With all the upheavals this past year in the Waynesville bookstore world, both Best-Teague and Gilley are ready to go forward with their new venture and settle into a new routine. “When you have to put your hand on every book in the store, then you come up with ‘We need more of this and less of that,’” said Best-Teague. When Best-Teague reads on her own, she chooses memoirs of people who aren’t famous.īoth learned a great deal about their new business while doing a throughout inventory of the bookstore recently. Meanwhile, Best-Teague is passionate about children’s books and enjoys holding readings for babies under 3 on Tuesday mornings. Gilley is an avid reader of murder mystery authors and adores handing out biscuits to dogs that walk in with their owners.
Gilley has experience as office manager in a Charlotte bookstore, while Best-Teague has worked in bookstores since the early ‘90s, including at a women’s bookstore in Durham and a large independent bookstore in Raleigh, Book buying responsibilities will be shared, though each co-owner will bring her own specialty. “It was a dream job to work in a bookstore, but owning one is beyond a dream,” said Gilley.īest-Teague said she has thought about owning a bookstore ever since she worked at Sloan’s Bookstore in Waynesville, which transformed into the Waynesville Book Company before once again morphing into Osondu Booksellers.īest-Teague fondly remembers that her son literally took his first steps in that bookstore and how she and her husband dreamed of one day owning the business. The two were thrilled with Baggett’s offer. “It’ll make a nice three-unit shopping center,” Robert Baggett said.Īfter deciding to retire, Robert Baggett concluded that Gilley and Best-Teague and Gilley would comprise the best team moving forward. Robert Baggett has torn down two houses on the property and plans to put the land up for sale. However, the store will remain in its current location due to “cost reasons.” The Baggetts had earlier purchased property on the corner of Boundary and Walnut streets intending to move Blue Ridge to a new location with more parking. The terse email she sent out to her newsletter subscribers on May 10 did not provide further explanation. His sister Betsy will relocate to Florida, where her twin daughters and granddaughters reside.Īlso in May, Margaret Osondu, former owner of Osondu Booksellers and director of operations at Blue Ridge books, announced that she was no longer employed at the bookstore. It’s not the first thing people usually think of when they try to recount the relative…Īt 61, Robert Baggett plans on spending most of the year in North Carolina while boating in Florida in the winter.
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