MANSFIELD — Operation: Fandom and Blackbird Records are celebrating three years of business in downtown Mansfield.
The stores opened in October 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic, so owner Josh Lehman said the staff didn’t get the opportunity to design the store as it was originally planned.
“A lot of the shelves and displays we wanted were all on backorder, so we just made do with what we had,” he said. “But we’ve been working to set up new shelves and bring more light in here, so it looks a lot nicer.”
The stores, located at 31 E. 4th St. in downtown Mansfield, are celebrating upgrades and their third anniversary from Oct. 6 to 8. The celebration will include a professional cosplayer, shopping spree drawings, sales and new merchandise.
Extended hours for the celebration weekend are 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Friday, 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Saturday and 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday.
A professional cosplayer will join the festivities on Saturday from 4 to 7 p.m. dressed as the Star Wars character Hera Syndulla.
“That’s a great photo opportunity, and we welcome any other customers to cosplay that night as well,” Lehman said.
The store will also draw a winner for a $100 shopping spree each day. Customers can throw their name in the drawing each day for a chance to win three different times.
Lehman said staff are adding new Pokémon cards to their shelves, new and used vinyl records and thousands of $1 stickers.
The anniversary event will include 10% off all purchases more than $50.
“It will be exciting to freshen things up and give our customers more merchandise,” Lehman said. “The floor is definitely more shoppable now and we have plenty of new and exciting items.”
The store is selling a Taylor Swift-autographed guitar and CDs. Lehman said staff aresorting record collections they bought to put out on the floor this weekend.
Patrons can stay updated on Operation: Fandom and Blackbird Records news on Facebook or Instagram.