What should we do today?
That’s a question we’ve all asked ourselves at one point or another and no one has asked it more than parents.
With growing kids constantly in need of excitement and stimulation, it can be hard to find a good variety of events and activities.
A Columbus mom decided to tackle this issue head on by starting a blog that has grown in popularity.
Whether you know it by the giant Playmobile figure outside its door while driving on High Street or by the colorful car that bears its name, Robbie's Hobbies is a central part of the central Ohio community.
Now more than 20 years old, the business has been an oasis for hobbyists of all ages and has created a community based on enthusiasm and passion.
After deciding to move to a large space down the road, Prologue Bookstore in the Short North Arts District faced the problem of how to transport the thousands of books held on the shelves of the store.
Their solution: a human chain that passed every book down the street to the new location.
Guests:
- Julie Miller, founder, “What Should We Do Today?”
- Rob Rosati, founder, Robbies Hobbies
- Dan Brewster, founder, Prologue Bookshop
For "Take Your Child to Work Day," Amy welcomes her special guest co-host (her son) Ari Juravich.
Transcript
This transcript is generated with AI. To ensure its accuracy, review the audio file.
Amy Juravich: Welcome to All Sides with Amy Juravich. This is Fascinating Ohio, a show from All Sides on WOSU where we introduce you to people from the Buckeye state with an interesting story to tell. What should we do today? That's a question we've all asked ourselves at one point or another, and no one has asked it more than parents. With growing kids constantly in need of excitement and stimulation, it can be hard to find a good variety of events and activities.
Julie Miller decided to tackle this issue head on in early parenthood. And has since started a popular Columbus-based blog with the title being none other than, "What Should We Do Today?" And Julie joins us now. Welcome to All Sides, Julie.
Julie Miller: Hi, thanks for having me.
Juravich: And I also wanted to add that today happens to be Take Your Child to Work Day. So we have a special guest with us in this studio for Fascinating Ohio, my son Ari Juravich. Hi, Ari. Hi. And Ari is my co-host today. So Ari, would you like to ask Julie the first question?
Ari Juravich: Yes, why did you decide to start a website about things to do?
Miller: Well, I had two young boys who were four and one, and I was having a lot of fun taking them out to do activities, and I kind of just thought, I wanna share this with other parents. So all I have to do is write about it, right? So people kept telling me, you should start a blog. You should start blog. And so eventually I did. Thank goodness my husband is a web designer, so he was able to create the blog for me. And then it just. Took off from there.
Juravich: Yeah, so it started as a blog, right? It started as like writing kind of just like pictures, short paragraphs on the internet, right. But then eventually you developed it into more, like into an Instagram account too.
Miller: Yes, so one of my friends said you should start an Instagram account. I didn't even have a personal Instagram account So I was like, okay I'll do it Having no idea what it was gonna turn into and it was just kind of at the beginning of the whole Instagram influencing movement and that was about 10 years
Juravich: Wow, 10 years. Okay, so a full disclosure, I've been following you for probably almost all those 10 years because I have a 12 year old and a nine year old who's right here. I was looking for things to do. You popped up at just the right time in life for me. So what was your life like before starting? "What Should We Do Today?" Did you feel like you needed things to get out of the house? What did you, what was that like?
Miller: Yeah, I was a social worker before I had my kids. And then I started staying home with them. And I just, you know, by the time my youngest son was one, I was kind of like, I need something to do, like something to put my energy into to grow. And yeah, so we were just. Going out and trying new places a lot. That's what I like to do anyway. And it just kind of lent itself to sharing about it.
Juravich: How do you find such a wide variety of activities and events? I mean, are you just like Googling all the time or do people tell you about things? Or do you have like the longest notebook list in the world? Oh my gosh. I should have brought my notebook.
Miller: Oh my gosh, I should have brought my notebook. Yes, I do. But at this point, a lot of people do send me information. They'll email me or send it to me on social media. But I do kind of have my regular places that I'm looking for events. By now, I know where to look to find what's going on. But a lot people do email me things, too. And Ari and I are going to talk a little bit about
Juravich: were doing some research and we were looking at your website, you provide a weekend preview of things that are happening that are family-friendly and you do that for just about every weekend. How do you decide what to include in those lists? That's a good question.
Miller: Oh man Honestly, sometimes it's just what kind of peaks my interest personally, and what I think other people and other parents and kids are gonna find us fine. I will say the list used to be a lot longer pre-COVID. It's kind of taken a while for events to come back at the level that they were back like in 2019. I used to have sometimes like 50 to 60 things on the list, and now it's around, I say, 20 to 25.
Juravich: Well, that will also that's more manageable if I thought yes, for you and for me. OK, so you have a very active Instagram page. You have a lot of people who comment and like your posts and everything. That's how I found you. Can you tell everyone your Instagram name so that they can find you?
Miller: Yes, it's what should we do today, underscore C bus.
Juravich: Are there other what should we do to days out there?
Miller: I do have a partner actually in Chicago. So what should we do? Today, Chicago. Did you, did you help them get started or they helped you lived in Columbus and then moved to Chicago and wanted to start the same thing.
Juravich: Okay, wow. Okay. So did you manage imagine yourself as a social media influencer? Like whenever you even started the blog idea, or your friend said to you, you should start a blog? Like, did you ever picture yourself as social media influencers?
Miller: No, I mean, I will always say I had no idea what I was getting myself into, and it turned out to be amazing, but that wasn't why I started it. It was kind of before that was really a thing. It's grown so much in the past 10 years in terms of wanting to be an influencer. But no, I really started out thinking of myself as a blogger more so, and focused on the website. But then social media has just really taken off since then. And it's become a really big part of what I do.
Juravich: Have you learned a lot about making reels and videos? Yeah. I'm trying. I try so hard to be a social media person with even just the All Sides accounts, I can't imagine.
You're listening to All Sides on 89.7 NPR News. And this is Fascinating Ohio. We're talking with Julie Miller, a blogger and social media influencer who hosts the channel, "What Should We Do Today, CBUS?" Also with us in the studio, joining me for Take Your Child to Work Day, we have my nine-year-old son, Ari Juravich. Ari, do you have another question for Julie?
Ari Juravich: Yeah, how did you get the giant, what do your kids think about your adventures?
Juravich: Yeah, so what do your kids think about you doing all this?
Miller: Well, like I said, when I started, they were one and four. One and four And now they're 11 and 14. So they have a little bit different opinions now about what I'm doing, you know, way back when, but I will say they've had a lot of super cool experiences that I think they will look back on their childhood and think it was pretty magical. They're used to what we do.
Juravich: So they humor me a lot. Yeah, so Ari was noticing you put your kids in not every video, but in some of your videos. So when they were younger, I don't, do they like it more than older kids? I don, I don. Or do they still like being in your videos?
Miller: Uh, my oldest son will a lot of times be like, don't post that. So I, um, I kind of try to lessen the, how often they're in the videos these days, just for their own privacy and comfort level.
Juravich: But also, they got to experience a lot of cool things. They probably know more about Columbus than just about any kid. Yes, they do. So as your kids have grown up, what has changed? Have you changed the activities? Do you still try to do a kid focus? What has changed the most?
Miller: Um, yeah, I mean, they, their activities that they're interested in have, and have definitely changed a lot. Um, you know, we went from kind of doing like the play cafes and that whole scene to now they're into things like "Topgolf" and "Scene 75" and, um, you know, they they want to do those kinds of things, but I think a lot of my audience is still interested in the younger child things. So I try to cover that as well still.
Juravich: Do you redo posts like maybe something that you and your kids did years ago, but it's still there right? Yeah
Miller: In fact, I just did that this past week. I had stopped into Blinden Woods Metro Park and they remodeled their nature center. So I went back to my old blog post to add in new pictures of what the nature center looks like now. And I was almost in tears because there were these pictures of my kids when they were so little at the Metro Park. I'm like, aw, but yeah, I have to go in and update those things because things are always changing. Yeah.
Juravich: On average, you have like a half a million views on your blog every year. How have you built up this network? Word of mouth?
Miller: Yeah, I think there's word of mouth, but a lot of it is social media, Facebook and Instagram. And I also have a newsletter, if I could put a little plug in for that, which you can sign up for on my website.
Juravich: Um, do you have like, I don't even know if I could ask you if you have a favorite post because you've done so many, I know that would be hard instead of favorite post. Maybe do you, what's your most popular post? Do you have one? Like do you track one that has the most likes or something?
Miller: I have one on Instagram. It's a reel about children's museums within like an hour's drive of Columbus. And I think that's probably my most popular. It has over 500,000 views. Another park one is really popular with several hundred thousand views. I just posted one yesterday that's going kind of crazy about quirky Ohio road trips. So that's right at the top of my page. If you look at that. That has
Juravich: Ari, that has the dog fountain in Mount Vernon. Ari, have you been to see the dog fountain?
Miller: Yeah. Yeah. That's pretty cool, isn't it?
Juravich: But then we also found out from that post, I did not know Ohio has a pencil sharpener museum.
Miller: In Hocking Hills.
Juravich: Who knew? OK, so when we were looking at your website and your Instagram of just looking at things to talk to you about, you have quite the thorough list of playgrounds. And Ari and I had a whole discussion about how we have missed out on a lot of playground that I didn't even know existed, right, Ari? Did we find some playgrounds you want to go to? So how do you just curate the playgrounds even? That's amazing.
Miller: I feel like my Facebook and Instagram algorithm knows to show me these things, so I feel like I just see when new things are being built, whether it's through different city or city accounts or parks accounts and then you know I have other Colleagues, I guess I would say in the Instagram world. We're all out there exploring and so I learned stuff from them, too
Juravich: We also enjoyed your list of free water play fountains and splash paths. Oh yeah. So I bet that's popular in the summer. Yes, yeah we're getting to that time. Yeah, so that leads me to, I wanted you, you're the perfect person, to give us some tips. Weather's getting warmer, we can spend our Saturdays and Sundays out and about, but then also summer's coming. What are some things you recommend for people to explore, I mean, their own hometown? I mean you don't have to travel, You can just you can find an adventure in Columbus.
Miller: So true. I like to think of myself as a tourist in my own town. And I mean, I think in terms of activities for kids and the Metro parks are amazing. And there's so many things to do in the Metro Parks, just as they are, but they also offer events constantly. I mean, probably every day of the month, there's some kind of event at the Metro I also look forward to all the events at Columbus Commons every summer. They have Commons for Kids on Friday mornings. They have free concerts. They have Food Truck Food Court. They have Farmers Market this year is new. I just saw that. Columbus Commons is adding a Farmers' Market? Oh, okay. Yeah, so that's kind of like when I see that stuff coming out and like I know summer is almost here.
Juravich: And whenever we were talking about, you know, Ari, we love checking out playgrounds. Do you remember me telling you about how much you love whenever they renovate them, the playground at High Banks Metro Park? You like that one? Yeah. Yeah. What, do you have a favorite playground that you can think of? See that's a hard question. You're gonna you're gonna think of that you're trying to think of one the one right by our house. You are allowed to say that one. Is that your favorite playground?
Ari Juravich: Yeah. Como Park. Yeah. Clinton. Okay.
Juravich: Yeah, Clinton Como Park would be our favorite because that's the one we can go to most often. Do you find, are there any activities that are harder to write about? Is there something that you ever struggle to write?
Miller: Um, gosh, I don't know. That's hard. I feel like there's always, you know, something to, I think one thing that I've learned, I will say that is there's something for everyone. And even if, um, if something is exist exists and it's out there, it's because somebody else likes it, you. Know, and I think we all have different opinions about what we like, but that's just something that I have come to respect is like, I I think that this, whatever it is, there's somebody out here that will enjoy it. So I try to keep that in mind when I'm writing.
Juravich: What about the idea of Columbus as a special city? You know, a lot of people just were like, oh, Columbus, you know? But like, I feel like you just said you're a tourist in your own city. I called you at the beginning, like a local explorer, basically. What would you want people to know about the city, like, and what it has to offer that they maybe don't know about? Yeah.
Miller: I lived in Philadelphia for four years, and I just have always said that Columbus has all the benefits of a big city without a lot of the hassle. So, you know, things that were just so much more difficult living in Philly, carrying my groceries for blocks, finding parking spots, the traffic. You know, I know a lot people would argue with me about Columbus traffic maybe, but it's just. Oh, it's not. Yeah, it's not that bad, and I think like we have we have Broadway, we have ballet, we have sports, we have parks, we have a vibrant downtown, and it's all very accessible, and so I think Columbus is an amazing city.
Juravich: Well, we only have, we have about two minutes left and I know you have a list in front of you of things. What would you like to talk about that's coming up or what do you want people to know about?
Miller: Um, yeah, I think I was thinking about some of the things that my kids still look forward to this Each summer things that they've literally asked me about in the past week. What was um, the columbus arts festival That's always a big like sign that summer is here for us and my son just asked me About it this past week are we going to the arts festival? They love the ohio state fair Um, they love going to crew games And we like going to Olentangy Caverns. I mean, there's just like so many things. I have to sit down every summer and kind of like map out the months of what will we do when and try to fit everything in. So summer is just such a fun time in Columbus.
Juravich: All right, so remind us one more time, you have your website and your Instagram handle so that people can find you.
Miller: Yes, I wish it was shorter, but it's not. whatshouldwedotodaycolumbus.com and whatshouldwedoododay, underscore, C, but.
Juravich: Yes. We have been talking with Julie Miller, a blogger and social media influencer who hosts the channel, "What Should We Do Today, CBUS?" Thank you so much for joining us today. Thank you.
Miller: Thank you for having me.
Juravich: And coming up, we're going to meet the owner of Robbie's Hobbies, a staple for hobbyists in Clintonville and beyond. That is when Fascinating Ohio from All Sides continues on 89.7 NPR News.
You're listening to All Sides. I'm your host, Amy Juravich. This is Fascinating Ohio, a show from All Sides in WOSU where we introduce you to people from the Buckeye state with an interesting story to tell. Whether you know it by the giant "Playmobil" figure outside its door when driving down High Street in Clintonville, or by the colorful car that bears its name, "Robbie's Hobbies" is a central part of the central Ohio community. Now, over 20 years old, the business has been an oasis for hobbyists of all ages. And has created a community based on enthusiasm and passion. Today, we're speaking with the owner, Rob Rosati, founder and proprietor of Robbie's Hobbies. Welcome to All Sides, Rob.
Rob Rosati: Thank you.
Juravich: And I also wanted to add that today is also Take Your Child to Work Day, so we have a special guest in the studio with us for Fascinating Ohio, my son Ari Juravich. Hi, Ari. Hi. And Ari, would you like to ask Rob the first question?
Ari Juravich: Yes. I love your store. Why did you decide to name your store Robbie's Hobbies?
Rosati: Well, my name is Robert, or Rob, and I decided Robbie's Hobbies had a nice work, a nice flow, don't you think?
Juravich: Yeah. Yeah. Maybe you like rhyming a little bit. A little rhyming. Yeah, do you go by Rob or Robbie?
Rosati: I either or okay my cousins and my family. I'll call me Robbie, but you know business-wise. It's Rob
Juravich: Yes. So before creating Robbie's Hobbies, though, you had another business, the Instant Sign Company. You started in 1983. What took you into the sign business?
Rosati: Well, I've been in the graphics business my entire life. I started in 83 working for a printing company and I worked for a company and we I moved to Columbus from Akron doing the graphics and I saw the printing industry when the internet came out in the mid 90s and the late 90s. I said no one's going to read a I shouldn't say read a book but get information from printing. And so I decided let me start the sign business because I had the contacts and I got into the sign and now I do a lot of printing and graphics vehicle wraps, I do grad banners, I do all sorts of the printing stuff.
Juravich: So you still have the sign business. Okay, so in addition to Robbie's Hobbies, you're running the sign businesses. But in 2004, you decided to add to your portfolio, Robbie's Hobbies. What inspired you to create that business?
Rosati: Well, as a kid I played with, you know, RC cars, I played with trains, I had Legos even as a kid, I mean, I'm 62, and I loved toys, I loved playing with them, and then my kids were young at that time, and i was going here and buying stuff for them and I said to my wife, let's throw some money at the wall and see what happens, and here we are 20 years later and it's still going strong and I really, really enjoy it. I mean, it's fun when kids come in and I love building and my basement at home has all sorts of fun stuff in it.
Juravich: Have hobbies, this type of thing, always been a passion of yours? Absolutely.
Rosati: I mean, as a kid I was doing it, then as I got older, sports, girls, school, college, and then you get married and have kids and it starts it all back over.
Juravich: Yeah, all right. So your focus in your store is you have model trains, slot cars, diecast collectibles, and "Playmobil". The the the menagerie that you have, is it geared toward your personal interests or is it what's popular? Like why why these focuses?
Rosati: Well, the the focuses are popular but there's different genres and trains. There's there's different scales I should say and one group likes this another group and so they're all kind of different and then same in the slot cars. They're all different sizes. They sell slot cars of the size of a "Hot Wheels" all the way up to 1/24th or about eight inches long. So it covers all different people, likes on that. And "Playmobil" is really just a kid thing and that's why I carry it, because it brings the kids in.
Juravich: This is Fascinating Ohio from All Sides on 89.7 NPR News, and we're talking with Robbie's Hobbies founder, Rob Rosati. Also in the studio for Take Your Child to Work Day is my nine-year-old son, Ari. Ari, do you have another question for Rob?
Ari Juravich: Yeah, how did you get the giant "Playmobil" figure that is outside your store?
Rosati: Well, "Playmobil"'s US headquarters in New Jersey, and actually the sales rep who retired lived in Columbus. And "Playmobiles" used to have amusement parks in New Jersey and Florida, and they had closed them because they couldn't compete with the bigger parks. And these were in their parks, and the rep says, if you want to drive to New Jersey we'll give it to you. So I drove to New Jersey and been a truck and drove it back.
Juravich: Yeah. Oh, that's a great story. So you rescued it probably from a lamp. Yes. I rest from a lamp, yes.
Rosati: Well, it was in a warehouse all covered in plastic and dirty and dusty. And.
Juravich: So for people who haven't driven North on High Street, so if you head North on high street toward Graceland, you really can't miss it. It's a giant "Playmobil" outside your store, but just describe what it looks like.
Rosati: It's a it's a giant pirate.
Juravich: So, but you have more than one, right? Yeah, I've got.
Rosati: Yeah, I've got another one there and I've got other ones. I've got a hockey player in the store. I've got one of the "Ghostbusters" guys in the store. So you have to come in and check them out. A lot of people get their pictures taken with them.
Juravich: We, yes, Ari, did I take your picture with it? So we ventured into your store for "Playmobiles". We have quite the bin of them. When you find people coming into your story, what is the most common reason they're coming in?
Rosati: Well, they're looking for that particular item, whether it's a train, parts for trains, track, slot cards they wanna add to their track or they wanna get started in it, "Playmobil", they are looking for a certain theme. I mean, "Playmobiles" so broad that. People come in because they want it, because it's a great toy. You know, I also buy collections, used collections, and I get a lot of diecasts, I get lot of trains, but in the 20 years in business, I've had one person sell me their "Playmobil" collection. Really? Yeah, because people want them, they like to hand them down, or the kids want to save them. My son has a, he loved animals, loved the zoo, and so he said, save them, dad, I don't want you to get rid of them, because I want them for my kids.
Juravich: Oh, that's lovely.
Rosati: So that's one thing about "Playmobil" and "Lego" is another one too that I don't carry him because they don't they don't t cater to the small guy. They do the big markets, but you never get people selling "Legos" in secondhand.
Juravich: Hmm. So in 2004, you decided to replace what is known as the "Music Notes Mural" on the side of your building with something new. And the mural that you have now was painted by local artist, Adam Hernandez. His murals can be seen throughout all of Columbus. Why did you decide to add a new mural, make the change?
Rosati: Well, the music store had closed. I mean, it had been 18 years, because it was in two years now I've had it, and people were still coming in where it's music store go. And then a wall needed repainted. It was starting to chip off and all that, so I decided to hire Adam, and we worked up some designs, and being in the graphics business, you can't really have a store, you can put your store name on the building in the city of Columbus.
Juravich: Oh, I see, because of sign rules and stuff like that. Right, so I couldn't put... Robbie's Hobbies or Instance On. In the mural, you couldn't do that, okay.
Rosati: Right. So I just made it generic. So, I put a train. We put a bicycle because I also share the building with the bike shop next to me. And then we have all the deer in Clintonville, so I threw a deer up there.
Juravich: So basically the mirror, like artistic murals are allowed in Columbus, but not advertising murals. Is that what you mean? Okay. Okay. I was trying to understand what. Yes. So, um, so, uh, basically you're not allowed to have an ad for your store, but you can have an artistic mural. What's the response been whenever, because you also wrote beach walled, yeah. So tell me about what it, it representing Clintonville and the beach wall community.
Rosati: Well, it represents, because I think Clintonville gets all the shine, I should say. Beechwold gets very little. And Beechwold's really from, I think it's from Henderson Road to Morris Road. And that's the little Beechwold. And it's also east or west of High Street, because east of High street is not considered Beechwold. And I put on there to start to get more recognition. That's all.
Juravich: Give Beechwold its due, right?
Rosati: Right, because you know there's Beechwold hardware, there's Beechwold bicycles, I think there might be someone else Beechwold too, but. Oh everyone knows Beechwold hardware.
Juravich: Okay, so back to the business a little bit more. You mentioned a couple of times the slot cars and Ari looked at me, Ari, do you know what a slot car is? No. Yeah, no, neither do I. Tell me what a slot. All right.
Rosati: A slot car is basically a track, a small track, and like I say, they come in the size of a "Hot Wheels" and they come about 8 inches long and the track has a slot in it and the car has a pin on it. On the slot there are these braided rails that run electricity through it and then the car has a braided rail too and they sit on it and it gets electricity and you have like a trigger mechanism and you go fast or slow around this track.
Juravich: Did I see a picture on your website you have a track?
Rosati: I have a track in our basement and we run it. We're open every Saturday from 12 to two for open racing, come and play.
Juravich: Wow, do a lot of people come?
Rosati: Well, I it has the league I started and on Thursday nights from six to eight I have to I got us do another night because I got too many people. So it runs every six weeks and it's like real racing. You get points for each time you get first, second or third, and then at the end of the six weeks, whoever has the most points, they get a prize.
Juravich: Wow. OK. So like people collect trains, people collect slot cars. Oh, big time. Big time. All right. This is new information to me. I didn't know that. All right, and then also, you seem to have a pretty robust online business. Can you tell me about the "eBay" and online component? How big of a part of your business is it?
Rosati: Well, it's pretty big as in getting more of my recognition out there than anything else and more "eBay" now. So the last year I developed my own site and my own store with my POS system. So when I sell something at the store, it will also be removed from my website if I've got only one left. Oh, you got fancy, okay. Yeah, so I had to get fancy because "eBay", if you sell the, and I don't remove it from inventory, and someone buys it, they give you a little nick. Oh, you get in trouble with the "eBay". You get kind of troubled. They're generous, but not, because "eBay" wants to make sure you have the product out there.
Juravich: Right, right. Okay. So do people from all over the country buy stuff from you?
Rosati: Oh, yeah, I get people all over it now it used to be the world until shipping became really difficult And so now I do the global program where I ship it to I think it's either Illinois or Indiana And then it goes out to around the world and "eBay" covers it from there. So my responsibility is get it to that hub and then they ship it out from there.
Juravich: Would you say that your brick and mortar store is a bigger part of your business or is the online part becoming bigger?
Rosati: Yeah, brick and mortar is definitely the bigger part.
Juravich: Okay. So when people come into your store, like, what are they looking for? What's your best selling thing?
Rosati: Well, obviously trains have been the big seller because that's what I started in. And slot cars is not far behind it and then "Playmobil" and then of course the diecast.
Juravich: And the "Playmobil", I mean, are they new Playmobiles, or are you selling vintage ones? Oh yeah, oh no.
Rosati: Vintage ones. Oh no, I do get vintage very rarely do I get vintage, but it's all new stuff. I'm an authorized retailer. I buy four times a year from them and I get the latest catalog and all that stuff.
Juravich: So when, and people who are train collectors, when they come in, do they, do you also offer like repairs? Do you offer people help? Yeah, tell me more about that. Yeah, so I have.
Rosati: So I, there's the, the big, the big scales that are G gage, which is "LGB" then you got "Lionel", which is O scale and you got HO which has "Bachmann", "Athearn", "Kato", whole different varieties of them.
Juravich: "Lionel"'s the only thing I've heard of. And that whole sentence you just said, but I know that brand. Okay, go ahead.
Rosati: And then there's even N scale and Z scale those aren't as popular, but the "Lionel" is the most popular Okay, and I have to have three different repair guys for the three different scales. Yeah, because they're all specialized in it.
Juravich: Okay, what's the, yeah, what is the train collector scene like in Columbus?
Rosati: You know, it's pretty big and people come from Indiana and a lot of the big cities, which I don't know why, because I do a lot of trade shows in the winter time because I go to Cleveland. I'll go to Detroit and Pittsburgh and Indianapolis. And Detroit does not have a train store. Really? Yeah. Wow. Indianapolis does not have a
Juravich: But like, Columbus, even Clifton-
Rosati: Columbus has more than one. I know I can't figure it out.
Juravich: Wow. Okay.
Rosati: And so when I go to these shows in Detroit and Indianapolis, they're hungry for used stuff or old stuff that they can't get.
Juravich: You mentioned that people sell stuff to you, maybe not their Playmobiles, but they come in and maybe sell a train collection and that kind of thing. Do you have anything, your favorite memorable, rare thing that's come into your store that you couldn't believe? That you couldn't believe.
Rosati: Oh, that's a great one. So this young lady comes in, cleaned out her grandparents' basement, and it was this wind-up train, probably from 1910, 1920. And the cool thing about it is it had animals in it, and it had a cam in the wheel, so when it moved, the animals went up and down. Okay, it was really cleverly done for back then and it was all metal. And I had no idea what it was. I couldn't find anything on it. And I gave her $50 for it. She was happy and going to a good home. It went for hundreds of dollars on "eBay". Wow. Because it was such a rare item.
Juravich: Okay. Oh, that's so. So do you get that people cleaning out basements have no way they're like, I found this box of trains and I have no idea what to do with it.
Rosati: Some people will move into a house and they didn't realize the attic was filled with some sort of old toys and trains, but then you get the kids of their parents that the parents have either passed on or they're moving and they're downsizing and they want to get rid of it, and I do a lot of that.
Juravich: And Robbie's Hobbies is the place to come.
Rosati: They know that I'm the place to come
Juravich: All right. Well, just to end on, I'm sure you've noticed that young people are spending more times on screens, maybe less times on hobbies. Not that Ari spends a lot of time on screens right, buddy. But the return to physical craft and having a physical hobby, it's a healthier alternative to screen time. So what would you say to inspire a new generation of maybe slot car racers or train collectors?
Rosati: Well, the thing about slot car racing you can do together as a group. You can buy a track into the new digital. You can run up to four cars on a two lane track and they have gates that open up. And it's fun to do as a family event or bring your friends over. You can do little leagues and it's definitely more mind stimulating than being on your phone. I mean, trust me, I'm on my phone too. I like social media and all that because there's a lot of fun things on social media but to be on it constantly is way too much. Trains is another way. Trains, you just, you can build, build, build and you know, I think they've proven that, you know using your brain on building, whether it's a model kit, a puzzle, whatever, is more stimulating to your brain than, than, you know being on the internet and social media.
Juravich: All right. So for the future hobbyists out there, Robbie's Hobbies, he'll convince you what to do. Come on in. We'd love to take care of you. We've been talking with Robbie's Hobbies founder and owner, Rob Rosati. Thank you so much for your time today.
Rosati: All right, thank you. It was great, loved it.
Juravich: And coming up, we're going to talk about Indie Bookstore Day and we'll learn about what it's like to own a bookstore. That is when Fascinating Ohio from All Sides continues on 89.7 NPR News.
You're listening to All Sides. I'm your host, Amy Juravich. This is Fascinating Ohio, a show from All Sides and WOSU where we introduce you to people from the Buckeye state with an interesting story to tell. After deciding to move to a larger space down the road, "Prolog Bookshop" in the short north faced the problem of how to transport the thousands of books to the new location. Their solution? A human chain that passed books down the street. An activity that combined community and utility to create a memorable experience for all. Today, we're talking with the owner and founder of Prolog Bookshop, Dan Brewster. Welcome to All Sides, Dan.
Dan Brewster: Hi, thank you.
Juravich: And I also wanted to add that today is Take Your Child to Work Day. So we have a special guest in the studio with us for Fascinating Ohio. It's my son, Ari Juravich. Hi, Ari. Hi. Ari, do you wanna ask Dan the first question?
Ari Juravich: Yes. I visited the new location of your bookstore last weekend and bought a book. Why did you name your store Prolog Books?
Brewster: That's a great question, Ari. So when we were looking at different names for a store, because that's a really important thing, is what do you call yourself? And I looked at hundreds and hundreds of names. And one of the things I thought about was looking at naming a store after a part of a book. And so different chapters, some bookstores are named after chapters, and there are some stores named Epilog, and I decided that Prolog, would be a great name because it's the beginning of a story. You're getting into the story and you can, you know, find your next great, great read at Prolog and you're getting in to that read.
Juravich: Ari, have you ever heard the word prolog? I don't know if that's in the third grade curriculum yet. I don't know when they learned that part of the, yeah? Do you know the word?
Ari Juravich: Well, in some books I've seen a prolog.
Juravich: Yes, so like this the story before the story begins right the prolog that it's like the setup, right? Yeah, is that am I explaining it in a good way? I'm not an English teacher
Brewster: Yeah, so you can have an introduction, you can a forward, you can now have a prolog.
Juravich: Yeah. All right. So you recently moved to a new location. What prompted the move? Why, why, why move your shop?
Brewster: Yeah, so we had been tossing around an idea for a while of expansion in some form because our old store was kind of cramped. We fit a lot of books in there and we just needed a little more room for people, I think at that point. And so when this space became available, I reached out and we saw the space and it looked like something would be a perfect fit for us. It's a really beautiful location. It is over twice as large as our old spot. And so we can just do a lot more with that larger space.
Juravich: Now I mentioned in the introduction that the most interesting part of a move, you know, you made a move interesting because it was the way you transported the books. Tell me why you decided to organize this human chain book move.
Brewster: Yeah, so when you're looking at moving, there's lots of really like boring aspects to it. And people are like, oh, they're gonna close. Oh, they gonna open and that's about it. And I should say this was not our idea. We are not the first people to do this at all. It is exactly and we were like, you know, we're gonna be in the exact perfect place. We're moving just a block that's the perfect amount of space and this is a great way to involve the community to make them feel like they're participating in the movement of the store and have have a stake in what we're doing and It was great because you know you you there's so many unknowns you will enough people show up Well, the weather turned out. Okay, and everything just went beautifully, you Know we had just enough people to do the chain from one location to the next everything down the street and it really went very, very well.
Juravich: Do you know how many books you moved in the chain versus moving the old-fashioned way?
Brewster: So we did move a lot of the books, actually, I don't know if it's the old fashioned way or not, we actually shrink wrapped a lot of the shelves and brought them down on a cart. Oh, because you were close enough that you could just like wheel it down the street, right? Right. We just decided that renting a moving truck to move a block, I didn't love that idea. And so we probably moved about 300 books via the human chain. And it took about about 30 to 40 minutes.
Juravich: Okay. Tell me about the decision, you know, you mentioned the decision to move, you wanted a bigger space, but you, was it important for you to stay in the short north?
Brewster: Yes, there are such a great set of other complementary businesses down there and there's such a great customer base of we get so many people that are just visiting Columbus for the first time we get to kind of be an ambassador for Columbus and for Ohio and we get such a great mix of college students. So you have people with a whole variety of interests, of backgrounds, of what they're looking for and. I used to live out on the West Coast and I, when I moved back to Ohio, I was thought I was going to miss the opportunity to connect with people from around the world. And we actually have that in Columbus. We have people visiting from all around the word and every day in Columbus and being in the short north, it's really cool because I get to meet a lot of them.
Juravich: When you now that you have a bigger space are you expanding your selection? Can you add more books?
Brewster: Yeah, so we're expanding what we carry in the store by about 50%. Oh, wow. Yeah, there are a lot of sections that are getting bigger, both trendy ones, like fantasy and horror, and ones that do really well for us, classics and poetry. And we're doing a lot more film and art and design, and just a lot sections that we're really excited to expand.
Juravich: This is Fascinating Ohio from All Sides on 89.7 NPR News, and we're talking with Dan Brewster, owner of Prolog Bookshop. And also with us today for Take Your Child to Work Day, we have my nine-year-old son Ari. Ari, do you have another question for Dan?
Ari Juravich: Yes, what's your favorite thing about owning a bookstore?
Brewster: Yeah, so what I really love about owning a bookstore is that it gives me the chance to talk to people about books all day. That's not all I get to do, I wish it was, but that is definitely my favorite part. So people will come in and talk about what they're reading or what they want to read, and whether that is something new or something old, something that I know or am familiar with or something that is brand new to me, it is definitely the best part of the job.
Juravich: Ari, do you remember the name of the book you bought when you went to Prolog Bookshop over the weekend?
Ari Juravich: Yeah, I remember. It was called "Super Diaper Baby".
Juravich: "Super Diaper Baby", graphic novel, right? Yeah, so you have a small children's section, right. We do, yes. Tell me about the children's section but then the idea of parents going to one part of the store, the children can go to another, tell me about that.
Brewster: Yeah, so being in the short north something that we have found is we don't get a whole lot of children who are visiting a lot of what we get are parents, friends, you know, aunt's uncle's grandparents who are visited and buying something for for the kids in their lives. But yeah, we like to have a selection of books so that kids can come out and pick something that they're really excited about that they want to read. We have a couple of really cute new mushroom chairs that everyone has been commenting on over in the section. And we like to bring in a really great selection of children's books where we have some classics. We just expanded our children's classics. And then we also have a lot of new, interesting, unique picture books. We bring in lot of picture books from around the world where it's a tradition that maybe that's not something that people are familiar with here. And a lot unique formats of books. And some really cool, we got one recently that's called "Spooky Lakes". That's just about lakes that have kind of. Paranormal things happening around them. And it's you know, it's a nonfiction book, but it is a really cool way to engage kids with a different topic.
Juravich: So Prolog Bookshop is self-described as an indie bookstore. Define for me exactly what does it mean to be an indie book store.
Brewster: Yeah, so indie bookstore kind of traditionally means that just it's an independent ownership where it is something where, you know, we don't have another store, we don't another arm of what we're doing. There are some indies that have, you know, a couple of locations, but they're independent from other, you know, corporate entities. Indie can also represent kind of a mindset where it's like we are not looking to have the same book that everyone else has. We're not looking to carry what, you "Walmart" are paving on the shelf, or "Barnes & Noble" for that matter. And we're doing our own thing. We're choosing to go independent into the choices that we make in running the store.
Juravich: All right, so that leads me into Indie Bookstore Day because I saw on your website, there's an event. Tell me what is Indie bookstore day and what do people need to know?
Brewster: So Independent Bookstore Day is coming up this Saturday, April 25th, and it is a celebration of all things indie bookstores around the country. I believe this year there are over 1,500 stores around the county that are participating, including I believe about 21 here in central Ohio. And it is away for people to discover and celebrate the indies in their community, and I believe it's the 11th year that they've been doing this, and it really... It's a way to just come out and be part of a big, fun time. And a lot of stores are doing special activities, special events. Authors are coming. We are part of the indie bookstore crawl this year, as we have been. And so that is you pick up a crawl card from the first store that you visit. And if you visit seven stores, and it's Saturday and Sunday, you have time to do that. If you the seven stores over the two days you can turn it in and have a chance to win an indie bookstore prize pack With prizes from the indies here in Columbus
Juravich: All right. So not like, I mean, not competitor bookstores, but partner bookstores. You want everyone to visit all the bookshops here in Columbus.
Brewster: Exactly, exactly. Yeah, when we started this in 2019, there were six bookstores that were doing the crawl and this year we are up to 20. And so yeah, it's it's a really fun day. It's really action packed. We have people that organize busses going around to the different stores. It's a great way to discover a store that's new to you to see a store that has expanded or is new since last time. Great way to check out the collection.
Juravich: Like yours, because this would be your first indie bookstore day in your new location, right? Right. Exactly.
Juravich: So you can fit that busload of people in your new location now as opposed to their old shop.
Brewster: Yes, and that is we we were just so full of the brim in the old store. So we're very excited to be even more full than the new one.
Juravich: Before opening Prolog Bookshop, you were a software engineer at "Goodreads". I mean, did you plan to leave that job and have a bookstore?
Brewster: I had been thinking about it for a while and I knew that at some point I wanted to do it. And what really happened is I thought that indie bookstores were becoming popular again. They really reached their low point in the late 2000s. And then they started kind of rebounding. And I was like, this, if people are doing this, it must be a viable thing that people are excited about. And so I did some research. I checked it out and I decided. You know what, I'm ready to take this step.
Juravich: What has reading played a significant role in your life? I mean, you know, because you worked at "Goodreads". So I think that, you know, reading is is probably in you somewhere.
Brewster: Yeah, so my first job was actually working at a library in high school, you know Growing up in, Ohio you really can't help but have a fondness for libraries because we have so many great library systems around and I've been going to libraries my my whole life and Then kind of as I got older and I started exploring the bookstores and yeah I have always been a huge reader and You know finding a way to incorporate that into what I do has been really important to me And I'm really happy that I was able to do that
Juravich: Well, as a bookstore owner, I do people ask you, like, what's your favorite book? I mean, do you want is that do you do you hate that question?
Brewster: I get that question probably once a week.
Juravich: Okay, well here I'm asking it for today. Yes, yes, so I'm very prepared.
Brewster: So really one of my favorite books of all time that I that I plug to a lot of people is "Station 11" by Emily St. John Mandel.
Juravich: Okay, why?
Brewster: I think it does a beautiful job of representing people coming together in the face of adversity. And it also contains a traveling orchestra. And I've been part of orchestras my whole life. And so I love that representation of people coming together in a communal act of artistry, of music, as well as coming together just for survival. And the way that she writes the book has so much tenderness and care in it and so much hope and optimism. And for a book about a pandemic, you don't, it's not every book will have that. And I know when COVID happened, you know, I waited some time, I think as a lot of people did, where you weren't going to read that in 2020, but I read it again the following year. And I just thought that it still represented so much of the best in humanity in a single book. And I still love it just as much as ever.
Juravich: Wow, what's the name of it again?
Brewster: "Station 11" by Emily St. John Mandel.
Juravich: Okay, that's new to me. I haven't heard of that one. All right. I recommend it. Um, so whenever you have people come into your bookstore, do you, do you ever have them like ask you questions like about big buck bookstores or buying things on "Amazon"? Like, what do you say to someone who would to tell them, no, you should buy it at your local bookshop instead of on "Amazon".
Brewster: Yeah, this is always a bit of a tricky question for us because we don't want to get too preachy. And I think sometimes it's really easy to come in and be like, oh, you're making some choices that we don't agree with. I think when we're really talking to someone about it, the biggest benefit to buying local is just keeping those dollars in your community. You're supporting community in the sense of a place for things to happen. We're doing events, we're hosting book clubs, which "Amazon" is not. And we are also having booksellers in our community. And all of those are things that you're only going to find from a local bookstore. And what the trade-off then is that we don't always have the same discounts. And so people will come in and ask us to price match or something like that. And we're like, we're sorry, but we're not also selling AI data centers to people to make up those profits. What we're doing is books. We also feel that the price of the book is we're paying the fair value for the author and the work that they have created. The author, the editor, the typesetter, all the different roles that go into a book, those should all be fairly valued. And so it's not as much, it isn't that we're just trying to cram as many books per penny onto a page as we possibly can, it's that there's care and craft involved. And we want the people from the creation of the text all the way out to the people selling the book. We want everybody to be able to be fairly compensated and part of a thriving publishing and writing ecosystem. And by buying from a local store, you're supporting all of the facets of that ecosystem. And for some people, that's an expense that maybe they can't afford, but if they can, this is what they're able to do by supporting it.
Juravich: Well, we have less than a minute left, but besides Indie Bookstore Day this weekend, since you have a bigger space so you can have more events.
Brewster: Yeah, yeah, so we have a bunch of events our whole on our website our whole May events calendars coming up We do have some events that we host here at WOSU including Isaac Fitzgerald coming up later in May And then I have to plug the book festival coming up at the library July 11th and 12th this year
Juravich: We have been talking with Dan Brewster, owner and founder of Prolog Bookshop. Dan, thank you so much for your time today. Yeah, thanks a lot. And you've been listening to Fascinating Ohio from All Sides on 89.7 NPR News. And I want to say a special thank you to my cohost today, Ari Juravich. He joined us for Take Your Child to Work Day. Thanks for coming to work with me, Ari. Thank you. Do you want to be on the radio now? Or just this one time?
Ari Juravich: Maybe just this one time.
Juravich: You've been listening to Fascinating Ohio from All Sides on 89.7 NPR News. I'm Amy Juravich. Thanks for joining us.