Rediscover Ben Franklin

Smokey the Bear has arrived at Ben Franklin in Park Rapids, MN!! Happy 80th Birthday Smokey from Ben Franklin!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to Everyone!

Friday and Saturday we will be opening early as well as staying open late. Both Ben Franklin and Ben Franklin Books will be opening at 9AM the next couple of days. Merry Christmas!

We will be open late for your last minute Christmas shopping. All our stores, Ben Franklin and Ben Franklin Books as well as Final Frontier will be open until 6 PM Wednesday and Thursday. Our hours will be extended until 7 PM for Friday and Saturday and we will be open Sunday, Christmas Eve until things die down, usually somewhere between 3 and 4.

We wish everyone a very Merry Christmas!

This Saturday the Grinch and Cindy Lou Who will be at Ben Franklin Books from 11 to 1. Bring the kids and anyone else who is a Dr. Seuss fan to Ben Franklin Books (formerly Book World across the street from Ben Franklin) on Saturday. Have fun!

Our first TV commercial!

Ben Franklin Store Park Rapids, Mn There’s always a friendly smile to help you find what you’re looking for at Ben Franklin in Park Rapids, Minnesota.Store location:208 Main Ave S, Park Rapids...

Our Minnesota themed orders are all up and ready for your Christmas wish lists. We have a large selection of Cindy Lindgren's collection as well as Adam Turman and Sarah from Imagine Nation. We have lots of prints, posters, Swedish dish clothes, hand towels, magnets, greeting cards, coffee and more. Come check it out. Tree Lighting is on Friday!

Our newest shipment of the DIY Robotime kits have come in. Quite a few new sets are available.

We will be starting our Black Friday sales on Wednesday because...why not? So starting tomorrow Wednesday November 15th we will be rolling out the first two sales. Both are BOGO, buy one get one free sales. We have an endcap near the front of the store with Zulay kitchen accessories. All the items on that endcap are BOGO buy one get one free (it will be pictured below). Also all our Red Tag Sale items will be BOGO buy one get one free as well. There are some remarkable sales there as most items are at half price already. This sale does not include clothing/apparel items. There is a Clearance section on the left side back wall as well as Sale tagged items in just about every section. Sale starts tomorrow, well actually today as it is Wednesday technically.

Today, a poll for our customers. How many of you would be interested in longer hours at Ben Franklin? If so inclined, what days and hours would be best? Right now I am debating this point for the holidays and would love to hear from everyone on the subject.

As mentioned I forgot to highlight the Diamond Art (Dotz) and the DIY House Kits from Robotime. Those sections are fully restocked and ready for the holidays. I do have a couple of boxes of Robotime in the backroom of new items that have not gone out yet. Should be up in the next couple of days.

Finally have the toy resets done with only a few more other sections to prep for the holidays. Toyland is open and ready for Christmas. Paint by Numbers also has been overstocked for the winter season (all 9 months of it). Look for more section upgrades in the coming weeks. You can look to your local Ben Franklin for all your shopping needs!

And the other sections that are set up. Check out the cool ICEE machine as well as the Elf on the Shelf product!

Next we have the new baby/young child section.

Ok, summer is, very sadly, done for the year. While I wipe away the tears it is time to get focused on improving the stores as always. We are working on Ben Franklin quite a bit right now. We have some changes and improvements coming for the art and kitchen departments. We are moving around some of the toy and hobby sections to do a new layout. Some sections are done. The baby/young kid section is done with some product still due in. Puzzles got a minor facelift with some better gondola (shelving). Anyway the big change will be the new Toyland that will be coming before Halloween. Still waiting on some product but most it is here and bottlenecking all our backroom space. Photos for the work done so far will come in the following messages. Puzzles first...

New sign for the newly remodeled store. Next week work begins on the "Bargain Room."

SALE! SALE! SALE! All the floral shown as well as much inside is on sale. Not any sale but everything on sale will be $2 or LESS! While supplies last, once gone these bargains are gone.

Ben Franklin Books officially opens today! As mentioned we still have about 2500 more books coming from orders not yet here. And we have some work still to do in areas but we will be open again today. Satisfy your reading needs once again. You will enjoy the changes! See you there.

Update on Ben Franklin Books. Our 4 pallet order came in last week (only 15 days late). We have three more huge orders coming in the next two weeks. The store should, should, should be open by this weekend. It is still a bit of a mess as seen below but things are moving along. We will have nearly triple the space for Children's books as well as nearly double for History (my favorite) and have added DVDs as well. Sometime later this month we will be remodeling the back room as well to turn that into the Bargain Room. I am sure that will be a huge hit. Also, Final Frontier is having a remodel as well (because I am stupid enough to do two of these at the same time). We are opening up the store all the way to the back which will nearly double the store space. Look forward to seeing everyone at the stores!

Why? Why? Why does anyone live in this place?

After the standard delays our Red Heart order has arrived. Quite a few new colors in the shipment and some new lines like Color Block. Even Hygge is available again! Come in to see!

All our stores are closed today in honor of the most important day in human history. We will be back to normal hours tomorrow. Happy Easter to all.

A quick update. The Book World store is undergoing a complete makeover. We will be closed for at least another week (hoping to be open by end of this week but this latest storm of doom may play havoc on this).

The store will be getting about 12,000 books in the next few weeks as well as the remodel. The newly launched store will be rebranded as well as featuring new carpeting and a complete new design. Going forward the store will be Ben Franklin Books. We are looking forward to serving your book and games needs again very soon!

The picture should be self explanatory. Ben Franklin is hiring. If interested stop by for an application.

Even though spring is non-existent Ben Franklin is ready for the season anyway. Fairy garden, yard decorations and more are standing by for your attention.