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| MahoganyBooks owners Ramunda and Derrick Young, with daughter Mahogany. | |
As part of its Retail Gets Real podcast, the National Retail Federation features an interview with Ramunda and Derrick Young, founders and owners of MahoganyBooks, Washington, D.C., focusing on challenges the store--specializing in books about the Black experience and African American culture--has faced this year.
"When the pandemic hit in March, the Youngs did some creative thinking to continue to serve the community, developing book bundles for kids stuck at home, 'Blind Date with a Black Book' mystery boxes and virtual author events," the podcast noted. "When the protests that followed the killing of George Floyd resulted in a surge of demand for books about racism as well as a desire to support Black-owned businesses, the Youngs faced a new challenge--serving a new kind of customer and meeting overwhelming demand, while at the same time meeting the needs of the customer that's been with them for 13 years."
A key element in meeting these challenges was staying true to the Youngs' vision for the store. As Ramunda Young said, "We can get caught up in these things that come and go. But I think, if we stay grounded in why we started that business, why that passion or that vision really spurred us to put all this energy and time out there, I think that's where we'll stay productive and successful." She added that the huge wave of business that came in the last two months from people wanting to support Black-owned bookstores and read anti-racist books made her worry that she might have to change her approach for the new customers. But quickly she realized, "If we stay true to who we are, those who are here for the right reasons--who are really in a space where they want to learn and grow and be introduced to Black literature and Black history--they'll stay around."
Without intending to, the store's beginnings as an online and pop-up venture, from 2007 to 2017, before it opened its bricks-and-mortar location, served it well in a variety of ways that the Youngs couldn't have foreseen. For a decade, the store connected with its customers online, used social media and built a solid e-mail list, as well as met customers at events, conferences and places where it had a pop-up presence. When the pandemic hit this spring, unlike so many other bookstores that had to bolster or begin online sales, MahoganyBooks could focus on sales and marketing. "We already had this banging, rocking website where people had been following us for 13 years," Ramunda Young said. "We did not have to tweak our website one bit."
Derrick Young remembered that growing up in Washington, D.C., he had access to "a number of Black-owned bookstores" and that when working in a bookstore during college, "I saw the impact it had on people every day." At that point, "having a bookstore became my goal. The entire idea was to create something where people had access to their culture, they felt celebrated, they felt empowered."
Ramunda Young called MahoganyBooks "a business with soul, and it has our soul intertwined with our customers' souls and energy and intention and our ancestors' souls and intention. When I think about sitting in this space, centuries ago that our ancestors were hung for reading a book that's on our shelves. And here we are sitting in a space where we own the books that are on the shelves. It's a revolutionary act."