This question has come up lately. Yes, we are still here.

Anybody who manages a Bahá'í bookstore in their community knows that this is not a lucrative endeavor, nor one that will generate much income. At present, we are blessed with a setup where all costs associated with maintaining and distributing inventory are sustained by the business activity. While some may imagine a buzzing office with staff, this bookstore is operated by one individual in two rooms. As a parent of 5 children, there is a financial cost to this service due to the need to hire babysitters. For a few years, this situation provided an opportunity for very flexible work to youth engaging in increasing acts of service to the community. We learned much about subsidizing, bartering, training in work skills, exploring creative work options around service, and prioritizing the channeling of youth's energies into meaningful service while ensuring that their basic material needs were covered.

This year priorities have changed. Focus areas for teams of youth on full/part time service have changed. We now have new question: if we need to pay to perform a service, is paying to run a bookstore the best use of our resources?

There are no easy answers. In the meantime, yes, our time in the bookstore has slowed considerably and there are more questions than answers: how many of the practices of popular business are to be expected from a Bahá'í bookstore? How important is a Bahá'í business in advancing community? Is it timely? What is most necessary? Where are our resources most needed?

Your ideas and suggestions or thoughts will be most valuable in advancing understanding about the role and purpose of this business.