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River Bank Books & Music - Downtown GR

Prankster

By Prankster
in Grand Rapids

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Josh Whistle-Stop

Josh

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hello everyone. booklady here. while googling to find media content for a few publishers - i came upon this thread. thanks for all of your support and enthusiasm. please introduce yourselves when at the bookstore! :thumbsup:
Welcome to UrbanPlanet, booklady! We've noticed that we are in the top few google results for just about anything downtown; glad we can support the downtown book market. :thumbsup: I sure will introduce myself next time I'm in.
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mejane Whistle-Stop

mejane

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Hello Booklady!

Love your new store. Have visited a couple of times already

and have recommended your place to friends. Great interior

and nice selection of books. Really great art and music magazine

selection. The coffee was good, as was the service at the counter.

Helpful staff. John Serba, in the Press, recommended your food,

so that, and a music night, is on the agenda.

I hope to see your business thrive in its new home.

Will seek you out to say 'hello' on our next visit!

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GrandRiverCityKid Unincorporated Area

GrandRiverCityKid

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hello everyone. booklady here. while googling to find media content for a few publishers - i came upon this thread. thanks for all of your support and enthusiasm. please introduce yourselves when at the bookstore! :thumbsup:

I would suggest some more 'urban life' magazines. Maybe it's just us, but ones like Domino and Modern Lifestlye would be nice amongst the home magazine section. I'd buy one every month. Love the place though and did buy a magiazine...

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snoogit Town

snoogit

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Wow, a 14 screen theater! I assume it would be built in one of the city lots behind the VAN?

I wonder what group is doing this? My gosh...do we have enough parking in the downtown for all this? We'll have to put an aircraft carrier on the Grand River for parking.

lol I don't think you will see the sprawling mess of a parking lot like you see at Star Theatre on Alpine :P

But a new parking deck wouldnt be out of the question.

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MJLO City

MJLO

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I would assume a new parking Deck would be key, especially if they could strike a deal with the city, some kind of see a movie, park for free type of deal. All this cineplex talk seems a bit speculative. I'm not exactly connected by any means. I haven't heard anything about it, other than on UP. I think we should ground ourselves a little. I cant remember where I heard it, what thread, but someone asked if we possibly could hurt downtown developement with our enthusiasm. While I truly dont think that's the case or even possible. I think lately we have been strattling the edge between an outlet of information, and a bunch of trigger happy dreamers. We are creating buildings that have not even been concieved!

On the bookstore note. I really enjoy it, in fact I am such a fan, I find myself there three, four times a week. They make a wicked latte, and I've been getting my friends to go there and make purchases, vs. using the cookie cutter suburb stores.

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jayblogger Whistle-Stop

jayblogger

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The bookstore is great! Helpful staff, good selection of books and mags. The music selection needs some help, but they can work on that. (My services as a music consultant are available if needed)

The only problem is that they open at 10:00 a.m. --- I usually hang out downtown after working out in the morning, and if they opened up at 8 or 9, I wouldn't have to kill time somewhere else before they open.

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booklady Crossroads

booklady

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more urban magazines on the way. thanks!

limited space in music - and so many have ipods today! we buy all "new releases" and "bestsellers" for the downtown market. it normally takes 6 months to determine what people are listening to. pop is the best selling in this downtown store and believe it or not - kelly clarkson has sold the most along with bob dylan and corporate love breakdown! (blue grass trib to radiohead) :rofl: personally - i like the blues but you can't stock what just one person enjoys...

at this time i don't know anything more on the theater. i do know that we have billions of dollars scheduled in the next two years and downtown is only going to continue to grow.

regarding being to enthusiastic; i personally don't believe one can be overly enthusiastic regarding the revitalization of downtown grand rapids. did anyone catch the disturbing article in mbiz last week? the last two pages crucified downtown - appeared to me to be somewhat of a contradiction considering they had been printing on all of downtowns positive progress all year...

thanks again for the positive and helpful feedback. let me know if you need recommended reads!

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GRDadof3 Ecumenopolis

GRDadof3

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more urban magazines on the way. thanks!

limited space in music - and so many have ipods today! we buy all "new releases" and "bestsellers" for the downtown market. it normally takes 6 months to determine what people are listening to. pop is the best selling in this downtown store and believe it or not - kelly clarkson has sold the most along with bob dylan and corporate love breakdown! (blue grass trib to radiohead) :rofl: personally - i like the blues but you can't stock what just one person enjoys...

at this time i don't know anything more on the theater. i do know that we have billions of dollars scheduled in the next two years and downtown is only going to continue to grow.

regarding being to enthusiastic; i personally don't believe one can be overly enthusiastic regarding the revitalization of downtown grand rapids. did anyone catch the disturbing article in mbiz last week? the last two pages crucified downtown - appeared to me to be somewhat of a contradiction considering they had been printing on all of downtowns positive progress all year...

thanks again for the positive and helpful feedback. let me know if you need recommended reads!

Regarding MiBiz booklady, I only read their online version occasionally. Could you point me to the article? I'm interested to hear what they had to say.

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snoogit Town

snoogit

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Never mind, I think this is it. Don't fret booklady, there's a reason some people "teach", and others "create":

The plight of downtown retailers - Ben Rudolph, MiBiz.

Not that I'm saying anything bad about teachers, but if they they were visionaries, they'd go crazy in a classroom setting.

I like the blurb about restaurants that sing happy birthday :P

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GRDadof3 Ecumenopolis

GRDadof3

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:rofl: I missed that. I'm not saying he's totally wrong, but true opportunities are created when certain gifted people can see what others can't, and take a chance on that gut feeling. That's fine Ben, the only thing I can suggest for a business for you would be a selt-esteem bookstore. :P
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torgo Town

torgo

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:rofl: I missed that. I'm not saying he's totally wrong, but true opportunities are created when certain gifted people can see what others can't, and take a chance on that gut feeling. That's fine Ben, the only thing I can suggest for a business for you would be a selt-esteem bookstore. :P

Yah...I don't think he's totally wrong either, but I think he could use a healthy dose of optimism, that's for sure.

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Rizzo City

Rizzo

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I hear Mr. Rudolph is a person who is disliked and even hated in this community. I remember when WoodTV did a piece on a economic professor that said Grand Rapids needs to become a more open society, his voice was quickly quited by the usuals. Might we take Rudolph's advice?

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jayblogger Whistle-Stop

jayblogger

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Posted

Never mind, I think this is it. Don't fret booklady, there's a reason some people "teach", and others "create":

The plight of downtown retailers - Ben Rudolph, MiBiz.

Not that I'm saying anything bad about teachers, but if they they were visionaries, they'd go crazy in a classroom setting.

if i find the time this weekend, i'll write a point-by-point rebutal to Ben's article. he tried to squezze so much in there, it went nowhere. far too glib for something in a biz journal.

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booklady Crossroads

booklady

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:rofl: I missed that. I'm not saying he's totally wrong, but true opportunities are created when certain gifted people can see what others can't, and take a chance on that gut feeling. That's fine Ben, the only thing I can suggest for a business for you would be a selt-esteem bookstore. :P

This was a bit strong.

"1. Downtowns thrive on diversity. Everyone knows that Grand Rapids is one of the most racist and homophobic communities in the nation. If you are one of the few who don

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john_denver Hamlet

john_denver

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True, his statement you mentioned was a bit strong. However, I do believe GR is somewhat segregated (not intentionally but possibly by history or chance).

I agreed with him on this part of the article:

"The root of the problem is the basic demographics of Grand Rapids. Affluent young Grand Rapids area singles have always moved to larger cities, away from West Michigan, during the “courting” age range of 18-30. They then often move back to raise a family here. Look at the census population data. This tendency among young singles is very clear from the population statistics."

I moved away from GR in my early 20s and did not return until I was 32.

I lived in several European countries for a while and then Seattle for about 6 years. I do like Grand Rapids very much and want to make it work (as a place for me to live) but I do always ask myself why I moved back to GR. So far the only reason I have come up with is family (parents, siblings).

I personally do not have a family but if I did I would still stay in the Hertiage Hill area and frequent downtown as much as possible. I want to do my part to make it a cool city but the downtown has yet to turn the corner towards sustained prosperity. I do everything to avoid the burbs...I would like to see downtown self-sustaining.

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