Retail shops in the game
With the arrival of The Half-Blood Prince on its' way, some retail stores are going out of their way to impress both young and old Harry Potter fans. One book shop in Seattle, Washington (U.S.) is taking it all a step further, to show her appretiation of the book.
Seattle's Queen Anne Books has a new space set aside, that is also going to play into the store’s plans for this summer’s hotly anticipated Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. Store manager/events coordinator Tegan Tigani, promises to transform the children’s section into a replica of the classroom in the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.
To enter, you will step through a huge picture frame, and anyone who purchases the book at the store will receive a handmade leather journal containing questions about the The Half-Blood Prince. In the store’s backyard, the eight staffers are constructing a replica of the hut belonging to half-giant Hagrid. What they can’t find in neighborhood shops, they’ll make: “If we can find something that looks like a giant kettle, I'm sure we'll buy it,” Tigani says. “If not, we've been saving up newspapers for a whole heck of a lot of papier-mâché.” Employees dressed as characters from the book will get an assist from Tigani’s husband, who has agreed to don a foam rubber suit, as Whomping Willow, the tree that pummels Hogwarts students. If all goes as expected, Tigani says, her husband will “gently whack people coming into the store.”