Grit City Books’ grand opening is this weekend, marking a ‘renaissance’ of the brick-and-mortar bookstore

Forget Amazon: Tacomans can now pick up their lit at a new independent bookstore.

Grit City Books, 3116 6th Ave., will celebrate its grand opening on Saturday from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m., according to a press release. It vows to be a bookworm’s dream — a mecca for “curious minds.”

“We are incredibly excited to get to share this labor of love that we’ve been working so hard on,” co-founder Kaitlin Chandler told The News Tribune via email. “Every corner of the store has been thought through, every item we sell other than books was handpicked, every design choice we made was to create a warm and welcoming space.”

The internet age has been cruel to bookstores, shuttering Half Price Books and Barnes & Noble locations and other big-box chains nationwide. Grit City Books is the analog answer to the rapid digitization of art.

Talk about grit.

Event-goers on Saturday can peruse a “carefully curated collection of fiction, non-fiction, classics, and contemporary titles,” per the news release. Bring an appetite: pastries and coffee, courtesy of The Collection Bakery and Civic Roasters, will be there for the snacking. Expect giveaways and an all-ages drag story time, too.

The genesis of Grit City Books traces back to the thick of the pandemic. Co-founder Kegan Hanway previously told The News Tribune that lockdowns, COVID-19 and the realities of the corporate-work realm prompted a period of reevaluation: “[T]here was other stuff we could be doing that might have more value to us, to our community.”

Grit City Books opened online in November, and its founders sought to create an inclusive space, particularly for the LGBTQ+ community.

Folks can buy their titles online — check out the highly topical “ banned books ” selection — or pick them out in store, Chandler said. Grit City Books will host monthly (and family friendly) drag story time, book-release events, author signings and more.

The shop seeks to offer convenience “but with the heart of a small neighborhood bookstore,” and to foster deeper connections within the community, she said.

“There is a renaissance happening where folks (especially Millennials) are hyper aware of where their hard-earned dollars are going and they’d rather spend their money with a local small business rather than a giant corporation,” Chandler wrote. “Tacoma, and 6th Ave specifically, support small businesses with an enthusiasm that makes it difficult for corporations to exist here.”