Washington: President Barack Obama, a diligent Small Business Saturday shopper, patronised Upshur Street Books in the Petworth neighbourhood for the first time on Saturday afternoon.
The uber-local independent bookstore, which opened in Washington, D.C., just over a year ago, highlights the city’s “past and present, and work from local authors from poets to politicians”.
Obama, along with his daughters, Sasha and Malia, carried books in their arms as the president chatted with the store’s manager Anna Thorn.
The window of shop said “Shop Local.”
For the past three years, the president has patronised Politics and Prose, a long-established independent bookstore in upper Northwest Washington, on the Saturday after Thanksgiving. While it is not clear what accounts for the change of venue, it is worth noting that Upshur Street Books was giving out baked goods, drinks and discounts, as well as hosting local authors, all day.
The first family purchased nine books, according to White House officials The list of adult and young adult titles included Purity: A Novel by Jonathan Franzen; Two Years Eight Months and Twenty-Eight Nights: A Novel by Salman Rushdie; Cynthia Voigt’s Elske: A Novel of the Kingdom, On Fortune’s Wheel, and Jackaroo: A Novel of the Kingdom; A Snicker of Magic by Natalie Lloyd; Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli; Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Hard Luck, Book 8 by Jeff Kinney; and Dork Diaries 1: Tales from a Not-So-Fabulous Life by Rachel Rene Russell.
After the president emerged from the bookstore, carrying a brown bag and wearing a collarless, pullover shirt, athletics shoes and windcheater, he and his daughters returned to the motorcade’s SUV and journeyed to Pleasant Pops Farmhouse Market and Cafe in Adams Morgan.
Obama chatted with the Pleasant Pops’s manager, Benjamin Thoen, opting for a strawberry frozen treat and declaring the desserts “the highlight of Small Business Saturday.” After Thoen mentioned there are two store locations, the president retorted that counts as a small business “franchise.”
Extracting cash from a money clip of bills, the president paid the $9 tab and waved to bystanders on the sidewalk as he returned to the SUV once more. “Happy holidays, everybody,” he told them.