Weakened by a bad economy and a changing book industry, The BookMark, one of Charlotte's two remaining independent bookstores, is closing. Its last day will be June 1.
David and Kathy Friese opened The Bookmark in 1992 to cater to hundreds of uptown workers, especially Bank of America employees, who pass its Founder's Hall location each weekday.
In recent years, the store has suffered because of bank layoffs and construction that diverted foot traffic. But the growing popularity of electronic books, Friese said Tuesday, has probably dealt the most serious blow to sales. Online book sales also have cut into The BookMark's business.
"Our sales are off half of what they used to be" in 2000, he says. "We've made a lot of friends and sold a lot of books. We're just not selling enough anymore."
The store's entire inventory is now 40 percent off. When it closes, Park Road Books will be Charlotte's sole independent bookstore.
Tuesday, May 8, 2012
Uptown's BookMark bookstore to close
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9 comments:
Not to mention noone pays full price for a book anymore...
Sad to see a mainstay go, but who really buys hardcopy books anymore? My parents who are well into their 60s either have a Kindle or iPad to read now.
Im flabbergasted they lasted this long, with those prices and that inventory. Given that, its no loss for the community - at all. The staff wasnt very helpful or nice, even.
You might have mentioned the location of the store...you know, in case anyone wanted to take advantage of the 40% off prices?
"especially Bank of America employees, who pass its Founder's Hall location each weekday" I'm pretty sure they did...
Yep. Not nice people
Folks from Charlotte read books?? I mean they read anything other than People Magazine and Guns & Ammo?
Hey anon 6:01. We read the bible too! Well, we skip all the hard parts and go straight to the parts about ho-mo-sexuals.
The phone booth, rotary-dial phones, the printing press (it's 99.9% ePub now) ... If bookstores didn't add a 'Chocolates Candy Counter' + espresso bar + greeting card racks 2 years ago (all low overhead, high profit) they are NOT going to make it, as evidenced by the tsunami of closings.
The bookstore in Edmonds is staying open because it caters to the retired crowd and is high profile at the annual writer's conference. Sadly tho' their foresight does not extend to covering indieAuthors, which now represents the majority of emerging authors (and cross-over authors). Eventually?? Bye' Bye'
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