Moe's Books 2020 Life Line
Donation protected
Doris Moskowitz, Bookseller & Moe's daughter, asks for your support for Moe's Books. $100,000 (50% staff + 50% books)
Books are so important to all of us. Berkeley needs many wonderful places to enjoy them, but to me Moe's Books is unique in what it provides to the community. Please support us in our efforts to provide essential books in a desperate time.
If given gifts of cash at this time from the community, we would use it to support two important things that we do: employ 21 people and buy vast quantities of books from individuals, libraries, and art museums.
Without this help, we will need to reopen very carefully in terms of reinstating staff who have been on unemployment since March 17th, and only buying books in a very conservative way.
The problems with this approach are serious.
One, our staff has been under duress, as many people have been, but book-selling, obviously a noble and respected profession, is not a lucrative one. We would like to improve these conditions for them.
Two, filling a store of our size requires a constant stream of interesting and valuable books to get to the good ones. We need to buy almost constantly. Normally, we rely on the daily influx of cash from sales to purchase fresh inventory. We have qualified buyers on staff 10 to 10 everyday to discern what we want and how much of our limited resources, either cash or trade, we ought to spend to get it. Our goal is to be fair and to stay in business.
How can we replenish our inventory without the cash from sales?
Also, before the pandemic, we were in need of good books. Now that we have been relying on cataloged books for sales since March 17th, we are running dangerously low.
This is the business we are in, buying and selling high quality books and employing highly qualified people. Please help us prepare to a bright future for all of us by donating to our fund.
Be Well, Doris Moskowitz
Bookseller & Moe's daughter
Books are so important to all of us. Berkeley needs many wonderful places to enjoy them, but to me Moe's Books is unique in what it provides to the community. Please support us in our efforts to provide essential books in a desperate time.
If given gifts of cash at this time from the community, we would use it to support two important things that we do: employ 21 people and buy vast quantities of books from individuals, libraries, and art museums.
Without this help, we will need to reopen very carefully in terms of reinstating staff who have been on unemployment since March 17th, and only buying books in a very conservative way.
The problems with this approach are serious.
One, our staff has been under duress, as many people have been, but book-selling, obviously a noble and respected profession, is not a lucrative one. We would like to improve these conditions for them.
Two, filling a store of our size requires a constant stream of interesting and valuable books to get to the good ones. We need to buy almost constantly. Normally, we rely on the daily influx of cash from sales to purchase fresh inventory. We have qualified buyers on staff 10 to 10 everyday to discern what we want and how much of our limited resources, either cash or trade, we ought to spend to get it. Our goal is to be fair and to stay in business.
How can we replenish our inventory without the cash from sales?
Also, before the pandemic, we were in need of good books. Now that we have been relying on cataloged books for sales since March 17th, we are running dangerously low.
This is the business we are in, buying and selling high quality books and employing highly qualified people. Please help us prepare to a bright future for all of us by donating to our fund.
Be Well, Doris Moskowitz
Bookseller & Moe's daughter
Organizer
Dee Moesdottir
Organizer
Berkeley, CA