“This town means a lot to me.” Bookstore moving to larger space in Salem
Tricia Ross is the owner of nature + nurture, an independent bookstore in Salem which started in 2021 specializing in books about nature.
She’s going on four years of running the bookstore, currently located at 515 East State St. in Salem and preparing to relocate into a larger space just a few doors down.
“The business has attracted the absolute best customers; a lot of what’s grown here is because of the people that come into the bookstore,” she said. “This town means a lot to me, and its history means a lot to me.”
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This fall, Ross is working on shifting operations over to her newly-acquired space at 553 East State St. which used to be Macmillan Office Supply.
The bulk of her sales come from customers visiting the brick-and-mortar bookstore, but Ross has readers placing orders online from around the U.S.
“I want to scale up my online orders, but I can’t do that without workspaces for my employees to sort out the shipments and where they’re going,” she said. “There is nowhere to put shipments except in the middle of a tiny room in the back that I had decked out for my kids to hang out in, but that quickly became storage.”
In the new space, Ross said she wants to have comfortable seating for people to stay and read, as well as more programming like classes, book clubs and reading groups.
“I collaborate with so many other businesses like Bread and Books,” Ross said. “We offer 15% off all the bread books. Now I’ll have so much more room to do that and set out sections of books for homeschooling.”
The building nature + nurture is moving into in the heart of historic downtown Salem dates back to 1839.
“I grew up here and remember coming to downtown Salem for shopping, so it’s really something to be a part of it now,” Ross said. “When I was in college, I interned for Main Street Salem when it was here at the time, promoting and marketing the downtown businesses, so it’s really neat now that I am a part of that downtown with my own business.”
Visit the bookstore from 10 a.m. - 5 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday in Salem, or stop by during an upcoming special event:
- Nov. 21 - Fill a Tote Sale for Pink Friday (15% off whatever you can fit in the tote)
- Nov. 22 - nature+nurture collaborating with Meg’s Coffee Trailer for a sip-and-shop Saturday
- Nov. 28 - Black Friday offers and giveaways
- Nov. 29 - Shop from 10 a.m. - 8 p.m. on Small Business Saturday during the fourth anniversary celebration for nature + nurture with music by Humbles Country from 4 - 7 p.m.
- Dec. 5 and Dec. 6 - Head to Alliance for nature+nurture’s Christmas market at Beech Creek Botanical Gardens and Nature Preserve from 5 - 9 p.m.
