Scribe

That's right. Yes, yes. And then the lesbians took over in the 90s and made it very chic and then all the gay men moved in after them. So the circle of life. Oh, yes.

Thank you. Thanks for having me.

I don't know who that is.

Of course. Thanks for inviting me.

It is, yeah, it's me. I'm the marketing mind behind everything.

Yes. Well, thank you, I appreciate it.

Yeah, yeah, of course. So my husband Eric and I opened Paper and pencil in May of 2023. It was always a dre mine to have a stationary shop. I've always loved collecting notebooks and pens and creative tools. I'm a big snail mail fan, so I've always loved all of these things. And before doing this, I started my career in the non profit world for over five years and then left that to start a marketing agency with one of my dearest friends and did that for about 10 years. We did marketing and social media and email strategy for small independent businesses, artists and makers. So that was the background that I bring into what we do now. So thank you for noticing all the hard work on the marketing because that's, that's what I'm really proud of with what we do in the store. And my husband Eric, his background is in retail. He worked in over 10, for over 10 years with gap Inc. So it kind of, it was kind of the joke with the shop of like he actually had the real experience required to open a retail store. And I'm just like the idea person. So it wouldn't be possible to have the store if it weren't for. With. If it weren't for him and supporting the idea. It kind of started as an idea toward like, I don't know, 2021, 2022. We had moved from North Carolina to Chicago, living in Andersonville, which was a neighborhood we visited when we were in college years ago, and loved the neighborhood and the community. And we were really looking for a space that was very diverse and inclusive and very queer friendly, where there was a lot of visible queerness and we would feel very safe. And after the chaoticness of the 2020 election going into 2021, we were just looking for a place where we, we just felt safer to be. So Andersonville here in Chicago was the place for us. So we had lived here for a few years before the pandemic and then gone back to North Carolina and then came back in 2021. And we just spent a couple of years talking about what it would look like to have a store looking at commercial space in our neighborhood. As Andy can attest, our neighborhood is filled with really great little shoppie shops, as we like to call them. Like living in Andersonville, it's very walk out the door and accidentally spend $100 on like little things you didn't know you needed. And now with, you know, the tariffs even more. But we knew like being in this, in this neighborhood as a shop would be a dream of ours. We had lived in the neighborhood we wanted to have A store where we lived. We didn't want to be shopkeepers and look, no, no judgment to those that are but we didn't want to be shopkeepers that were in a neighborhood where we didn't really understand the community and where we weren't living in community with, with the people that would be shopping with us. So that was really important to us. So we started looking for space. It took a very long time. Everything was very expensive. We were self funding everything. We had sold my previous business, which was a marketing business and we had like the teeniest, tiniest little bit of money we could use to open our new store. And we looked and looked and looked and found things and they weren't the right fit. Found more things, they weren't the right fit. And we, we finally found a spot and the landlord was excited about our business plan. And it is about 380 square feet. We are in Andersonville. We are, that's our sales floor.

When I was there, it's packed, you know, on a, between Friday and Monday, which is our weekend, we'll have over a thousand people come through our doors. On a busy Saturday in the summer, we'll have upwards of 600 people stop in and shop with us. And it's been phenomenal. And the first year we didn't fully know what we were doing. We. I knew that I wanted a stationary shop and I'm, I am okay saying that I'm very snobbish about that. There are lots of shops that people consider stationary shops that Eric and I would consider gift shops with stationery. We also think there's a lot of stationery out there that, and this is kind of the fun part. As the buyer, I do all the buying for the store. There's a lot of stationery out there that is gift shop stationery, but not station stationary shop stationary. Looking at you typo, there's lots of distinctions. There's lots, lots of opinions I have. But in the first year we were, we were kind of gift. We were more stationary. It took time for people to understand what we were doing. And then it also took time for us to build relationships with a lot of the brands that we wanted to carry. A lot of stationary brands, especially those brands from Japan, Taiwan. More of the established brands actually really won't work with you in your first year of business. They only work with brick and mortar businesses. They you to be in business for over a year. So it just took time to build that, those relationships and, and build our Customer base. And I would say it was earlier this year, early 2025, when things just drastically changed for our business. So in, In March of 2025, we hosted Chicago Stationery Fest, which was the first weekend festival for stationary enthusiasts. And we had over 60 vendors join us from around the world. We had over 1500 people attend Chicago Stationery Fest. We rented out this really historic venue for two days and we had workshops and meetups and a marketplace sales floor. And friend of the show, Bradley, was there a ren. Yes, yes. It was kind of like a renegade craft fair, but just for stationary.

It was really fun. And ever since then, we've really seen just drastic growth in our business. And we started posting on TikTok in May and that's really been a big change for us as well. Just folks are finding us for the first time and. And things are growing from there. So that's a very long wind explanation of kind of how we got here and what we're doing today. Oh, I should say like what we sell. So we are a stationary shop. First and foremost we focus on selling high quality stationary goods and supplies from the US and from around the world. Over half of our products we source from outside of the United States. A large majority of that comes from Japan. We also carry products from Taiwan, France, the uk, India, Korea, all over the world. And we're focused on folks that are into journaling, snail mail, using their planner, and people that are into creative work, whether that's for their profession or a hobby. And even the collectors like myself, who have a large collection of stationery that they may get around to using one day. We love those folks as well. Yeah. And that's what we do. We're open seven days a week in Andersonville. Eric and I work in the business. We have a team of seven that are working with us and bringing stationery to the masses and. And we'll talk about it I think a little bit later. But we are a neighborhood first shop. So we do not sell online. We do not have a website where we sell our products. We don't do phone order orders, we don't mail anything. So if you want anything, you got to come in person and shop with us.

Yeah, it's. It's definitely a decision that, that's important to us. There are other shops and I would say most of the businesses in our neighborhood aren't focused on doing online sales. Some have an online shop, but it's more of either something they introduced during the pandemic and during, you know, like stay at home orders in Chicago. Some of them do it a lot of like online order pickup in store type of purchases for customers. But the really cool thing about our neighborhood of Andersonville, it is consider to the shop. Local capital of Chicago. There's over 100 independently owned businesses and this like one mile stretch here in the neighborhood from shops to restaurants, bars, clubs, coffee shops, everything in between. And the large majority are either owned by residents in the neighborhood, owned by folks in Chicago, or they are small local Chicago based or small regional, like midwestern chains. So like Ray Gun which has locations in Iowa and here in Chicago. Or Collectivo Coffee which has locations in Milwaukee, Madison and here in Chicago. Or small shops like Towers that there's just only one of. But a lot of shops are like really focused on serving the neighborhood. There's a really cool shop, Andy, I'm not sure if you got to visit, called Five Elements Home. It's about half a block down from us. It's a Japanese homeware store. They had really good knives, great knives, Ceramics. Yeah. Tea, incense. We always tell folks after they shop with us to go to Five Elements because however, like chaotic. Exactly. It's like you can regulate walking in there, but they're a really cool store and that they do not do anything online. They don't do social media, they don't do email marketing there, like only in person, which is really cool too.

Alley Cat Comic?

We're very lucky too. I mean we have like two comic book stores and three bookstores and seven coffee shops, like all within, you know, like a 10 block.

The understudy yeah, that was, that was.

Oh, my gosh.

Yeah, we love it here.

Yeah, for sure. So this year we've seen a lot of changes, and I think the biggest kind of word I've ke I've come back to when I've talked about this throughout the year on podcast and interviews is the uncertainty of that. This year we've seen so many changes, many of them that have been put in place by a post on a social media platform or in an interview or something like that that directly impact our business and the products that we sell. And that uncertainty and the back and forth nature of all of this tariff policy just creates a lot of frustration and anxiety for a business like ours, a business that is very small in the grand scheme of things, that is still very new in the grand scheme of like, having a brick and mortar retail shop. And we've had a great year. We've seen really great growth. We've grown our team from just Eric and I to, you know, hiring. Hiring five people in the past year. Like, things that Eric and I literally never intended on doing. Like, we were just. We're going to open a little shop. We'll be open on the weekends and a few days a week and sell our little stationary and that's it. And it's kind of grown into this thing, which is exciting and we're thankful for that. But as it's grown, it's created. And at the same time, with everything happening with regard to tariffs, it's just created so much uncertainty and fear and frustration. And I posted something this week on Instagram and I was chatting with some other shopkeepers. I'm at a place right now as the person that does all the buying and handles the financial side of the business, where I am wasting so much time managing everything with regard to tariffs. And I'm grateful that, that the business is in a place where we could have folks who are working in the business. Like, right now I'm doing this, this conversation with you and like, the shop is open and like, I'm grateful that we're there, but I also shouldn't have to be wasting my time on calling DHL every day and disputing invoices every single day and creating these like elaborate Excel calculator spreadsheets to, like, figure out profit margin on product things that we didn't have to do a year ago. And the biggest change that folks may not be aware is what's called the de minimis exemption that ended at the end of August. And this was a policy that has been around for, I think, almost a century now that allows American customers to purchase products and businesses to purchase products from outside of the United States. And as long as the value of that order was under a certain threshold, the order would not be subject to additional duties and tariffs. The order would still go through the Customs and Border Protection process. It would still be inspected and reviewed to make sure that there was nothing nefarious entering the country. However, President Trump has used the boogeyman of fentanyl as his big way to say, like, no, we need to get rid of de minimis entirely because it's, it's, you know, caught. It's wreaking havoc on the United States. De minimis. The exemption ended for products from China and Hong Kong earlier this year back at the beginning of summer, and then it ended for products from the rest of the United States at the end of August. So before those dates, states, we would order our products from Japan, Korea, France, the UK wherever. We would keep our orders under $800, which was that threshold. And we would get products in. And we didn't have duties or tariffs that we were responsible for. But now every single thing that we order that comes into the United States, we're now responsible for the tariffs that are assigned to that country. And those tariffs have changed. So the tariff on Chinese goods, we've paid tariffs on Chinese goods from 35 to 165%. This depending on when those products entered the United States of America. Tariffs are due whenever that product, the tariff rate is determined whenever that product lands at the for us, whenever it lands at the port of LA is when they decide how much we owe them.

We're paying $16 in tariffs on that thing. And then we're paying what are called brokerage charges from the shipping company. So company, because they are brokering the transaction on your behalf, they charge brokerage fees for their time and effort. And depending on the shipping company, those brokerage fees can sometimes be as much, if not more, than the tariffs. So there were points this summer where we were getting goods in, and because there was so much confusion and things were changing so rapidly, we were getting bills for things, and the bills would have the tariffs and then the brokerage chart. I remember one I posted on our social media earlier in summer. I think I posted it back in. All in. No, it was in March. It was in March when this happened, because it was actually the week of Chicago Stationary Fest. We got this invoice on, like a Thursday from UPS for like $1200 for, like 700 of stuff from France, but half of it was made in China. So we were getting these Chinese tariffs on those products because it's based on country manufacturer, not country of origin, which is another thing fakes folks may not realize regarding tariffs. So we got this bill for $1,200. And the invoice date, payment was due within five days of the invoice date. And then I think it was something like, like 20 or 30% interest would start accruing on the invoice. This was a real invoice. This wasn't like a scam. This was from ups. And. But the only way to pay was by check. So there was no way.

Like, literally. Yeah, I can mail you an envelope of quarters. Like, what do you want me to do? So by the time I got the check to them, interest had already started accruing. And they're still trying to chase me down for, like, the $300 we owe them. They're not getting their money. Ups, if you're listening, you're not getting your $300.

I know you're listening. Yours. But the frustrating part is that this was happening at a time when literally, like, President Trump would put a post on Truth Social or say something on Fox and Friends about a tariff policy, and then it would change like that. And. And UPS doesn't have the infrastructure in place to handle all those changes. So they're just like, firing off bills to anyone possible.

Right.

Yeah, well, that's, you know, that's something that has been funny. I. I try to not argue too much with people on the Internet because it's not the best use of my time, but when we posted about tariffs earlier in the year, people would comment and just say, of course, the. The go to just buy American made. And my go to response is, I would love to buy American made washi tape. Can you share manufacture with me? I would love to buy American made Tomoe river paper. I would love to buy American made graphite and erasers and, I don't know, fountain pen cartridges. You know, like the plast that the ink goes in. Who's making those in the United States? You know, like, all those things, none of that's made in America.

Yeah.

Yes. Yes.

Yeah, well, depends on the product and where it's coming from. I will say, I think something that a lot of folks may not realize who aren't in this world of like, retail or having a brick and mortar store. Is that your local. Your small, local, independent businesses, like your paper and pencils, if you're so lucky to have one in your neighborhood? They. They don't have warehouses. They're not like, they're not Walmarts and Targets and Amazons with warehouses and like acreages of space where they can hold product. You know, like for example, everything that Walmart sells this holiday season they've had since the beginning of this year. Year, you know, like it's not just coming in now. So the pricing on that stuff isn't impacted by tariffs. Now they're, they're probably saying it is and you know, that's how they can have record high profit margins and pay out dividends to their shareholders and all of that while, you know, blaming it on tariffs and like squeezing the American, you know, lower and middle class, all those things which are happening. But a shop like ours, like when I would place an order from Japan, let's say for UD1P gel pens, very popular gel pen we sell in our shop, we would, I would order 100 of those at a time. So I would order 100 of those pins and they would come in and we would start to sell them, we would keep them in our shop. This year we've added on, we don't have a back room. So Andy may have seen. We don't have a back room, storage room or basement in our store. What you see is what we have. So we have off site storage where we also keep some product. So I would order 100 of those pins and we start to sell them. And when we get down to about 30 or so, I place an order for 100 more pins because it takes, you know, three to five weeks, weeks for those pins to get here from Japan. And that would be the process that we worked with. So that kind of just in time approach to stocking our store, that's what a lot of shops use. You know, for most shops, like for all of our holiday that we'll have on our shelves starting in November, I ordered all of that about a month ago. You know, I didn't order that back at the beginning of the year. Most independent card makers and sticker makers, a lot of the brands that we carry for those types of products, they don't, they're not releasing next year's Christmas cards. Now, those typically released in July and August. And then you buy them then and they have them made and then they come out and we have them later that year. So because of the end of de minimis, it's, it's really, it's really impacted small businesses like ours because we were always, we're ordering things 50 or 100 at a time. They're coming in, we're selling them, we're Ordering more as we need it. We're able to keep those reorders under the $800 threshold. So we're not paying those duties and tariffs. And then all of that now changes. So regardless of the size of an, we're paying not just the duties and tariffs, we're also paying those brokerage fees. We're also paying administrative charges, we're also paying all these other added fees. And those all add up really, really quickly. And again, because of the uncertainty of it all, it's, it's dependent on the product. So we've had some items, for example, like a vinyl notebook cover for a Portuguese brand that we carry. They make their notebook covers in China because, spoiler alert, the vast majority of vinyl and plast products are made in China or Vietnam. So that's where they came from. So we used to, we used to buy those, I think for 4 bucks from Portugal and sold them for $10. And last time we got those in stock, our cost on them because of the 165% Chinese tariffs, those cost like $11. No one's going to pay $25 for a clear vinyl notebook cover. I think right now we're selling those for 15 if anyone will buy them. So we're making a whopping $4 on this notebook cover. So exciting. That's definitely how you can build a business with. So I mean, that's just an example of that uncertainty and how the other thing too, when I ordered that notebook cover, it didn't have that tariff on it, but by the time it landed in New York from Portugal, it did have the tariff on it. So that's the other fun part of owning a business, especially like ours, that sells things like planners and calendars. Every planner that's on our shelf right now, every dated planner that's on our shelf, we order between, between January and May of this year. So I was buying things six to eight months ago that I didn't know how much they would cost because of the changing tariff policy. So when I was buying Hobonichi or when I was buying Travelers company refills, dated diary refills in January, you have to, you have to order Travelers company dated diary products. You have to have your order into them by like mid January for that year. For the following year, when I was ordering those in January, I didn't know that they would have a 15% tariff on them. And so what a lot of shops are doing, I've seen this like Yosaka really incredible family owned stationery shop in Brooklyn, New York. They're putting their products up for their customers to preview, but they can't even give you a price yet because they don't know what the cost is until they get the tariff.

Exactly. Things are taking so much longer. I have a package right now. It is. I have two packages right now. One is a. A shipment of gel pens that I ordered at the beginning of August under $800. The goal to get it into the US before de minimis ended. It came in right before De Minimis ended in like, mid August. And it's just been sitting in Long beach at the Port of long beach for six weeks now. FedEx is holding it. No one will call me. If you call FedEx to ask, you'll wait on hold for, you know, three hours and no one will be able to give you an answer. I have another package right now that is sitting in Franklin Park, Illinois at the DHL hub here. It's $400 worth of washi tape and stickers from Japan. And when it came into the. The tariffs on that should have been about 60 bucks with the administrative fees and everything. I, you know, I would have paid $80 to get that package when. But the value of the product, they input it as US Dollars instead of Japanese yen. So the tariffs on a 60,000 Japanese yen package is very different than the tariffs on a 60,000 US dollar package. So now they're saying that I owe $4,500 for this package of washi tape and stickers. And they send me a text message every morning, threatening to send it back. And I emailed them. They let me know on Monday that they are recalculating the tariffs, but I've not heard any. So just like that is literally every day I wake up to a text message from DHL every morning that we owe them money. And another component of all this, we had a ton of stuff come in before De Minimis ended, but we're getting tariff bills for all of those things that we shouldn't be billed for.

So now I'm collecting every single bill and disputing every single bill that we receive. Yeah, yeah.

Like, yes, of course. Yeah.

Every email I send to FedEx, I get an autoresponder that says, we've received your email. Our current working time is 15 to 20 business days.

Yeah, exactly. Yeah, yeah.

Okay.

Yeah, like yeah, we've definitely experienced that. And that is another part of the De Minimis exemption ending that, that folks don't realize. And I think there's, you know, I don't want to get my tin foil out and make a hat too soon, but I do think like it's not

Believe me, a little bit of a conspiracy theorist in me is like part of what's guiding this. So when the De Minimis exemption ending was announced, by the way, that was announced like the last week of July that it was ending on August 28th. So the administration gave, gave shippers and all of these companies about a 30 day notice to create a process to put a process in place to collect tariffs which totally easy to do. Right. Completely change their infrastructure to make that happen. So what. And, and if you're listening and you've paid any attention to the news in the past few weeks, you've probably seen this. What most countries did is they said, okay, we don't have the infrastructure in place to manage this so we're just not going to ship to the United States anymore. Because what U.S. customs and Border Borders Protection said to, to Royal Mail in the UK or the Australian Post or to ecms, which by the way ECMS is the largest, most affordable way to get goods into the US from Asia. Japan Post. It's a. ECMS is like a kind of a multi agency process where like a package would be shipped Japan Post to Tokyo and then, and then another shipper would take it from Tokyo to LA and then FedEx would bring it from LA to US. Like that's how we were getting most of our, our items. Because what, what Customs and Border Patrol said to all of those agencies is we don't have a, we don't have a process in place in the US to collect the tariffs. And USPS doesn't have the infrastructure or technology or time to develop a process. So to get your items in the US you have to clear them and collect the tariffs in your country and then remit payment to the United States of America to get the products here. So my conspiracy theory hat comes on when I think, okay, so this is a way to be like, see the country's paying the tariff, like the UK is actually paying the tariff because Royal Mail is going to write the check to the United States of America for those tariffs.

So Royal Mail, Australian Post, ecms, Japan Post, they just said, look, we're not, why should we have to do this? We're not going to ship to you anymore or give us time to figure the system out before we start shipping to you again. And the reason that's important is because that is the most affordable way for most small independent artists, makers and brands to get their products into the United States. It's so much more cost effective than DHL, FedEx or UPS. So that's what most of them used to get their products to us. So for us we've seen it impact stickers, sticker sheets, greeting cards, all of those products that we Washy tape. Washi Tape has been hugely impacted because Washi tape is only made in China, Japan and Taiwan. Like it's not made anymore anywhere else. We've seen a huge impact on those things because all those independent artists who by the way are like one person shows, they're making the art, they're having the stuff manufactured in China or in their home country. They're packaging the product, they're sending it to us. Now they have to figure out how to do DDU shipping deliveries due or DDP delivery deliveries or duties paid shipping. Now Royal Mail is telling like our favorite sticker brands in the UK that they can't ship. So now they have to set up up a brokerage account with DHL and take all this time. So a lot of those brands have just said we're just, we're just not shipping to you. And it really hurts those brands because a lot of those artists, Americans make up a majority of their customers. Because I've had, I've had conversations online with people from Australia or from the UK about, you know, how 50, 60, 80% of their customers are Americans. And people have said, why is it that, you know, Americans aren't because customers? It's because the thing that we do best to spend money. That's like, what we do.

Yeah. We don't make anything. Like, all we know how to do is take things and spend money. So we've, like, cut ourselves, you know, we've cut these artists off from so much of their income. And what my concern has been is, okay, once these situations find and we're. We're on the. We're on the other side of it now. You know, Royal Mail has. Has created a DDP system for some of the brands. So we just got our first shipment actually yesterday from this artist in the uk. We love her. It's called Grumpy Nook. We love her stuff. She makes stickers and. And scrapbook paper and washi tapes. We just got our first shipment from her since all this ended yesterday. So we didn't get anything from her for about six or seven weeks. We. We just couldn't. She couldn't get anything to us. But what I worried about is for brands that aren't like hers, where she's been around for a while. She has an established brand. She has customers in the uk like, are they still going to be around if I want to go place an order in a few weeks or in a few months? Like, are they still going to be. Are they just not even going to try to ship to the United States anymore? And it's not that. It's not that. They're not things that I can't find in the US I can find greeting cards. I can find stickers in the United States that are made in the US But I want to stock those things. Like, I want to stock that artwork from that artist because that's what our customers want. And that's. Because that's what I like.

And because we love in a glue, we live in a global economy where we should be able to easily buy products from other countries. We live in a society. Yeah, one would think. Yeah.

But I know it's, it's outrageous and it's, again, it's just like the, the uncertainty and the inconsistency of it. I mean, now, now these tariff policies have been found unconstitutional or unlawful and legal, I think. So now maybe it's going to the Supreme Court in November. We'll see if that changes anything.

Yeah, of course, never. They're, they're big fans of the Constitution over there, the Supreme Court, so some

Yeah.

Yeah. One of the first things we did is the day after it was, and it was announced that the divine exemption ended. Is I actually, for like the three or four days after, all I did all day, every day was place orders. And, you know, I'm, Eric and I are really grateful that the shop has done very well this summer. We had a great summer, so we were able to invest in inventory to get us through the rest of the year. I joked with our employees. We had a great summer. All the money's gone because it's now in pencils and stickers. So let's, like, let's keep selling everything.

Yeah. So we were able to invest in a lot of inventory, which is great. We have a lot of inventory on hand. I'm hopeful that we can get through the holidays without having to raise prices on a vast majority of our products. Now, as new things come out, as new designs are released, as new things become available and we order, those prices will be very different than maybe what they were a couple of months ago. So we've not really increase prices on things that we haven't had to, but as things start to come in, as, for example, that box of, you know, a thousand gel pens that's sitting somewhere in Long beach that I was supposed to get before I had to pay the extra fees for them, but now I will have to pay the extra fees for them. The cost on that's going to have to go up. Our business can't absorb those tariffs and those fees. So to weather this, we're letting our customers know we're having conversations. We're sharing it on online, we're sharing the tariff bills. We're talking about how it directly impacts our business and how it directly impacts our customers and our employees and the brands that we sell and the artists that we love working with and letting folks know that, like, price increases are to be expected. We are doing everything we can to hold off on them as long as possible, but it is something that is probably going to happen. And then with other shopkeepers, we're just very focused on having those conversations and sharing resources and sharing information. And, you know, we have in a group chat on Instagram with about 30 stationary shopkeepers from around the world, and we're in another group chat with about 30 or 40 shop, like independent shopkeepers here in Chicago. So everyone's just sharing their experiences and their stories. And, you know, our latest thing I've been telling everyone, read every single bill that you are getting and dispute it. Dispute every bill that you're getting because they are incorrect. Every bill that you're getting is incorrect. The tariffs are not being calculated correctly, the duties are being applied incorrectly, the country of origin isn't being accounted for incorrectly. So dispute every single bill that you get. There's no sense in, in spending money on something that you actually don't owe. And it's going to take longer to get your stuff. So just be prepared.

Exactly. Yeah.

Yeah, Yeah. I mean, I think. Continue. Yeah, I think shopping with, shopping with the small shops is so important. I understand that it is a very, it's like a very uncertain time. And in times like this, it may feel like the best thing to do is to, like, pull back and just like, hold on to what you got. And I understand that. I really, really understand that. But when there, when it does come to buying something and you need to make a purchase, choose your small local shop over Amazon, over Target, Walmart, Walgreens, cvs, whatever it may be. And it's really simple things like for stationery shop coming and buying a greeting card from us versus going to Walmart to buy a greeting card. By the way, every greeting card that we sell is designed by an artist. A vast majority of them are either letterpress printed, screen printed, risograph printed, like, by the person that designed the artwork.

Thank you. And most of them are like six to seven dollars, which I get is a lot for a card. Go to Walgreens the next time you're out and look at how much a papyrus greeting card is. Right now. They're $7. Yeah, like, you know, like, it's the same thing. So buy your greeting cards from your local shops. Stop into your local shops when you need a gift for someone. And don't just always shop based on price. That's something that Eric and I talk about a lot when we're shopping in our neighborhood. Like, yes, of course you could order would. It would more than likely be cheaper online. But when you can, like, walk or drive over to a shop that's owned by someone that, like, lives in your town or neighborhood and buy it from them, I don't know. I think that's a much better option.

Yes, yes, yes. So it feels like, it feels very gauche and very, like, stereotypical to be like a black wing pencil. But I mean, they're very nice pencils. They're very. And those matte pencils are just so smooth and buttery and so dark. I realized this year that this is, like, so silly. I should have thought this earlier. I'm like, oh, yeah, I can swap out the lead and my mechanical pencil for like, a darker graphite. Because I don't like, like H. I don't like HB. I want B. I want, like, I want 2B. I want, like, dark. I want buttery. I want smooth. I want to have to Sharpen my pencil 15 times. So I started switching out, like, all the lead in my. I love, like, a multi pen. Like Eric and I both love, like a jet a uni jet stream 4 in one multi pen. So I'm like, oh, I can just put like B lead 0.5 lead in my multi pin. So I've started doing that, which is very nice. Favorite notebook. I really do love my hobonichi. I use the hobonichi weeks for work.

This year I just have like a white. A plain white one that I put stickers on for next year. I chose the. The design that's like the calligraphy design on the outside.

Like a Japanese poem. It's really, really beautiful.

Yeah, yeah. Chose that one. I also use a Hobonichi an A5 Hobonichi for daily journaling, so I love that. I love my traveler's notebook for a lot of my memory keeping. And I also have a. Keep a snail mail journal and a traveler's notebook. There's a. There's a TikTok and a video about that on the paper and pencil account if you go find it. And then. I love field notes. I'm a big field notes fan too. I mean, I mean, they're right in Chicago. Yeah. And we got to work with field notes this year for Chicago Stationery Fest. We're working on some exciting things for next year's Chicago Stationery Fest. So I love a field notes. They're so practical and I use them all the time. And then.

So foiled again. That's such a good one.

I. It's a good one.

Yeah. Yes. Also look into intel mat hops. I don't know if you've tried those. They are. They're a gel pen. They're 1.0, so they're nice and thick, but the ink mattifies as it dries down. They're super opaque. And they'll write. They write on. They write on photographs as well, or glossy paper. And then the pens that we're obsessed with right now are the Sharpie Creative markers. They're like a chalk marker and they'll write on anything. And they also, like matte down and. Yeah. Oh, my God. I got super nerdy for a moment.

Yeah. Those are things we love.

Well, thanks for having me. I really appreciate it. Andy, thanks for visiting Paper and Pencil. Hopefully Tim and Johnny, you can come see us sometime as well. I don't know. Chicago Stationary Fest is happening next March, so I don't know, maybe, maybe we

Good chance to come. Yeah, it could be so fun.

Yeah. So you can find Paper and Pencil. We're at Paper and Pencil Chicago on Instagram, TikTok and Threads. Threads is where we. I post a little more of our like spicy opinions. Opinions. I'm just, I'm just shit posting over there. Let's be honest about what it is. But that's a lot of fun. Yeah, yeah. But we, we're posting content. We try and post every day of the week. We're sharing photos and videos inside our shop. We're talking with our team members about the products that they use that they love, how they use those products. We are big fans of using your stuff, not just buying it to keep it on a shelf. So we're always encouraging folks to do that as well. And if you're ever in Chicago, Chicago, we're at 1480 West Berwin Avenue in Andersonville. We're on the far north side of Chicago. We're open seven days a week. So come on by and check us out.

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