Books bring business to Fairmont
\"The reality is, it takes individuals to take that leap and start these businesses, and it takes the community to be supportive of these businesses.” — Abby Shoen, Evermore Books
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FAIRMONT - Evermore Books is the newest business coming to Fairmont, with its grand opening happening from 2 to 7 p.m. on Wednesday at 72 Downtown Plaza.
The store is run by Abby Shoen, who was born and raised in Sherburn, graduating from Martin County West in 2009. From there, she received her degree in Ag Business, began running her family's Weiss Feed Mill, and has run her own magazine, All Things Home.
With this background, Shoen's past and learned skills certainly came in handy.
"All of my experiences have worked towards finishing this project," she said. "Whether it was doing the flooring, drywalling, tiling, etc., it was learning through my home magazine and building furniture that led to that aspect of this. As far as books, they’ve gotten me through this. I listen to a lot of audiobooks, and I love to read when I can. It’s a joy and a happiness."
As for why a bookstore, Shoen said it's an inspiration from one of her favorite places.
"One of my favorite places to go is Barnes and Noble because you walk in and you’re just happy and surrounded by books," she said. "I’ve always wanted to have my own business. I come from a family of entrepreneurs, and this was something I thought would be amazing, would give me joy, and allow me to continue to do my other business, which is writing my magazine. I can be here and do that as well."
Placing Evermore Books in Fairmont was a deliberate choice, as Shoen said the city is quite a gem.
"There’s a lot of talk about Fairmont," she said. "About what we have, or more so about what we don’t have. The reality is, it takes individuals to take that leap and start these businesses, and it takes the community to be supportive of these businesses."
Finding a place was the biggest hurdle for Shoen. She said many places she looked at were in such poor shape it was unaffordable for her to fix them up; they were only for rent, and Shoen wanted to purchase due to her planned renovations; or they were only being used for apartments, and the bottom space wasn't available.
Then, Shoen found 72 Downtown Plaza, previously owned by the Fairmont Sentinel.
"I was searching Beacon for businesses that I hadn’t seen open," she said. "I saw this one and looked it up, saw who owned it, and I reached out to Brooke Wohlrabe. It turns out they were interested in selling. We went from there, and then my realtor Vonnie Cone lined everything up. Got into it and looked like everything was perfect, and we started getting that ball rolling."
To make the space match Shoen's vision, it took nearly seven months.
"I thought we were going to have a little bit of electrical to do," she said. "I found these bookshelves online, and they were four inches taller than the false ceiling, so we had to take the false ceiling down. Then we had to fix the ceiling. The walls were all plaster and they started to crumble, so then we had to take the walls down and start with new walls. It just turned out things like that kept happening. We just started from fresh, we scrapped everything."
Evermore Books features large sections in fantasy, romance, thriller and children's books as well as areas for general fiction, non-fiction and cookbooks.
"Number one, those are the top sellers," Shoen said. "Usually, that’s what sells. I also love fantasy and romantasy; that’s my favorite. I know what to get. That’s when I order what people want."
In this vein, Shoen said there will be multiple ways for people to get the books they want via Evermore Books.
"I will have an area where you can make suggestions of things you want me to add to our stock," she said. "You can also order directly from me here, and I will get it in for you. You can order online, and it’ll get shipped directly to you. We’re a part of the American Booksellers Association, so people can buy books off bookshop.org and pick our bookstore, and anything they buy will ship directly to them and we'll get some of that [money]."
This can also be done with audiobooks, via Libro.fm.
In addition to their main area for books, which also features seating and dirty sodas, they also have a special children's book section inspired by Harry Potter. There will also be space to reserve for groups like book clubs.
To start off, the day-to-day will be handled by Shoen's niece, Skyler Weber. While Skyler and her sister Blakely will be the two main employees, Shoen said they have received a lot of interest and will see what they need in terms of expanding staff as the business gets started.
To have made it to this point, Shoen said she is done with the renovation and work piece, and ready to get to running the business.
"We got some of the new books in," she said. "We got 25 copies of Threshing Day, which is a huge book release for fantasy readers, and we just got to scan them in and put them on the shelves, and I can’t tell you how good that felt versus me putting trim up or sanding drywall."
Evermore Books will be open from 2 to 7 p.m. Wednesday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday and noon to 5 p.m. on Sunday.
For more information, visit evermorebooksmn.com/.