Meet Eddie Cardenas, Laredo's Newest Used Bookstore Owner!

Q&A

Me: What was your response when you heard that B. Dalton was closing? Were you a regular customer?

Eddie: When I heard that B. Dalton was closing, I thought, Well that's too bad, but it probably opens up an opportunity for someone else. I have been living in Indianapolis recently and I bought books mostly from Half-Price books and Books-A-Million.

Me: When did you know that opening a used bookstore was going to be a serious endeavor, versus just a dream?

Eddie: I was actually working on opening a bakery, having just graduated from pastry school, but I ran across some research I did in 2003 when I had dared to dream that I could open up a bookstore and decided to go for it this time.

Me: Why did you opt to open a used bookstore rather than a general bookstore?

Eddie: I had a shoestring budget to work with and felt that a used bookstore would help me get my foot in the door for something bigger later on.

Me: What was, and is, your vision for the store? What types of books do you hope to stock most of? Who is your target customer?

Eddie: If things go well, I will probably open a branch in south Laredo and start offering new books as well. At the same time, I will be investigating starting up a bigger bookstore with all the amenities, like a Books-A-Million type store.

Me: Will the store host any type of events for the community?

Eddie: Maybe, I haven't given it much thought. I have thought once in a while that I would like to have a group form up that reads books out loud. Guest readers would help get that started.

Me: How did you acquire the store's opening inventory (donations, etc.)? How many titles, approximately, will the store carry at once? What will pricing be?

Eddie: I bought the inventory from a used bookstore in Dallas that offers up books and advice to people wanting to start up a used bookstore. I will have a lot of titles, somwhere between 4,500 and 5,000. They will be Mysteries, Adventure, Sci-Fi, General Fiction, Horror, and Romance, as well as a couple shelves of non-fiction and westerns

Me: How/why did you choose Calton Rd. as the store's location?

Eddie: I thought [it] was centrally located enough to attract customers from all over the city. There's plenty of traffic going through and a lot of traffic from the HEB, Luby's and the Emperor Garden.

Me: How do you think opening a used bookstore will affect/change your life?

Eddie: I have lived in 4 different cities and moved 7 times between those cities in the past 9 years. I hope the bookstore grounds me and brings more people into my life.

Me: What has the response been like so far from family, friends, community members?

Eddie: I love the reactions I get from people when I tell them I'm opening a bookstore. Everyone, from family and friends to the lady that took my telephone hook-up order, to the accountants I interviewed, to the city inspectors that I dealt with and all the bank people I have talked to--all are excited about the prospect. Sometimes it seems that I'm not excited enough the way people react.

Me: Have you hired employees, or will you be the at the bookstore each day?

Eddie: I will be at the bookstore myself and will eventually hire help so I can take a day or two off during the week.

Me: What was your career before you decided to embark on this journey?

Eddie: I've been working as an International customer service rep for International Paper for the past 10 years and I studied to be a Pastry Chef for the last year of those ten. I actually moved to Laredo to open a pastry/bakery shop. I felt that the bookstore was a more viable option and tabled the bakery idea. For now.

Me: What is your favorite book and why?

Eddie: One of my favorite authors is Alan Dean Foster. I love his sense of humor and can read just about anything he writes. Incidentally, he also wrote a couple of Star Wars stories and I can't ever get enough of the Star Wars world.

There you have it! Show your support to Eddie by visiting Escape Again when it opens--I'll let you know when the date becomes certain. Any comments or other questions for Eddie? Post them below!

There's No News Like Good News

Oh, dear . . . With only four posts in the last month, no wonder my Google Analytics are dismal for March. Thanks to those of you who are still with me!

The last three weeks have been filled with the stress and tedium of moving: bubble-wrapping wedding china, cleaning neglected areas of the house, driving to and from Goodwill with new loads of old stuff, garage sale, brutal cardboard cuts, meals standing around the kitchen island, exhausted, sore sleeps, and so it goes. There's a sort of haze that surrounds a move, isn't there? It becomes isolated almost completely from other aspects of your life until you forget that, once, you wore high heels, talked to clients, BLOGGED. In any case, the worst of it is over. Though our new home is mostly empty and its garage is filled to frightening capacity with boxes, we're in and we have Internet. And where there's Internet, there's life to be lived.

Enough about that. I'm happy to inform you all that there's been another development in the Laredo bookstore saga. A couple of days ago, I received an e-mail from Eddie Cardenas, a fellow Laredoan who has been working toward opening a used bookstore. And he's worked quickly! The store, which will be called Escape Again, is slated to open this week!



And fortunately, thanks to a homeward bound trip for Easter, I'll be able to check it out and meet Eddie in person. Additionally, Eddie has agreed to let me interview him for the blog, so be looking forward to a Q&A with him--tomorrow, I hope. Escape Again is located on 608 W Calton Road, Laredo, TX 78045. Call (956) 568-1609 if you'd like to know how to support Eddie's efforts.



More coming soon. In the meantime, tell me what's new with you! What books are you reading? Have you visited any indie bookstores lately? For those of you in Laredo, are you excited to visit Escape Again when it opens?