Sad Farewell to Rug Store in Newton Corner

 

Lost the Lease on my Warehouse

Today I was forced to grapple with reality.  I have lost the lease on my warehouse and must divest myself of thousands of books that have been for sale online.  Anyone interested in taking over the lot?

Readers -- Need Your Help Finding Warehouse Space for my Book Business!

Hi, loyal readers. As some of you may know, Marash Girl sells out-of-print books on the internet, books which she has stored in a storage facility on Newtonville Avenue,  a few blocks down from where her dad and uncle had their shop (Newtonville Electrical Company, Inc.).  Marash Girl loses the lease on her warehouse as of August 30, 2017.  She cannot renew the lease as the building will be torn down.  She would so appreciate any leads or suggestions you may have as to where she might move her books.  She needs 500 to 1,000 square feet, dry, ground level space, and is willing to share.  Please "pass it on", as the kids used to say in elementary school.  If Marash Girl does not find another space soon, she will be, as they say, "Out of Business"!  

Can you help?

Words to the Wise!

Cold Call:  Peter!  Do I have a deal for you!  For every dollar you invest, I can get you a $10 return.

Grandpa Peter:  Mister, I invest $10 to make a $1 profit.  Goodbye.

Amazing Grace

And speaking of being too religious (see  blogpost of Sunday, February 5, 2017), Marash Girl was having a very tough time with her data base recently, (she sells out-of-print books on the internet . . .) so tough that she feared she had lost the work of several years . . . When out of the blue, she received an order for a hymnal, and then a request for any hymnal that contained the hymn, "Amazing Grace".

Now was this God's way of reminding Marash Girl that there is no reason to get upset about much in the light of God's Amazing Grace?

The juxtaposition of the two occurrences sure put things into perspective for Marash Girl!

And miraculously, her database, though lost, was found!

White Out.

Marash Girl's brain has whited out, what with all the snow on the ground, in the air, and promised for the weekend.  Sorry, folks.  She's listening to "Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me" and can't focus on this post.  Except for the concern about the President's comments on Ivanka Trump's feud with Nordstrom's.  Really?

Sustainable Business Network of Massachusetts Hosts 15th Annual Winter Gala

Thursday evening, in Somerville, Massachusetts, the Sustainable Business Network of Massachusetts hosted a gala fundraiser featuring WBUR's Robin Young.

Above:  2Birds Band  http://2birdsband.com/band/.

Robin Young auctioning off tix to a Red Sox Game

The surprise of the evening was when Marash Girl recognized two old friends on stage (see above, the oud and the dumbeg)  although she did not recognize the musicians . . . actually three old friends, if you include Robin Young whom Marash Girl had just chatted with that morning at the WBUR fundraiser. Marash Girl even met a soon to be friend sitting next to her during dinner, a man who had in the center of his business card the symbol below.                Thank you, Peter Metz, for inviting Marash Girl to join in the festivities! 

Photos above taken by Marash Girl herself, though there was a professional photographer present.

Invest $1 to make $10?

Peter, as he got older, would be sitting in his living room with his feet up on a footstool, chatting with whatever visitor had come by for a bit of Peter's wisdom, and invariably the telephone would ring, and Peter would be heard to say, "I invest $10 to make $1."

"Whatever did the caller want?" the visitor would ask.

"My money.  He wanted me to invest $1 to make $10.  If his investment was so great, why was he wasting his time on the telephone?  Why hadn't he invested his dollars to make ten times what he had invested?"

Hear, hear!  And this was long before the Bernie Madoff scheme came to light!

Invest in America!

David Bosworth's presentation at the Boisi Center on Tuesday brought to mind Vahan Topalian's pronouncement of many years ago:  "People are not interested in reading the news in the newspapers; they just want to look at the ads."

And Peter Bilezikian, a good businessman, a survivor of the Armenian Genocide (1915-1923), a man who loved the United States for welcoming the Armenian survivors,   would always say, "If you're going to buy stocks,  invest in America -- you'll never go wrong.   . . . And the same goes for cars . . . buy American!"

Is that even possible today?

Family Feud at Market Basket

A favorite stop for Cape Codders driving onto the Cape -- first exit off the Sagamore Bridge -- is Market Basket,  a grocery store where folks stock up for the week with the freshest produce and products at the most reasonable prices on the Cape.  This joy has been clouded by the family feud presently taking place between two Arthurs -- Arthur T. Demoulas and Arthur S. Demoulas --  first cousins -- who are fighting for control of the  very popular long-time family-owned Market Basket Supermarket chain based north of Boston.  At the moment, Arthur T. is on the outs but is strongly supported by a vast majority of the supermarket employees, as evidenced by these photos taken by Marash Girl yesterday at the Market Basket in Sagamore, Massachusetts.  Much of the Cape Cod community is praying for peace among the cousins.

Sagamore Bridge Market Basket Employees show support for ousted Arthur T. Demoulas

 

 "We are all family!  This is so sad!" said one of the employees, carrying the above sign outside of  the Sagamore, Massachusetts' Market Basket today.

 Inside the Store

Boston Globe's article on Market Basket feud on display at front of store.

 Outside the Store

"We Support Arthur T."   At the Entrance to the Market Basket, Sagarmore Bridge, Cape Cod, Massachusetts    "Store 69"

The Answer to OldCornerBooks.com Sweepstakes, or, The Wagon Is Full!

Yesterday Marash Girl initiated a sweepstakes, a prize going to the person who guessed the number of books she has listed since she began listing books 20 years ago.

The answers submitted were 73,000      54,321       36,500      

The correct number is 52,067 as of yesterday morning before Marash Girl wrote her blog post!

To the contestants, Marash Girl says (as Peter and Nasreddin Hodja would say,) "You're right; you're right; and you're right, too!" [See http://marashgirl.blogspot.com/2013/09/youre-right-too-favorite-nasreddin.html]

Therefore, each contestant wins a free book in the form of a gift certificate worth $25 (free media mail shipping within the United States) at OldCornerBooks.com.  Just go to the website (http://www.oldcornerbooks.com) and have fun searching!  Awaiting your order . . .

You can't sell from an empty wagon!

Marash Girl, as many of you are aware, is the sole proprietor of the on-line bookstore, OldCornerBooks.com, selling books of all kinds and conditions to customers all over the world.  Quite an interesting and fun business, she thinks; fun, that is, if you love books (as she has over 50,000 books in her warehouse, 35,000 of them already listed online)!  Much of her workday is taken up by her listing her out-of-print inventory on line, detailing not only title, author, year of publication, edition, and printing, but also describing as exactly as possible the condition of the book -- its dust jacket (if it has one), its covers, its pages.  Her cousin once asked her how she could tolerate such detail in listing books online; the answer is in an old Armenian saying, "Kich mu sirem  . . .   գիչ մը սիրէմ… "  If you truly love something, an object a person, the time spent in touching it, looking at it, describing it, loving it a bit, is not considered time spent working . . . so that may be the answer.  But it all calls to mind Marash Girl's father (who, many years ago, was the proprietor of Newtonville Electrical Co., Inc, Newtonville, Massachusetts, and before that --  before the Genocide of the Armenians --  spent his childhood in the streets of Marash, Ottoman Empire, where much of that which was sold, was sold from wagons coming into the city from the countryside). His advice of many years ago:  "Just list 10 books a day," he said; "after all, you can't sell from an empty wagon!"

So if Marash Girl has been in business for over 20 years, how many books has she listed, all told?  A free book to whoever guesses the right answer!

Looking for a book? Old? New? Out of Print? Check out OLDCORNERBOOKS.COM!

Recently a friend asked Marash Girl why Marash Girl never wrote about her online bookstore, OldCornerBooks.com, her 35,000 out of print books, her books housed both in her Victorian home as well as in her warehouse which was once a train depot in Newton Corner!  Marash Girl has not mentioned her bookstore because she did not want this blog to become commercial -- these posts were a break from commercial for her --  but since her friend asked, here it is: a link to her online bookstore of over 35,000 books, just waiting for a new home . . . curious?  Just click http://www.OldCornerBooks.com

And tomorrow Marash Girl will reprint a copy of an article published in the Armenian Mirror Spectator about how her bookstore came into being, an article written by a Radcliffe classmate, now deceased, an article that will give all of her readers another peek into the past!

GOOD NEIGHBOR IS GOOD BUSINESS!

Looking for a good lesson in sportsmanship, salesmanship, "neighborliness"?
Take a look at Champions Sporting Goods, 53 Leonard Street, Belmont, Massachusetts.  Their back door opens onto the town's parking lot, as do most of the businesses on that side of Leonard Street .  The difference between Champions and their neighbors is the sign posted on Champion's back and front doors, a sign which encourages customers visiting Belmont Center to "pass through"!

This sign on the front window of  Champions Sporting Goods, Leonard Street, Belmont, Massachusetts, reads "We are the official cut thru of Belmont Center - Welcome". Posted at the back door as well as the front, the sign encourages customers to use Champion Sporting Goods as a "cut thru" from the parking lot to the main shopping area on Leonard Street, and back again.  Let's hope the customers appreciate the gesture enough to stop and buy a sporting good or two as they pass thru!

A mother walks out onto Leonard Street after she has walked her child safely through
 Champions Sporting Goods from the parking lot in Belmont Center to the main thoroughfare.

Popcorn in the Air

It was only two days ago that Marash Boy was chatting away about a friend who touted the fact that he (his friend, not Marash Boy) was in the popcorn business.  [FYI, popcorn is one of Marash Girl's favorite foods --  (it does fit into the required daily nutrients, does it not?  Especially with butter and salt!)] -- so Marash Girl's ears perked up.  What do you mean, the popcorn business, she asked Marash Boy. Oh, he answered; that's just another way of saying that you own movie theaters. What? (wondered Marash Girl).

It seems that when you own a movie theatre, you make your profit on the popcorn, not on the movie!

Well, as usual, Marash Boy was way ahead of the curve. Yesterday, grinning, he dragged out an article from Sunday's New York Times Magazine which concluded, "Find a good popcorn location and build a theater around it."

Now here's a thought . . . could it be that movie theatre owners learned from watching vendors at baseball games?  Which came first, anyway?  Or should the question be asked once again, "Who's on first?"

MGM offers gambling, jobs and entertainment for the family, or so think those demonstrating in the streets of downtown Springfield, Massachusetts yesterday.

In a city where strip clubs are the main source of entertainment, MGM offers the hope of instant riches, jobs for the jobless, and family fun, or so think the families demonstrating yesterday at the corner of Harrison and Main Streets in the heart of downtown Springfield, Massachusetts.

The little boy on the left holds a sign he made that reads, "Vote 4 our future!" When Marsh Girl asked his mother, "So, are you going to take your son gambling?"  His mother laughed and answered, "When he gets old enough!"

"Entertainment for the family," this young woman assured Marash Girl.
(Marash Girl wonders what Mr. Rogers would have said about that.) 

"Why would you vote for MGM opening a casino in Springfield," asked Marash Girl of this fellow . . .
"Why wouldn't you?" was his answer.  "Jobs, jobs and more jobs! That's why!"

"Vote Yes for Springfield - MGM Springfield, Tuesday, July 16"

A casino that will save the city . . .  that will provide jobs for the folks who live in a city that was already depressed when a tornado wreaked physical devastation two years ago, and a gas explosion further destroyed downtown Springfield a year ago. . . What is Marash Girl's opinion?  An old joke (sorry, but it's politically incorrect) comes to mind . . .

The rooster says, "Cock-a-doodle doo."
The Yankee says, "Yankee Doodle doo,"
And the old maid says, "Any old dude'll do!"

Today the City of Springfield will decide.
                                                                              Photo Credits: Marash Girl

Business as usual . . .

"Cheat me once, it's your fault; cheat me twice, it's my fault."  Peter B.

On Small Business

"Sometimes it takes a year to pay for a day. Sometimes it takes a day to pay for a year. . . ."   Peter Bilezikian, proprietor of Newtonville Electrical Company, Inc., doing business in Newtonville, Massachusetts, from 1932 to 1982.