Published: Thursday, March 25, 2010
After an 11-year struggle, Marysville bookseller can fight no more
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Mark Mulligan / The Herald
Mary Burns, who owns Bookworks on Third Street in Marysville, will close her store March 31.
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All books are currently 40 percent off their marked price, and according to Burns, they’re going fast.
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Mark Mulligan / The Herald Shelves are emptying quickly and the selection of books condensing as shoppers take advantage of a 40% discount on all books at Bookworks in Marysville. Mary Burns, who owns Bookworks on Third Street in Marysville, is closing the doors to her store by the end of the month. Photo taken 031610
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Mark Mulligan / The Herald Mary Burns, who owns Bookworks on Third Street in Marysville, is closing the doors to her store by the end of the month. All books are currently 40% off their marked price, and according to Burns, they're going fast. Photo taken 031610
MARYSVILLE — The music drifts out of Mary Burns' storefront and down Third Street, eventually losing its way amid rumbling engines.
Ding, ding, ding ding. The silvery chimes sound like a line from a storybook, enchanted music that casts a spell over Burns' customers and draws them through the open door of her bookstore.
The song is ending. The music box won't be a heard on Third Street much longer; Burns is closing The Bookworks, which she's owned for 11 years.
She's selling the books, the shelves — even the music box that has long been a fixture in her front window.
Like many other independent bookstore owners, Burns was driven to extinction by a perfect storm of variables, the most damning of which come as no surprise: online book retailers and the harshest recession in recent history.
“People are still buying books, and they're still wanting new books,” she said. “But before when they might be buying five or six, now they're only buying one.”
Burns bought the store, 1510 Third St., when Amazon.com was emerging as an overwhelming force in the book industry. Then the recession came as the proverbial back-breaking straw.
The store's last day will be March 31.
During the last weeks of March, Burns is watching her store empty out. It's a bittersweet transition; she'll miss her customers, many of whom drive for more than a half-hour to get to The Bookworks.
She says she's looking forward to having her life back. Cooking a meal for her family. Maybe even reading a book from cover to cover.
She hasn't had a vacation in years, but that's not a priority right now.
“It's not like I need a vacation,” she said. “I need to clean my house.”
Some of her customers are having a hard time letting go of The Bookworks, a fixture in their lives for decades.
“My customers are so sad, and I feel so bad,” she said. “I'm ready to go, and they're not ready to let me go.”
The Marysville store's closure adds to a throng of troubled bookstores that have closed their doors since the recession hit in late 2008. Signs of an industry in distress aren't hard to find — maybe the most talked-about omen came in a surprise announcement from Seattle's iconic Elliott Bay Book Co. late last year.
Long a fixture in Seattle's Pioneer Square, the store's owner announced he'd be pulling up roots and moving across town to a spot where the rent is cheaper and the parking is more abundant.
“Moving the store is the second-to-last thing I would want to see happen,” said owner Peter Aaron. “Seeing the store close would be the only thing worse.”
That bookstore has been “eking downward” for years, but the decline accelerated when the economy crashed, Aaron said.
Like Burns, he also assumed the helm of his store at around the same time Amazon came on the scene.
Another notable closure came late last year when bookseller Bailey Coy, a longtime fixture on Seattle's Capitol Hill, closed its doors for good.
Large-scale retailers such as Barnes & Noble have also been making business harder for smaller stores for many years.
Adding insult to injury, Internet retailer Amazon continues to post profits even in the downturn. Bolstered by holiday sales, Amazon reported a profit of $384 million for the fourth quarter of 2009.
Burns said the most frustrating part of owning a small bookstore was encountering customers who wanted her to match the steep discounts offered by large retailers.
“They use books as loss leaders, and we use books for the love of books, to try to get them into people's hands,” she said.
Read Amy Rolph's small-business blog at www.heraldnet.com/TheStorefront. Contact her at 425-339-3029 or arolph@heraldnet.com.
If you go
The Bookworks is located at 1510 Third St., Marysville.
Ding, ding, ding ding. The silvery chimes sound like a line from a storybook, enchanted music that casts a spell over Burns' customers and draws them through the open door of her bookstore.
The song is ending. The music box won't be a heard on Third Street much longer; Burns is closing The Bookworks, which she's owned for 11 years.
She's selling the books, the shelves — even the music box that has long been a fixture in her front window.
Like many other independent bookstore owners, Burns was driven to extinction by a perfect storm of variables, the most damning of which come as no surprise: online book retailers and the harshest recession in recent history.
“People are still buying books, and they're still wanting new books,” she said. “But before when they might be buying five or six, now they're only buying one.”
Burns bought the store, 1510 Third St., when Amazon.com was emerging as an overwhelming force in the book industry. Then the recession came as the proverbial back-breaking straw.
The store's last day will be March 31.
During the last weeks of March, Burns is watching her store empty out. It's a bittersweet transition; she'll miss her customers, many of whom drive for more than a half-hour to get to The Bookworks.
She says she's looking forward to having her life back. Cooking a meal for her family. Maybe even reading a book from cover to cover.
She hasn't had a vacation in years, but that's not a priority right now.
“It's not like I need a vacation,” she said. “I need to clean my house.”
Some of her customers are having a hard time letting go of The Bookworks, a fixture in their lives for decades.
“My customers are so sad, and I feel so bad,” she said. “I'm ready to go, and they're not ready to let me go.”
The Marysville store's closure adds to a throng of troubled bookstores that have closed their doors since the recession hit in late 2008. Signs of an industry in distress aren't hard to find — maybe the most talked-about omen came in a surprise announcement from Seattle's iconic Elliott Bay Book Co. late last year.
Long a fixture in Seattle's Pioneer Square, the store's owner announced he'd be pulling up roots and moving across town to a spot where the rent is cheaper and the parking is more abundant.
“Moving the store is the second-to-last thing I would want to see happen,” said owner Peter Aaron. “Seeing the store close would be the only thing worse.”
That bookstore has been “eking downward” for years, but the decline accelerated when the economy crashed, Aaron said.
Like Burns, he also assumed the helm of his store at around the same time Amazon came on the scene.
Another notable closure came late last year when bookseller Bailey Coy, a longtime fixture on Seattle's Capitol Hill, closed its doors for good.
Large-scale retailers such as Barnes & Noble have also been making business harder for smaller stores for many years.
Adding insult to injury, Internet retailer Amazon continues to post profits even in the downturn. Bolstered by holiday sales, Amazon reported a profit of $384 million for the fourth quarter of 2009.
Burns said the most frustrating part of owning a small bookstore was encountering customers who wanted her to match the steep discounts offered by large retailers.
“They use books as loss leaders, and we use books for the love of books, to try to get them into people's hands,” she said.
Read Amy Rolph's small-business blog at www.heraldnet.com/TheStorefront. Contact her at 425-339-3029 or arolph@heraldnet.com.
If you go
The Bookworks is located at 1510 Third St., Marysville.
Story tags »
• Books • Marysville • Economy, Business & Finance • Internet & Cloud • People • Family • SeattleBookworks: Challenges of an independent bookstore
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