> 100% funded!
Many thanks to the 180+ donors who have made our campaign a success! We've surpassed our initial goal of $13,000 with two days left in our campaign. All funds contributed from this point forward will be earmarked for enriching our children's section -- in which we would like to include durable, kid-sized furniture ($480) and a children's mural with literary themes ($800 - $1,200).
See you soon in West Asheville!
Firestorm is opening a new bookstore
After six action-packed years, our co-operative is undertaking a big transformation. We've left downtown for West Asheville, where we'll be reopening in a bigger space that better supports our vision of a sustainable, community bookstore and event space.
From DIY publishing workshops to #Occupy assemblies, we hosted over 1,400 unique community events at our old location, a basement storefront on Commerce Street. Despite humble beginnings, our unique book selection and exceptionally good coffee served us well, garnering accolades from unexpected places, including highbrow critics at Zagat and The Huffington Post. Most importantly, our old location served as a crossroads for travelers and locals who forged new relationships, shared their stories and — in sometimes tiny ways — changed the world.
A place called 610 Haywood Road
At the end of 2014, we signed a lease on a lovely storefront in West Asheville, next door to Sunny Point Cafe. This 2,500 sqft location will more than double our retail floorspace without compromising our ability to run a great vegan coffee shop and host free community meetings, film screenings, workshops and forums.
With expanded floorspace comes the ability to put our selection on par with that of other first class indie bookstores. We'll be adding over 1,500 new titles, expanding our existing sections and creating new ones that our old store lacked. Our inventory will still have the offbeat flavor you love, there's just going to be a whole lot more of it! Additionally, we want the new Firestorm to be a place that is exciting and welcoming for folks of all ages, which means space that is kid and parent friendly.
Based on feedback we received from our patrons and community partners, the new Firestorm will include both a 300 sqft community room and a 240 sqft shared office. The latter will serve as a new home base for our friends at the Center for Participatory Change (cpcwnc.org), a fourteen year old nonprofit that builds collective power to create equity in WNC.
Perhaps most importantly, this relocation will allow us to sustain and reward all the hard work that makes Firestorm possible. For the last six years, our co-operative has been a labor of love, with member compensation remaining largely symbolic. At 610 Haywood, we'll be able to establish a payrate that supports participation by folks with school debt, children, medical care or other expenses that would previously have sent them elsewhere.
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On our own terms
Our collective isn't just working to open an amazing indie bookstore, we’re striving for another world. As a worker-owned and operated business, we offer an example of how workers can organize themselves, on their own terms without bosses or fixed hierarchies. Our co-operative is directly democratic and committed to confronting systems of oppression both within ourselves and the world around us.
Our expansion to Haywood Road will better position us to model cooperativism as a workable and desirable alternative to the capitalist workplace. Additionally having a larger, more successful space will afford us greater resources to leverage in support of grassroots movements right here in Asheville.
Why your support is crucial
In order to succeed at 610 Haywood Road, we'll need to expand our inventory, add new equipment, prepare the storefront and hire additional collective members. We've already secured the majority of our $53,000 budget from lenders, including the Northcountry Cooperative Development Fund (ncdf.coop). That leaves $13,000 for which we turn to you, our community.
Your contributions will help us get the doors open, put up a fresh coat of paint, hang an eye catching storefront sign and commission a mural facing the intersection of Haywood Road and State Street. We'll be posting more about each of these expenses over the next sixty days.
Other ways you can help
Funds raised in this campaign are crucial, but there's going to be
many opportunities to pitch in, so keep an eye out for regular updates
on Facebook, Twitter, our website and our mailing list!
One of the best things you can do to help us reach our goal is
to share this campaign via social media. In fact, we'll give you a free cup of
coffee if you share our campaign. Just take a
screen shot of the post and either email it to us or bring it in after we've opened!
Want to help us get the word out locally? We've got flyers for your favorite street lamps and refrigerators! Hit us up at info@firestorm.coop.
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