Morningside Bookshop, a family-owned bookstore now 5 years old, will be permanently closing its doors in June, owner Peter Soter announced on Wednesday.
This store, located on 114th and Broadway, has Columbia as its landlord. Soter said that, though the University has been “very supportive, and very helpful,” he is simply not making enough money to stay open.
Soter, who has taken a total of four days off during the past year and has put his own money into the shop, expressed a great frustration and sadness over the harsh reality he now faces—despite his full dedication, his investment of time and money can no longer be feasible.
“It may be too simple to say, but you need money to make money,” Soter said, adding, “I have always been a bit behind financially.”
“I spend 5 years – taking maybe 4 days off and always working weekends—dedicating myself and committing to the store. To think about what to do next, it is weird,” Soter said. “It is really hard to think about.”
Soter said he chose to schedule the shutdown in June because, although he speculates that the store could hang on for a few months longer, the typically slow summer months would ultimately not be worth the burden. “I am completely broke, honestly,” he said.
The large sign posted in the shop’s window reads, “Unless something miraculous happens, (please come in and talk to us about miracles) we will be closing in June, 2009.”
Soter said that no such miracles have come his way.
He mentioned one “weak offer to take over the space and put another book store.” Though Soter was choked up at the thought of a new store with new management taking the space, he said, “As a person who has lived here my whole life, I would do that. But I would want to be a part of it. If someone came along and said, ‘don’t throw down the towel. Here is 100,000 dollars, stay on and be my partner,’ I could stay.”
Since such offers have not been come his way, Soter said that he must operate under the assumption that this is the store’s last month selling books to the neighborhood.
Soter suggested that his neighborhood shop could not turn a profit because of “the onslaught of Amazon.” He said, “The buying mentality is very immediate.”
Speaking of a change in customer attitude he has seen over the past five years, Soter said, “It’s like, ‘If you don’t have it I’ll go somewhere else. Not only that, I’ll tell it to your face, how do you like that?’ And as a small Mom and Pop business, I don’t like that.”
Soter also speculated that he could have salvaged his business had he “added another line of revenue,” or converted the place into a coffee shop.
But he did not want to do that. “Maybe I’m too stubborn, but I just want to sell books.”