Bun Bun enjoys the views from high up!
Hi there! I'm Kerry, one of the department leads over at AU, and I'm going to be taking over our Notes From the Underground Blog with A View From the Children's Department. Let’s dive right in!
We've been really grateful to see the beginning of fall. As summer's heat starts to fade, we're already gearing up for the holidays: from new hires both at Adventures Underground and the attached Caterpillar Cafe to make sure our store is fully staffed (a huge welcome to Rain and Torin!) to growing orders to get our shelves fully stocked, we're all about being prepared this fall. Winter is coming - and so are the holidays.
In general, 2022 has seen us bringing back a lot of the events and involvement the store knows and loves. Our trade program, though still limited to graphic novels and manga, is going strong, and we're working on expanding to other types of products (stay tuned for updates)! On top of that, both Adventures Underground and the attached Caterpillar Café have seen renewed game nights, tournaments, events for children, events from the community, and more. We've always loved getting involved, but giving back has always been one of AU’s core values, too. We're still asking if customers want to "Round-Up" their total at checkout for a small donation to a local non-profit, and we've been glad to donate 100% of these community-driven funds each month (plus a little extra from us). Local supporting local!
Speaking of local, the Caterpillar Cafe is EXPANDING! While it'll only be accessible to those who work at Pacific Northwest National Lab (or otherwise have badged access to PNNL facilities), the Caterpillar Cafe won a bid to open a SECOND LOCATION on the PNNL campus! This is a huge opportunity for the AU-CC team, and we couldn't be more eager to start the planning phases of this expansion. It'll be a while before the second location is open for business, but we are BEYOND EXCITED about the opportunity.
Finally - be aware that our sidewalks are getting some helpful updates, and they 'll be under construction during October-November! On the AU side, we expect construction to conclude by Oct 29th, and on the Caterpillar Cafe side, the sidewalk construction should be done by Nov 17th. The city of Richland will keep us informed with any new developments!
That's all for now! If you have any ideas or submissions for our blog, please reach out to us at events@advunderground.com - but in the meantime, thanks for reading my take on Notes from the Underground: A View from the Children's Department.
- Kerry