Photo by Alexandria Living Magazine
Diversions owner Lindsey Bashore
Diversions, the greeting card shop located in the Fairlington Centre shopping center off of Quaker Lane in Alexandria, will close its doors April 30 after being in business there for 34 years, owner Lindsey Bashore said Monday.
Bashore said it's the perfect time to close – he is ready to enjoy retirement, his lease is coming up and many millennials these days just don’t buy cards.
Bashore moved to the area in 1976 from a small town in Michigan to attend college at George Washington University.
“I came from a town of about 35,000 and there are a limited number of businesses in a smaller town, and when I came to GW I started discovering a number of independent little bookstores,” he said. “I love art and I can’t draw a stick figure but I appreciate art. I was really intrigued by the illustrations on greeting cards.”
After earning a business degree at George Washington University, and before opening Diversions, he went to work in the business departments of USA Today and The Washington Post. He also managed a card shop in downtown DC.
“I would show people where things were and I enjoyed it,” he said. “I liked customer service.”
His customer service skills were put to the test one day when in walked actor Jimmy Stewart and his wife Gloria, who were staying at the Madison Hotel just up the street. “He introduced himself. He said he and Gloria were in town to celebrate President Reagan’s first birthday in office, along with, as he put it, 'a number of Reagan’s pals.' He said they hadn’t had time in Hollywood to buy a card before they left so they needed me to help pick out a card for the president of the United States.”
Recalling Stewart’s role in “Harvey,” about an imaginary 6-foot rabbit, Bashore steered Stewart to a card he thought he and the President might enjoy. “It had several rows of rabbits on the front and it said ‘In Honor of Your Birthday,’ and you opened it up and it said ‘A 21-Bun Salute’ with an image of 21 bunnies. It was the perfect card for him to give President Reagan.”
Bashore sent a note to the artist, Sandra Boynton, to let her know that Stewart had bought the card for Reagan and she in turn sent Bashore a handmade piece of art featuring a rabbit that he keeps at home.
When Bashore opened his business in the 1980s in Fairlington Centre, CVS was still called Peoples and the Baskin Robbins at the corner was already there.
Over the years he saw some interesting fads come and go. “In 1997 and for the next four years, it was Beanie Babies and that was huge,” he recalled.
The store has been involved in the local community. Diversions has helped non-profits whether it’s taping their flyers to the front door or making donations for silent auctions over the years. “We really enjoy doing that,” he said.
And thanks to Diversions, local Girl Scouts have been able to sell cookies outside of Fairlington Centre for years. They came to Bashore to ask if they could sell outside the store; they got the OK after the owner of the building said that they could sell closer to CVS at the corner, so shoppers could maneuver the sidewalk past Diversions.
After working six days a week, Bashore has plenty of ideas for retirement. (Two longtime employees, Kathy and Patty, work on Wednesdays.)
After he closes the store, he said he plans to travel and be gone “up to a month at a time. I’d like to travel around the world. If I’m going to say, Bali, that’s literally halfway around the world. I’ve been there once but I was only there a week and a half. I’d recover from jet lag and then have to go.” Other retirement plans include reading some of the books he has at his home that he hasn’t had time to read. A vegan, Bashore also said he wants to volunteer at Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, whose objective is to get people off medication naturally through their diet.
What will go into the shop after he closes? “No idea,” he said, but CVS won’t be expanding again.
The store used to carry quite a few small inexpensive toys but doesn't carry many now that there's a toy store next door. “What I’m hearing from people — the thing that surprised me the most — is that their 30-year old child is upset that the store is closing because of their childhood memories," Bashore noted.
"I think I have the best customers in Alexandria if you think about it," he said. "My customers come in almost always because they’re thinking of somebody else. If someone is in a hardware store, they’re in there because something’s broken and they have to fix it. If they’re in a card shop, they’re thinking of somebody else. That’s why I’ve been so blessed. They’re doing it for others.”
