Broadway Books Burrito Feed:
Hey there!
So the Broadway Books story seems to have finally come to an end, a happy ending worthy of story-telling for years to come.
I found myself in Portland two weeks ago. Initially the visit was scheduled as a means for me to visit friends, throw some frisbees around various State Parks, and hang with the fam. Because this whole Broadway Books thing caught so much steam, however, I spent many of the preceding days looking forward to the possibility of wrapping this whole thing up with a full belly and a smile on MY face as a result of the positives that came from my initial plea to get the Portland public to shop at Mom's store.
I was contacted by KGW News Channel 8 on the day of the eventual burrito cash-in to see about meeting them for an interview, which I did happily. I met them at Broadway Books and Mom and I provided brief interviews before we headed to Cha Cha Cha! KGW then came to the burrito spot to cover what amounted to be only a few people coming (I'll get to that in a minute). Here's the link to the video of the spot they did on the evening news that night (THANK YOU Nick Bradshaw and crew at KGW!): http://www.kgw.com/video/index.html?nvid=322702&shu=1
Mom had these sweet tickets printed up to commemorate the occasion:
Some very close friends came and a handful of friends of the bookstore. Some old high school friends' parents also arrived. We'd ordered and paid for 80 burritos in advance, not really knowing what to expect. Cha Cha Cha made 40 initially and I ended up doling out only around 25. The remainder of those 40 burritos I had the pleaseure to donate to gentlemen at the Portland Rescue mission with dear friends. Failure? Not a damn chance. As it turns out, no one went shopping for the burrito at the end of the economy's siesta! It was all about getting out to support a great, small, independent business. In fact, a few people who came for the event denied the free burrito and ordered their own, paying Cha Cha Cha instead. They came just for fun, to meet Mom and I, and of course, for a tasty burrito. I'll have you know that even a few people forced money on me to help cover the burrito debt!! Thank you all.
At the event I even met a freelance author from The Oregonian whom I'd been contacted by on Twitter. Michael Bales wrote a fantastic piece covering the entirety of the scenario for The Oregonian which is available to read on-line here. Thank you Mr. Bales!
Yesterday I called home to see how the store was doing, post holiday burrito craze, and was delighted to learn that the store was still doing fantastic and that business was up over last year by a considerable margin. Mom reports that nary a day goes by without someone mentioning my plea, I love that.
I sincerely hope that the trend continues and that Broadway Books has garnered some new interest by the Portland faithful who will continue to shop there as long as they have the option. I learned via text message from Mom -I think this whole technology-trend has caught up with her, she's texting all of a sudden- that there was yet another blog post and a couple new reviews on Yelp! that reflected the recent up-swing in business for Broadway Books. Have a look at those here!
The rest of my vacation to Portland was phenomenal. I was able to accomplish everything I had intended to, from playing golf, to hanging with friends, to coming home with some new kicks ;) I even managed to meet some new great people while I was there, thanks for the breakfast hang-out! Mom hasn't stopped smiling since December 11th and neither have I.
Again, thank everyone involved so much. Long live independent businesses! My part in all of this may now be at and end, I'll go back to blogging about shoes and art and disc golf, but I'm politely requesting that my message live on. Please continue to locate your local bookstore, record store, restaurant et al for all of your shopping needs. I know I will.
Love,
Aaron
So the Broadway Books story seems to have finally come to an end, a happy ending worthy of story-telling for years to come.
I found myself in Portland two weeks ago. Initially the visit was scheduled as a means for me to visit friends, throw some frisbees around various State Parks, and hang with the fam. Because this whole Broadway Books thing caught so much steam, however, I spent many of the preceding days looking forward to the possibility of wrapping this whole thing up with a full belly and a smile on MY face as a result of the positives that came from my initial plea to get the Portland public to shop at Mom's store.
I was contacted by KGW News Channel 8 on the day of the eventual burrito cash-in to see about meeting them for an interview, which I did happily. I met them at Broadway Books and Mom and I provided brief interviews before we headed to Cha Cha Cha! KGW then came to the burrito spot to cover what amounted to be only a few people coming (I'll get to that in a minute). Here's the link to the video of the spot they did on the evening news that night (THANK YOU Nick Bradshaw and crew at KGW!): http://www.kgw.com/video/index.html?nvid=322702&shu=1
Mom had these sweet tickets printed up to commemorate the occasion:
Some very close friends came and a handful of friends of the bookstore. Some old high school friends' parents also arrived. We'd ordered and paid for 80 burritos in advance, not really knowing what to expect. Cha Cha Cha made 40 initially and I ended up doling out only around 25. The remainder of those 40 burritos I had the pleaseure to donate to gentlemen at the Portland Rescue mission with dear friends. Failure? Not a damn chance. As it turns out, no one went shopping for the burrito at the end of the economy's siesta! It was all about getting out to support a great, small, independent business. In fact, a few people who came for the event denied the free burrito and ordered their own, paying Cha Cha Cha instead. They came just for fun, to meet Mom and I, and of course, for a tasty burrito. I'll have you know that even a few people forced money on me to help cover the burrito debt!! Thank you all.
At the event I even met a freelance author from The Oregonian whom I'd been contacted by on Twitter. Michael Bales wrote a fantastic piece covering the entirety of the scenario for The Oregonian which is available to read on-line here. Thank you Mr. Bales!
Yesterday I called home to see how the store was doing, post holiday burrito craze, and was delighted to learn that the store was still doing fantastic and that business was up over last year by a considerable margin. Mom reports that nary a day goes by without someone mentioning my plea, I love that.
I sincerely hope that the trend continues and that Broadway Books has garnered some new interest by the Portland faithful who will continue to shop there as long as they have the option. I learned via text message from Mom -I think this whole technology-trend has caught up with her, she's texting all of a sudden- that there was yet another blog post and a couple new reviews on Yelp! that reflected the recent up-swing in business for Broadway Books. Have a look at those here!
The rest of my vacation to Portland was phenomenal. I was able to accomplish everything I had intended to, from playing golf, to hanging with friends, to coming home with some new kicks ;) I even managed to meet some new great people while I was there, thanks for the breakfast hang-out! Mom hasn't stopped smiling since December 11th and neither have I.
Again, thank everyone involved so much. Long live independent businesses! My part in all of this may now be at and end, I'll go back to blogging about shoes and art and disc golf, but I'm politely requesting that my message live on. Please continue to locate your local bookstore, record store, restaurant et al for all of your shopping needs. I know I will.
Love,
Aaron
posted by dude at
6:34 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
Links to this post:
Create a Link
<< Home