In mid May the family moved to Portland, Oregon. Michael had accepted an internship at the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry (OMSI) and I was looking forward to seeing what book hunting would be like in a city with lots of rain and lots of readers.
What we have found after little over a month is that while there is an endless supply of books and readers; there are also a large number booksellers (on and offline) working in the Pacific Northwest. Reading In Montana is now working in the shadows of giants and shoulder to shoulder with other successful online bookstores. Not only are there Powells (Portland) and Amazon (Seattle), there is also Thriftbooks.com (Auburn, WA) and McKenzie Books (Beaverton, OR). We have yet to determine exactly how Reading In Montana will fit into and thrive in the much more complicated book supply chain of the Pacific Northwest
.We are experimenting with new ways to find high quality - in demand books for our readers, while still providing excellent customer service, honesty in book description, and fast shipping options. We are also working out plans for a new name for the business.
Please continue to support Reading In Montana by looking for us when you buy books on Amazon.com and starting your shopping right here from our blog. We have moved geographically and are making some changes, but the online store thanks to the wonders of the internet and the Fulfilment by Amazon (FBA) program hasn't had to close a day in this process. We continue to find, sell, and ship great used books at great prices.
I've also included some photos of a visit to one of the biggest online book distributors in the country. We purchased a bulk (huge) box of books from them recently. While it won't work in the future for us as a source of good books, we did find some diamonds among the rough and got to see one of the book-selling giants at work. It was amazing to see the sheer quantity of books handled at this distribution center.
That was about 1000 books (1,500 lbs) we culled through in just a few days time. What the learning experience that was!
Happy Summer and Happy Reading!
Catherine @ Reading In Montana
