photo credit David Beebee for the KW Record
When construction began in Uptown Waterloo at the end of February, we took a “wait and see” approach. We wanted to see how people would react to the inconvenience and how that would affect us as a business. In many ways we extremely surprised and touched by the public reaction to the picture in The Record. People visited us, sent tweets and messages, telling us how important our store is to the community, that they’d do what they could to support us.
One amazing person even started a “Words Worth Wednesday” campaign, committing to visiting us every week and encouraging others to join her (we’ve included some more information below if you’d like to join!). We had a slew of media attention chronicling our experience with construction (here is the latest piece from CTV regarding the“corduroy road” story), and many many well-wishers stop by daily to essentially tell us to keep up the good fight.
And we are keeping up the fight. We’ll be here in your community as long as you want us to be.
Ten months (and possibly longer) is a very long time to ask any business to hold out, with no greater support. It just is, plain and simple. To that end, we’ve devised a list of ways to keep us around during these trying times:
▪ Pre-purchase gift cards for the future.They never expire and if you’re sure you won’t be able to make it into Uptown as often as you usually would, this is a great way to continue to support from afar – and it benefits you at a future date. Purchase a GC over $50 and we'll give you 10% off!
▪ Let us know if you’re having difficulty getting to us, either by car, walking or biking, or by bus. Knowing that signage is needed, etc. helps us inform the City and Grandlinq about our needs as a business. So send us a quick call, tweet, message, or smoke-signal to let us know. It helps us in a big way to help YOU access the shops in Uptown.
▪ We have initiated a bike delivery service. See below for details.
▪ We have a backdoor entrance off of Hughes Lane (sandwiched between and running parallel to King and Regina). There is a doorbell in case we have the door locked (mostly for evening shifts). But we are very happy to let you in and out of the back door. Moving forward it is our great hope that the City keeps Hughes Lane clean and inviting for pedestrian traffic. Please send us a message if you find this is not the case. Hughes Lane is an effective walking path for an alternate route through Uptown.
▪ Consider buying just one more book. Whether you only shop with us occasionally or we see you every week (and we love you!) pick up that book you've "been meaning to get around to." These small purchases add up to make a huge difference.
▪ Become familiar with the parking on Regina. There are hundreds of spots behind City Hall and at Station Lot, with free two-hour parking. Access Regina from Bridgeport or Erb, and enter from Kitchener via Weber (which has no ION related construction this year).
▪ Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram for regular updates about construction, with pictures and a detailed map of how to reach us. Or simply give us a call – we always love to hear from you.
▪ Consider adjusting your route into Uptown instead of abandoning it. We have some solutions for you if you contact us, depending on your particular needs. Daily patterns are easy to alter, please don’t alter completely away from us. There are alternatives.
Getting through 2016 will be a challenge. We’re not going to lie to you. But, you have our word that we will always keep you updated about our status. We are not too proud to ask for help. I’m remembering the time in 2012 we needed to move our store one door over and had such an outpouring of support; people came out to move shelves and books and thirty years of memorabilia from the basement (sorry about that one!).
So trust us, we know how you feel about us. It is mutual. We absolutely would not be here without you and we wouldn’t WANT to be here without you. But we will need help this year and it will take ten months.
Welcome to Words Worth Books. How can we help you?
From the Words Worth Team
Mandy, Dave, Kristen H, Chris, Maggie, John, Kristen C, Curtis, & Jessie