Ollie's Took Over a Westgate Hallway. The Library Book Sale Moved to Washington Street.

Before 9 a.m. on Wednesday, Oct. 28, about 110 people were lined up outside Westgate Mall in Baxter. It was mild and overcast, and the Brainerd Dispatch said it felt like Black Friday had come a month early. Inside Ollie's Bargain Outlet, an employee pointed people to checkout with a big Ollie face on a stick.

On that same Wednesday, the Friends of the Brainerd Public Library had a sale day of their own. It was across town at 215 Washington Street in Brainerd, in a smaller room the group moved into after Ollie's needed its old one.

Both crowds were after the same thing, which is a good find for less money. For more than a decade, one hallway on Westgate's east side served them both. This year it stopped working that way. The mall filled its empty storefronts by building over the walkway where the book sale used to bring people in, and the book sale had to set up again somewhere else.

The east side was already losing its foot traffic

The quiet started before Ollie's. GNC had been in Westgate since Dec. 14, 1994, and its last day was Dec. 5, 2025. Store manager Charlie Beckrich told the Brainerd Dispatch that fewer people were walking the east side of the mall once Claire's and JoAnn closed. With sales down and the lease coming up, the company closed the Baxter store.

When the Ollie's building permit went into review in February, Payless Shoes, GNC and Claire's were all dark on that side of the mall. The Dispatch said one tenant there was still drawing people in. That was the Friends of the Brainerd Library book sale, across the hall from Tradehome Shoes, which "generated considerable foot traffic for the mall."

The book sale paid no rent. For more than 12 years, Westgate donated the space to the Friends for free. So the busiest stop on the east side wasn't a business. It was a volunteer fundraiser that kept a stretch of the mall busy while the shops around it closed.

What Ollie's built over the hallway

The permit described a big footprint. Ollie's would start at the Ashley Furniture space and run west into part of the old JoAnn Fabrics store. Along the way it would take over the mall's center hallway and walkway on the east side. The book sale's space was inside that area, and the Friends packed up their books in February.

According to the Dispatch, Ollie's new stores generally run 25,000 to 35,000 square feet. The book sale's old space was about 3,300 square feet. Swapping a rent-free volunteer sale for a chain store several times its size is how the east side got its storefronts back.

The new store is open every day from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. at 14136 Baxter Drive, Suite 6, inside Westgate Mall. It has 35 employees. Darrin Wheat, Ollie's regional director of stores, told the Dispatch that Baxter is the chain's fourth Minnesota location. Ollie's has more than 700 stores in 36 states.

Wheat's description of how the store works is what puts Ollie's in the same lane as the book sale. "Inventory changes a lot," he told the Dispatch. "Sometimes we say if you see it, you might want to buy it because it may not be here next week when you come back." He called a visit "kind of a treasure hunt." The Dispatch's opening-day walk-through found these on the shelves:

• Toys, books, food and pet supplies
• Clothing, bed and bath, floor coverings and furniture
• Hardware, auto and paint supplies
• Jigsaw puzzles, art paper and office supplies
• Christmas decorations and a full aisle of holiday gift bags
• Vacuums, mattresses, lamps and space heaters made to look like small fireplaces

Ollie's isn't the only new arrival near the mall this fall. 7 Brew opened Oct. 19 on Fairview Drive in front of Westgate. Spirit Halloween used the rest of the old JoAnn space for the Halloween season, as it had the year before.

What the book sale gave up by moving

The Friends asked publicly for a new home in June. They told the Dispatch they wanted an accessible space, ideally on the ground floor, with room to take in, sort, store and sell donations, and they budgeted no more than $1,500 a month. The stakes were real. In 2025 the book sale raised about $22,000 for the Friends through monthly shopping days and larger sales twice a year.

The sale moved to 215 Washington Street on July 15, 2026, and the Friends' own site calls the new location "a smaller site." The first shopping day was Tuesday, Aug. 18. Here is how a trip to the book sale compares now:

The smaller room changed the big seasonal sales the most. In place of the traditional three-day sale, the Friends scheduled two stand-alone sale days this fall, and Thursday, Dec. 3 is listed as the last one.

Shopping the Washington Street room before the year ends

Three shopping days remain at 215 Washington Street this year:

1. Wednesday, Nov. 18, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. This is the first of the two stand-alone fall sale days.
2. Thursday, Dec. 3, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. This is the last stand-alone sale day of the fall.
3. Tuesday, Dec. 8, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. This is the regular monthly shopping day, which falls on the second Tuesday of every month.

Prices are still very low. Most children's books cost 25 cents to $1 and most adult books cost 50 cents to $1. Premium newer releases cost $2 to $5, and everything else is priced as marked. All of the money goes to special projects at the Brainerd Public Library, including children's summer reading programs, the book club-in-a-bag collection, bestsellers and author events.

The new space also affects donations. The Friends accept donations on Tuesdays from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., and drop-off parking is only in front of the door. Books need to be clean and in good shape. The Friends also take puzzles and board games with secure lids, DVDs, audio CDs, vinyl records and audiobooks. They don't accept VHS tapes, audio cassettes, magazines or encyclopedias. With little room to display free items and none to store them, the Friends ask donors to follow the guidelines closely.

The sale is run by volunteers. Anyone who wants to help at the new site can email [email protected].

The same bargain hunt, at two addresses

For years, a cheap paperback and a trip through Westgate were part of the same errand. Now they're two stops with very different hours. Ollie's is open twelve hours a day, every day, and its stock changes by the week. The book sale is open a few days a month in a room too small for wagons, and its stock changes with whatever people donate.

The two moves happened together. Westgate's east side had been losing tenants since JoAnn and Claire's closed, and the rent-free book sale was what still brought shoppers down that hallway. Ollie's filled the storefronts by taking over that hallway. That sent the book sale's 25-cent children's books, and the fundraiser that brought in about $22,000 for the library's Friends in 2025, to a new room on Washington Street. A holiday shopping trip that covers both now means stopping at both addresses, and the book sale is open on just three more days this year: Nov. 18, Dec. 3 and Dec. 8.

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