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The independent bookstore Bookends & Beginnings reopened Feb. I will be shopping at the new Bookends – and I trust Nina & Co are going to make the new space a great one – but I won’t pretend another downtown landlord hasn’t ruined another special corner of what could be a thriving, unique, and festive downtown.The Daily Northwestern Best Hidden Gem: Bookends & BeginningsĮvanston’s best hidden gem just became a little less hidden. And it’s a model that hurts our communities. What’s worse, Amazon uses cheap books to lure customers to the site to buy other stuff. What would you pay to make sure your community doesn’t lose small, independent businesses where you can shop for unique items responsive to our community’s interests, run into friends, share story time with your kids, browse a beautifully and knowingly curated collection of merchandise, and know the owners who are usually your neighbors? I know for me it’s a hell of a lot more than the chump-change savings I get when I click click click through Amazon to get some books. So Amazon can offer books at a few bucks off the list price. And the money savings they provide are only short-term, only profit-driven. Major corporations will never care about and can never be truly responsive to the character and identity of local communities. And it’s these communal experiences that build and sustain our community. Nina is right – Amazon can not and will never be able to offer communal experiences like the one I shared with others in her store in October. I recently read one of my picture books at a family story time they held in October there and the setting, the mood, and the history in that space made for a special, cozy experience for everyone who attended (and for me). It’s unique, it has a wonderful feel to it, and Bookends turned it into a top notch indie store in just a short amount of time.

That alley space has been an iconic space for book lovers for decades. I am deeply saddened by the move Bookends feels forced to make. We have to make this abstract value proposition to our customers all the time.”

#BOOKENDS AND BEGINNINGS FULL#

”We ask you to pay the full price for the book, but the reason to pay it is because Amazon is not a cozy independent bookstore in your town, where you can come and browse, where you can take your kids for story time. “We have to make a value proposition,” she said. She noted the challenge for independent bookstores against the convenience of people ordering books on Amazon. She pointed out that Central Street and Main Street in Evanston have lower rents, which in turn allows for small business to have more affordable expenses, but that the increased foot traffic and the proximity to the university were too important for Bookends & Beginnings to pass up on a downtown location. You take a ginormous risk, because you personally sign an individual guarantee that you will pay thousands of dollars to pay the lease even if your business does not go well.” “It is very difficult when you are the owner of a small business. Having small businesses gives a town personality and gives it character,” she said. “Small businesses are what make one town different from another town. In a conversation this afternoon, Barrett talked about the struggle of renting in downtown Evanston, where rents are rising to the level that she believes only large national chains can afford to pay. We feel very thankful that the original affordability and legacy of our iconic Bookman’s Alley space allowed us to incubate and curate a store that, in less than a decade, has come to be recognized as ‘an Evanston institution’ and now attracts national recognition for its literary identity.”īarrett expressed hope the store can remain at the current site through the holiday season and then move into the new site, which previously housed La Macchina Cafe, an Italian restaurant. “A new owner of the alley property demanded a rent increase so dramatic that remaining where we are became unsustainable for us. “This move was not entirely of our own choosing,” the statement said. In the bookstore’s newsletter, owner Nina Barrett shared that the store will leave the “iconic alley and newer Sherman Avenue locations” and move to 1620 Orrington Ave.

15, that it will be moving to a different downtown Evanston location. Credit: Submittedīookends & Beginnings announced Tuesday, Nov. Bookends & Beginnings “secret” location in Bookman’s Alley.

Bookends and beginnings