The huge demonstrations that have been going on for the past week at the state capitol in Madison protesting the Wisconsin governor’s proposal to cut benefits and take away state employees’ rights to collective bargaining have boosted A Room of One’s Own’s bottom line. Sales are up 30% over “a normal cold February” at the feminist bookstore, said store owner Sandra Torkildson, who reported that political buttons and bumper stickers are especially hot items in her store these days.
“We’re selling everything, though,” Torkildson said, “A lot of teachers are here from throughout the state and teachers like to read.”
Besides placing a sign expressing support for protesters in the store window, staff set up two book displays promoting books on labor history, educational politics, and other topics of interest to those protesting the governor’s power grab. Titles on display include There Is Power in a Union: The Epic Story of Labor in America by Philip Dray; The Turbulent Years: A History of the American Worker, 1933-1940 by Irving Bernstein and Frances Fox Piven; Company Towns in the Americas by Oliver J. Dinius and Angela Vergara; and Ruined It for Everyone! 101 People Who Screwed Things Up for the Rest of Us by Matthew Vincent. One book display is in the store window, and the other at the store entrance.
The store has been mobbed throughout the protests, with Saturday’s gathering of 70,000 protesters on Capitol Square bringing hordes of people from all over the Midwest into the store throughout the day, where they talked and browsed among the books while taking a break from voicing their opinions.
“We’re also getting thumbs up from people just walking by the store,” Torkildson said.
