Despite an outpouring of support from a small but select group of customers, Chicklet Books, “the fun and funky book boutique” in the Princeton Shopping Center in Princeton, N.J., will close at the end of the year. In August, owner Deb Hunter closed Chicklet’s sister store, Glen Echo used bookstore on Nassau Street, and moved it into the 10,000 sq. ft. shopping center space. “I would have done it the other way around if I had known I would lose my lease,” says Hunter in an e-mail.
As soon as word went out last week that Chicklet was being forced to vacate the location for a doctor’s office, customers Meg Cox Leone, Laura Strong, Margery Cuyler, Myrna Bearse, and Cille Longshaw began an e-mail campaign to preserve both the bookstore and the post office that it operates. “If you are like me, and the others who signed this with me, and feel that losing Chicklet and the post office would adversely affect your quality of life, then take a minute to do this,” they asked. “In a tone of total respect, please call or write the management of the Princeton Shopping Center right away and tell them you value this current tenant, and that losing that Chicklet Books would decrease your trips to the mall and/or your satisfaction with its offerings.”
Although Hunter would like to stay in the mall or to move to an affordable location—she has been contacted by several landlords—that doesn’t seem likely. “It would require an instant influx of cash to afford the rents, or a landlord needing a tax write off,” she says. “I don’t see either of those happening in the next few weeks, so we will close down completely.”
Hunter is in the midst of liquidating inventory, both books and DVDS, as well as fixtures. Many of the items can be viewed online at a special sale site (http://bookstoreclosing.wordpress.com/items-for-sale/).
