Danielle Mullen, the owner of Semicolon Bookstore, a Black-owned book store in Chicago, says that the global Black Lives Matter campaign has resulted in a huge financial boost for her business. She says that her store has gone from selling 3,000 books a week to 50,000 books a week.
As a woman-owned business, Danni says that her store is committed to having a direct impact on raising literacy rates in Chicago and beyond. She is selling books both online and inside her recently-reopened shop located at 515 North Halsted Street. “We were created with one thing in mind — community,” she says.
According to The New York Times, many other book stores across the nation are having the same success. However, sometimes the orders are so overwhelming, that they can’t “manage the deluge of orders”.
Even Danni admits that she struggles to keep up, and they’ve even had to unplug the store’s phone. “We couldn’t answer it and answer email and fulfill orders at the same time,” she said. “We now have almost 60,000 followers on Instagram — and we’re a bookstore! We had probably 3,500 to 5,000 before.”
For more details about Semicolon bookstore, visit SemiColonChi.com or follow the store on Instagram @SemiColonChi
This article was written by BlackBusiness.com.
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