And so, it's really more of a personal decision.
We've had four kids, and uh, this is the first time we can look out on a horizon where we're not going to be raising young kids and taking care of young kids. We have a daughter who's just been bat mitzvahed, and it was the for the first time in 27 years, we no longer have any kid in our home who's under 13 years of age. Lisa Barry: Sounds like you got a bit of a preview of what life would be like if you weren't operating the Crazy Wisdom Bookstore in Ann Arbor?īill Zirinsky: Yeah, Lisa, I think also we were already kind of thinking about even before that of what would be a transition for our family. And I think that that was a relief for me not to be dealing with staff transitions and the complications of a tea room. And when the pandemic started, we were closed for six months, and we closed the tea room because we couldn't run a food service establishment during the pandemic, especially one that was just the kind of auxiliary part of the business. I think, in some ways, the transition has been a liminal moment for a lot of people and businesses, by which I mean, it's been a threshold. Lisa Barry: Has the pandemic had any impact on your decision?īill Zirinsky: That's an interesting question, Lisa. And we had our most profitable year in our history, and I thought that was a good way to go out. And I would like to be looking out as I get closer to 70 years of age-I'm going to turn 68 in December-at a different horizon. As anyone who has owned one, especially a small one, knows, you know, a third of a century is a great run. The business is open seven days a week, three hundred and sixty days a year, and there's a certain hamster wheel aspect of staffing and management issues of a retail business. Lisa Barry: I'm thinking a lot of emotions and thoughts went into making this decision for you and your wife.īill Zirinsky: Yes, of course, as you can only imagine.īill Zirinsky: Oh, I think that I shared them in the announcement, which is that we feel that we're ready to to be untethered from the relentlessness of a retail business. And so, we have the good fortune to be able to sort of see what options come to us over the next number of months.
And I think my wife and I, who are both in our sixties, are ready to look out on new and different horizons. And that's now reaching eight thousand readers a month. And over the last year and a half of COVID, we've been enhancing our digital presence with the Crazy Wisdom bi-weekly e-zine. We will be expanding the Crazy Wisdom Journal, which we've been publishing for 25 years, both print and online, which reaches about 20,000 readers per issue. Who comes into to make an offer to purchase it? What happens after that? We're not quite sure yet. We'll see what happens over the next few months. Lisa Barry: So you say selling or closing, so there's an option?īill Zirinsky: Yeah, we have an option. What's going on?īill Zirinsky: Oh, well, we announced on Monday through our e-blast and on our website that we will be selling or closing, um, Crazy Wisdom Bookstore, the bricks and mortar part of it, on the eve of our 40th anniversary and after a third of a century of our owning it the day after Valentine's Day in February. Lisa Barry: As the owner of Crazy Wisdom Bookstore, there's your first hint. Credit Bill Zirinsky / Crazy Wisdom Bookstore & Tearoomīill Zirinsky: Thanks, Lisa, for having me.