I Bought a Vintage Trailer… How Can I Turn it Into a Bookstore?

Under the Influence with Jo Piazza

Jo Piazza, Influence Inc.

Society & Culture, Kids & Family, Parenting, Personal Journals, Technology

4.3 • 833 Ratings

🗓️ 13 October 2025

⏱️ 47 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

I finally did the thing. After years of dreaming about a Philly bookstore, Nick and I bought a vintage trailer and christened it The Bookcase, a pop up mobile shop we’re rolling around the Catskills this winter. To figure out how any of this actually works, I called my friend Flannery of Bluebird Bookstop, whose own trailer grew into one of my favorite brick and mortar stores. We talk about why a trailer lets you test the market without dying of overhead, the brutal realities of book margins, how I’m curating a tiny but mighty selection, and why the magic is the experience as much as the sale. This episode is my love letter to community, discovery, and saying yes before I feel ready. Part two is coming. Visit Bluebird here. Find their clothing new arrivals here. (Use our code TRADWIFE20) Follow Bluebird on Instagram here. Join our newsletter community here. ORDER EVERYONE IS LYING TO YOU here. Visit our lovely sponsors here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey all, Joey here and you are listening to Under the Influence. I'm about to do something a little
0:11.4	crazy. We're about to do something a little crazy. For a long time, I've wanted to open a bookstore
0:17.9	here in Philadelphia. But that seems crazy right now with three kids,
0:24.8	writing a book a year, podcasts, being a wife, doing all of the things, being a human being in the
0:31.3	world. And so I really want to test the waters with a pop-up bookstore. For me, my goal is to help people find more
0:39.5	books they love. And I truly believe that we need to see more books in the wild to get to
0:45.0	connect with them. I mean, I want books everywhere. I want you to go to the coffee shop and see
0:49.0	books, go to the brewery and see books, check out at the grocery store and just see more
0:53.6	books. And so Nick and I have
0:55.7	been brainstorming for a long time how to do that. One of the things that I'm very interested in is a
1:02.1	book trailer. And I was inspired by my friend Flannery, who started the Blue Bird Bookstop,
1:08.0	which many of you have ordered my books from because they are my
1:11.3	exclusive personalized pre-order bookseller. I love Flannery. I love Bluebird. And she started
1:17.7	in this adorable little Robbins Egg Blue trailer down in Croze, Virginia. And I've never
1:24.4	forgotten that, even as she's created, what I have to say, is one of my favorite brick and mortar bookstores on the planet.
1:31.7	I always said that when the perfect trailer came along, I would know it.
1:35.2	Nick Astor did not believe this, and I still don't know if he does.
1:39.2	But the other day, my friend Rose told me she was selling this little vintage trailer that she had bought
1:44.7	to be a flower pop-up. And now she's doing a flower brick and mortar. So we know that trailer's
1:49.8	got good ju-ju. Rose is an incredible designer. So the trailer is already pretty. And we're
1:55.9	just going for it. We bought a book trailer. Guys, we bought a pop-up mobile bookstore that we are just going to
2:03.9	drive all over the Catskills this winter and sell you books that I hope you will love.
	...

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