826
by Aaron Bell
Some of you may have heard of a quarterly literary journal called Timothy McSweeney’s Quarterly Concern, or simply, “McSweeney’s.” It is a bit of an unusual one too. The first issue printed only pieces that had been rejected by other publishing houses. From there, there have been many other odd creations! I particularly remember one which was about riding a rollercoaster and consisted of several paged of “eeeeeee” and “aaaaaaaaah.” Quite brilliant.
In any case, the man who runs McSweeney’s, Dave Eggers, is also in charge of a non-profit called, 826 National, which is “dedicated to helping students, ages 6-18, with expository and creative writing.” To achieve this goal, they offer “tutoring, field trips, workshops, and in-schools programs” all totally free to students and schools who need their assistance.
Now, the reason why I bring this up is part of how they pay for all this; through themed stores. Namely, a Pirate Supply Store in San Francisco (the original), a Superhero Supply Store in Brooklyn, a Spy Supply Store in Chicago, a Space Travel Supply Store in Seattle, a Monster Union (much smaller store) in Michigan, and finally a Cryptozoology (the study of creatures that may not be real) store in Boston. The Boston store is not quite open yet, but the 826 location is already running.
Each of these stores is brilliantly designed, down to the last detail. A case in point is that of 826LA, a Time Traveller themed store that opened just last year. Here are two of the “unique” products they sell:
After all that exposition, I would like to point you to the blog of the designer for the Time Traveller store, Stefan F. Bucher, who wrote a fun piece about his involvement. There are tons more pictures to enjoy too!
For those of you who haven’t had the chance, be sure to try and get to one of these stores! I visited the one in San Francisco and simply loved it (well, I like pirates too^^), but all of them look to be a blast. Check them out!