When Alex Tomlinson and his fiance opened Pigeon Post Art & Books nearly a year ago, they could not imagine being the first of three bookstores that would soon open in downtown Scranton.
“It’s a great example of parallel thinking … it gives people another reason to come downtown and plan out a day,” Tomlinson said. “They can visit all three of us.”
A few months after Pigeon Post opened on Biden Street in October, Friendly Alien Books landed on Wyoming Avenue, closely followed by the Lost & Found Bookshop finding a place on another block of Biden Street.
“We knew we were going to have Friendly Alien just around the block,” Tomlinson said. “We had no idea that Lost & Found was going to come and create this trifecta of independent bookstores that we are so, so thrilled about.”
Tomlinson translated that excitement into artwork — he created a design using the “mascots” of all three bookstores for a tote bag and T-shirt featuring the slogan “Support Scranton Independent Booksellers.”
“When Lost & Found opened up with their really cute, snail-based logo, I thought … the three of us have these mascots,” Tomlinson said. “They feature from air to ground, a UFO, a pigeon and a snail.”
The three stores split the cost to print the items and they each sell them in their shops.
‘There is no competition here’
Friendly Alien Books owner Brigid Lawrence admits she was a little nervous about another bookstore opening a few months before her dream shop.
“There was a little panic like, oh, am I going to be too late?” she said.
Her nerves eased as soon as she spoke with Tomlinson.
“There is no competition here. Like we are just all wanting the same thing, and we all offer different things,” Lawrence said.
Then, just before Friendly Alien opened over the summer, Lawrence got a similar call from Kaylee Magda about her upcoming Lost & Found Bookshop.
“We met, and it was the same thing. It was like … so reaffirming that so many people had the same idea of like, this is what the downtown needs,” Lawrence said.
Three stores with separate, similar visions
Magda, a trained emergency room nurse, started thinking about opening a bookstore after she “rediscovered” her love of reading.
Lawrence had dreamed of opening a bookstore for a decade before the timing was right. Tomlinson sold his artwork online for two years before deciding to jump on the former Vintage theater space.
Magda said the reading culture in Scranton was alive and well thanks to the Albright Memorial Library, but she felt this was the right time for independent bookstores to return.
“Along with BookTok and Bookstagram, there’s a surge of indie bookstores opening everywhere,” she said. “I think I was inspired by … seeing all of them go from nine to five jobs to being a small business.”
She was inspired by Known Grove books in Honesdale, but in meeting and working with Lawrence and Tomlinson, she’s found inspiration in their stories as well.
“None of us have a business background,” she said. “We were like, we’re just going to go for it.”
At Pigeon Post, Tomlinson's lifelong passion for birds and art inspire his offerings of art, design and nature books alongside his artwork and work from other local artists.
Friendly Alien offers books of all genres, but given the store's celestial mascot, Lawrence says science fiction and fantasy are her top-selling genres.
Magda also offers all genres of used and new books she can find, but she said Lost & Found frequently sells out of mysteries and thrillers.
Tote bags, T-shirts create ‘bookstore crawl’
Lawrence, like the others, has the “Support Scranton Independent Booksellers” merch on prominent display at Friendly Alien Books.
She said the design has started an informal “bookstore crawl,” when people stop into one of the three stores, they see the design, ask about the other two stores, then pay them each a visit.
“It’s been fun, because then people have been like, ‘wait, there are three?’” Lawrence said.
Tomlinson has felt that excitement from customers daily. He said it proves there is a “vibrant” community of readers and supporters of small business in the city.
“There is a large community of people that want local bookstores and want to buy local art,” he said. “It’s just such a great group of people that come in.”
He plans to continue printing and selling the T-shirts and totes among the three stores — but he advised anyone who wants a blue tote bag to act fast. Supplies are running low, and they may need to print on a different color next time.
“We could not have imagined how warm the reception has been,” he said.
