Ellen Plumb opened Emporia's first bookstore in 1870. Just 146 years later, our town's best indie bookstore is back. Locally owned. Fiercely independent. Ellen Plumb's City Bookstore will:
* Provide a retail book business for Emporia and the surrounding region
* Provide an attractive, diversified retail environment offering customers a distinctive destination experience
* Create, support, and enable literary, cultural, and educational events and activities
*Be long-term financially sustainable and provide quality local employment

A cutting-edge and decidedly unique feature of the bookstore will be the Espresso Book Machine. By simply uploading a document, a professionally bound book can be printed out in about the time it takes to brew an espresso. There are only eighty Espresso Book Machines worldwide. This machine offers authors the opportunity to self-publish and print books--on demand--only as needed, without the huge cost of a long printing run. Additionally, doctoral and masters candidates can create a professional thesis package with virtually no lead time. Faculty from colleges and universities in the region can use the Espresso Book Machine to create and print custom textbooks for their courses--a burgeoning trend nationwide. Professionally bound copies of corporate presentations can be quickly and easily produced. Another valuable aspect of the Espresso Book Machine is the ability to print out single copies of any book available from many major publishers, Google Books, Project Gutenberg, and other sources. Thus, books of all kinds--from bestsellers to hard-to-find to foreign language books--are instantly available at Ellen Plumb's City Bookstore.

The Kansas Collection will feature rare, out-of-print, collectible, and hard to find books. The theme of this curated selection is Kansas: Kansas authors, Kansas history, Kansas people or places or things. The ultimate goal is to develop the Kansas Collection as the go-to source for researchers and serious collectors.

Satellite coffee shop service will be provided by local purveyors. Here at Ellen Plumb's City Bookstore, we believe that "Buy Local" is more than just a slogan--and that it works both ways. In addition to sourcing our coffee shop services locally, we'll be partnering with a local chocolatier to offer signature Ellen Plumb's chocolates. Strong partnerships with local establishments and civic organizations are the bedrock of our business.

A defining feature of the bookstore will be literacy outreach and services. Collaboration with local schools and literacy organizations, plus events like "Read-to-the-Animals" children's field days at the Animal Shelter; book-themed birthday parties and reading events; and a trademark Ellen Plumb's Camp Reads program placing books at area summer camps are valuable efforts toward creating a more literate population, ultimately raising skill levels and earning potential for the entire community. Ellen Plumb's City Bookstore also promotes literacy with Spanish and other language reading material and English as a Second Language collaboration. We intend to compile the best Spanish-language book and periodical collection in the state.