November Featured Bookstore

ee Booksellers
Edgewood Center
5500 S. 56th Street, Suite 4
Lincoln, NE 68516

(We spoke with Linda Hillegass of Lee Booksellers, in November about bookselling and the holidays. Linda and her husband Jim McKee own the bookstore.)

1. What are some of the traditions at Lee Booksellers for the holidays, such as sales or events?

All year long we keep a pot of coffee for our customers and in November and December, we put a plate of homemade Christmas cookies alongside. Joni, a longtime staff member loves to bake and for the two months before Christmas, not even the Keebler elves are busier in the evenings. We’re pretty sure some of our customers come into the store in December just to get one of her meltingly buttery Scotch shortbread cookies.

2.  Is there anything Lee Booksellers is doing new this year?

We also do lots of store autographings and fall is our busiest season. November usually sees one or two events a week. In December we’ll be hosting a favorite suspense writer, Omahan Sean Doolittle. This year we’ll also have a free children’s concert featuring The String Beans, a local group that features its own original children’s songs for ages 3 to 8. They have a new Christmas CD, Rocking Your Christmas Stocking, and will intersperse songs from that album with outrageously goofy jokes. We’ve also started two store knitting clubs that have drawn a very enthusiastic response.

3. What do you expect will be big sellers for this season?

The bestsellers for the season usually don’t become clear till around the first week in December, but at this point we’re seeing strong sales of Doris Kearns Goodwin’s TEAM OF RIVALS and Sandra Boynton’s YOUR PERSONAL PENGUIN and the penguin doll that goes with it. By mid-December, I think we’ll be seeing good numbers on the reasonably priced paperback edition of Joel Sartore’s NEBRASKA: UNDER A BIG RED SKY.

4. Why do you believe it is important to support independent bookstores?

Here’s what we said about that in our last newsletter:

 

If you believe that local businesses add something to our community, NOW IS THE TIME to vote with your dollars to keep us here. 

Like all independent booksellers (and many other local retail stores), Lee Booksellers will make the profit that sees us through the year during the next two months.

We believe that shops like Lee Booksellers and The Coinery, as well as Ideal Grocery, Finishing Touches, Habitat, Hobbytown, Schaffer’s, Finke Gardens, Campbells Nursery and others bring individuality to our community. Add your own favorites to this list. 

Local businesses contribute to the local economy by hiring local cabinet shops, sign makers, contractors, accountants, insurance agents...you get the idea. In contrast, a chain store typically makes minimal use of local services.

Chain stores export profits to corporate headquarters. A 2003 economic impact study in Austin, Texas concluded that for every $100 spent at a chain, only $13 remained in the community, while $45 remained when that $100 was spent at a hometown business.

We encourage you to “un-chain” yourself. Shop local and keep your dollars at home. With Christmas just around the corner, don’t forget the little shop around the corner.

5. What are you reading right now?

I just finished—and loved—Michael Perry’s TRUCK: A LOVE STORY. Now I’ve gone back to read his previous book: POPULATION: 485. Both are about his life as an EMT and freelance writer in small-town Wisconsin. His writing is thoughtful, funny, smart, well-crafted—and did I mention funny?!