First things first: TOMORROW (Friday, November 3rd) for Fountain Pen Day, we will have Mike Matteson of Inkdependence streaming live from the store! He’ll be streaming from 5pm-6pm, and in the store at 4pm, with some Fountain Pen Day goodies to share. Come geek out about pens, ink, and paper! We’re also having a flash sale — buy $75 or more, and receive a free Pilot Varsity, either to enjoy yourself or give to someone else to introduce them to the hobby.
Now, below, all the other things we’ve been meaning to tell you about. We’ve
been working out the kinks in our mailing list and blog systems, but going forward, you’ll be hearing from us more frequently.
On September 1, 2023, Crazy Alan’s Emporium was sold by Alan Cohen to
new owners John and Michele (us). The store is open for business, with
the same hours you’re used to — Monday through Thursday from 10-7,
Friday and Saturday from 10-6, and Sunday 1-6.
The store has continued to be open since the 1st. We stayed very late
the first couple of nights to rearrange and organize the front of the
store, and are currently working on the back. Please stop in and see
what we’ve done with the place, and let us know what you’d like to see
available in the store!
We’ve received many great suggestions already, and have been acting on
them. We’ve heard the call for more art supplies, and have received
our first big shipments, including watercolors, pastels, many
different art papers, paints, canvas, and much more. We heard the
desire to see more local items, and we’ve brought it some local jigsaw
puzzles featuring images from around North Carolina, and locally made
wrapping paper with cityscapes of Chapel Hill and Durham.
We know it’s time to be picking out your new planner/calendar for 2024
— we have the Quo Vadis, Exacompta, At-A-Glance, and Leuchtturm ones
that Alan has carried for years.
Besides making sure we have what you’ve asked for, we’re also bringing
in products that we love and want to share with you. We have Fresh Cut
Pop-Up Flower Bouquet Cards; many attractive editions of Field Notes
pocket notebooks, including the latest two releases (“Birch Bark” and
“Foiled Again”); Lochby waxed canvas products, including a pocket
field journal that is a perfect way to carry your Field Notes, and a
larger A5-sized field journal with Tomoe River paper inserts; washi
tape; and many new boxed card and letter sets, including some from
Midori. When it comes to fountain pens, we are keeping stocked in
Pilot, Kaweco, LAMY, and Sailor, and have added TWSBI — brightly
colored piston-filler pens that are great for showing your favorite
bottled ink through their translucent, large capacity bodies.
A little about our story
Michele and I are both fountain pen enthusiasts and lovers of all
things stationery. We were customers of Alan’s for years before this,
and are very grateful to him for all of the fun and the many beautiful
pens, inks, and notebooks he’s provided us over the years. It means a
lot to us to be able to keep the store going, and we greatly
appreciate how hard Alan worked (and is still working!) to make this
transition successful. You’ll still find him in the store most Mondays
(but sometimes Tuesdays or Wednesdays if he was at a pen show over the
weekend) from 12-4, for the next ~4 months.
This is the first retail business Michele and I have owned, but we
jumped at this opportunity because of how much sense it makes with our
story. In high school, we worked together in my mother’s store in Michigan selling custom cards, invitations, and calligraphy prints. Later, Michele was assistant manager at several Borders stores. She graduated with a degree in English literature and gender studies. I graduated in philosophy and then earned an MFA from the Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics at Naropa University. Michele has been working in Occupational Therapy with seniors for the last several years, and I was the executive director of a nonprofit focused on solving the social issues created by Big Tech. We share a passion for words, writing, art, creativity, and finding the perfect gifts for loved ones and friends, and we will be shaping the store around those interests. Besides Michele and I, you’ll also still see familiar faces Aya and Alina, who worked with Alan and are staying on. They have extensive knowledge about the items we carry, and we couldn’t be doing this without them!
The future!
We’ll be posting regularly about new products as they come in, and
about upcoming sales and events. We’ll have a grand “reopening” event
once the dust settles a bit, and we plan to have space for classes,
presentations, and meetings going forward. To keep up with everything,
you can:
- Subscribe to the mailing list
- Follow us on:
- Subscribe to this blog by RSS
We’ll be making making many improvements to our online presence in the
coming months, including enabling online ordering with in-store
pickup, and a better web site design. We look forward to seeing you in
the store, and hearing all your ideas for events, and products to
have. You can also reach us by email at info@crazyalansemporium.com
or through our contact form.
Thank you for your support, and for shopping local!
P.S. Check us out in the Daily Tar Heel!