Episode 26: Nina Barrett-Bookends and Beginnings

This week on, “Inside the Skev,” we interview Nina Barrett the owner of Bookends and Beginnings. Bookends and Beginnings is an independent bookstore located in, “Bookman’s Alley,” located at 1712 Sherman Ave, Alley #1 Evanston, IL 60201. We discuss her ties to the store, why she became a bookstore owner, the book selling industry, her career in writing and her connection to Evanston. Her store is purpose driven in a personal way.

Bookends & Beginnings just celebrated its 5th birthday. The building used to house a different bookstore in it, and Nina did a story on it when she was in college at Northwestern University. It closed several years ago, and Nina opened up her store in 2014. She talks about her love of the space, and how she competes with Amazon and chain stores, and how she urges people to support independent bookstores.

Nina discusses the development that almost occurred on her location, and why she thinks it is so important for downtowns to have spaces like hers that offer lower rent in these areas. If you destroy all of the small independent shops, it can destroy the ecosystem of the neighborhood. She stresses the realities versus the fantasies of owning a small independent business and how lower rent is so important for her business to be viable.

Nina talks about how her store is so different than many other stores, and what things they do differently. She and the staff also hand curate all of the books. Bookends and Beginnings also has many events at the store, which can be found here: https://www.bookendsandbeginnings.com/event Some customers call it a speak easy for books where you have to know the password to get in so you can get drunk on the books, and it feels so much better than shopping at a chain store.

Bookends and Beginnings can also be found online at https://www.bookendsandbeginnings.com, on Instagram at @bookends_and_beginnings and Facebook at @bookendsbeginnings.

Please share this episode and tag Bookends and Beginnings, @IndieBound #shopindependent and #insidetheskev.

I’d like to thank several people for help with today’s show. This includes my real estate brokerage, Dreamtown Realty in Evanston for helping me with my graphics for the show. I’d like to thank Industrious in Evanston for use of their space to record follow them on Instagram at @industriousevanston. And if listening to this podcast gave you the bug to buy or sell real estate, email me at aaron@skevanston.com or go to my real estate website at http://www.aaronmasliansky.com And don’t forget to subscribe! Thank you.

Photo credit to Jeff Barrett for the photo of Nina Barrett.