Another bookstore bites the dust.
Just three months after Seventh Avenue Books in Park Slope announced its demise, its neighbor just doors away, Park Slope Books, has confirmed that it, too, is closing.
The store, between Second and Third streets, will close by the end of February, according to store manager Tracy Walsch.
“We’re combining with our other storefront [Heights Books] on Montague Street to focus more on online sales, because they have been more fruitful for us lately,” said Walsch.
Walsch wouldn’t comment on the overall climate for independent bookstores in the Slope, at the request of the store’s owner (who could not be reached for comment).
But she did say, “It seems that street traffic during the week has changed more toward Fifth Avenue. On a Tuesday around 1 pm you can tell it’s really dead.”
The store’s closure was first reported by Brownstoner.com
In March, Community Bookstore will be the last independent bookshop standing on Seventh Avenue, the sole local competitor to Barnes and Noble. Catherine Bohne, Community Bookstore’s owner, said the lack of local business was not just impacting bookstores.
“It’s an overall crisis in small business right now,” said Bohne, reeling off the names of recently deceased local shops, like Snooky’s, Soundtrack and Inaka. “Between pressure from internet shopping and traditional city government support for national chains …
if you want these small businesses to survive, you have to shop at them.”
To encourage local buying, and to deter the deaths of local outlets, the Park Slope Civic Council will launching a “Shop Local Park Slope Campaign” on Tuesday, Nov. 13. For information, e-mail Rebeccah at buyinbrooklyn@gmail.com.
