In the first of what Changing Hands Bookstore hopes will be a series of evening events, more than 150 people attended the Go Fashionably Green fashion show at the Tempe, Ariz., store on January 19. “It brought a lot of new people into the store,” said general manager Cindy Dach. The event helped sell some books that night, but equally important, noted public relations manager Holly Nelson, who coordinated the show, it reminded residents that the store could be a community meeting place. “I think we made a connection to new customers who will remember the experience they had at Changing Hands, and hopefully they will come back to the store again,” Nelson said.
To get the show off the ground, Changing Hands partnered with area retailers. The event “embraced the DIY/ecology/shop locally community,” noted Dach. The show, which began at 9 p.m., was successful enough that Changing Hands has scheduled a second after-hours event for February 16—a panel discussion on sex. “We may podcast that one,” said Dach, who noted that the programs were organized after she and the 22-year-old Nelson talked about the kinds of topics that interest her and her friends.
