about shopping at Elm Street Books is the excellent recommendations they give—whether she’s buying a book for herself or as a gift.
“They help you,” she said.
“It’s more one-to-one,” she added.