Booksellers sees end at Laurelwood

Booksellers at Laurelwood hummed with bargainhunting customers Monday, the last day the city’s largest independent bookstore was to be open.

On one end of the bookstore during lunch, owner Neil Van Uum bargained with a woman interested in buying empty bookshelves. His price at the time was $80.

Near the cash registers, the remaining stock of heavily discounted, monogrammed stationery was for anyone whose name starts with an “X” or “U”.

Greeting cards were marked down to 25 cents. Van Uum glanced toward them and quipped, “There’s a swarm (of) customers over there.”

A post appearing on the East Memphis store’s Facebook account Saturday states: “It’s the FINAL COUNTDOWN! We’re still here, and you guys have been asking about signs and memorabilia. We still have our signs and even some old Davis-Kidd things! Come see us — we’ll be here through Monday.”

The bookstore also posted: “Final Weekend, Plus President’s Day.”

Booksellers was Davis-Kidd Booksellers until the eight-store Joseph-Beth Booksellers, of which DavisKidd was a part, went bankrupt in 2010. Van Uum purchased the Memphis store from liquidators that year, changed the name and managed to keep it open another seven years.

Behind-the-scene efforts have been made, since at least early January, to recruit investors to open a successor store to Booksellers, but no announcements have been made.

Asked early Monday about the latest efforts, Van Uum said, “Still talk going on. Nothing definitive. Maybe talk to Cory.”

He referred to Cory Prewitt, chief operating officer for the landlord Laurelwood Shopping Center. The people most interested in investing in a successor bookstore seem to want it to remain in Laurelwood Shopping Center, Van Uum said.

The 25,000-square-foot Booksellers at 387 Perkins Extended has been an anchor tenant for the shopping center.

Prewitt has not been returning The Commercial Appeal’s emails in recent weeks. But he came to his office door when a reporter rang the doorbell after lunch Monday. Prewett declined to comment, saying he would not leak out information bit by bit.

But when asked if there’s hope that a successor bookstore will emerge, he smiled and said, “Yes.”

In announcing the store closing in early January, Van Uum said, “We have seen a slight decline in traffic every year for the last five years. We adjusted our mix (of products). Brought in used books. Went after more school orders and book fairs. But there was just a slight erosion of traffic over the last five years.’’

Booksellers and its restaurant, Booksellers Bistro, had employed 50 people.

The store’s staff included a core group of employees who have worked there 10, 15, 20 and 25 years or more.

PHOTOS BY BRAD VEST/THE COMMERCIAL APPEAL Stephanie Bell looks through a rack of books while going through the Booksellers at Laurelwood one last time before the store closed its doors for good. “I finally found a great bookstore but then found out that they were closing,” said Bell, who recently moved to Memphis. “It’s so sad, the staff here are so amazing.”

Bill Greer, right, watches his grandaughter, Elise Bureau, 2, play inside the Booksellers at Laurelwood. The Booksellers closed for good on Monday evening, owner Neil Van Uum confirmed.