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ARLINGTON, Va. - Bills, bills, bills are mounting for a locally owned bookstore in northern Virginia, and now they’re turning to social media and the community for help.
One More Page Books has been a staple in the Arlington community for the last twelve years. Management says over the last few years costs have increased to stay in business while profits are down.
Inflation, rising rent, and maintenance costs have started to pile up, and the situation is becoming dire.
"It’s horrible," said Maryann McLoone, an Arlington resident, and One More Page Books customer. "We live in north Arlington and I try to frequent as many local businesses as I can."
The bookstore started a GoFundMe page to help raise money to cover its expenses. The owners told FOX 5 that in seven days they exceeded their $35,000 goal.
The GoFundMe states that increased expenses caused by website enhancements made during the coronavirus pandemic, plus unexpected costs to repair plumbing and AC are specifically to blame for One More Page Book's financial woes.
While the bookstore is apparently not in jeopardy of closing its doors, at least for the duration of their lease (which is another 18–20 months), they were needing help to pay their expenses.
"We kind of have gotten to a point where this year we were a little bit down in terms of shopping in-store, and so that with interest rates being the way they are now we kind of had some … a lot more bills than we would like to have at this point in the year, so we reached out to our community for help," said Lelia Nebeker a manager and book buyer at One More Page Books.
So far, the mom-and-pop bookstore has more than 400 donors with donations ranging from $10 to $2,500.
For those interested in contributing, management says the best way to help is by donating to the GoFundMe campaign. If that isn’t an option, they're asking people to support them by shopping at the store or online, and telling their friends about the cause.