The Best of Times Bookstore and Café in downtown Red Wing, Minn. is closing its doors as of January 31. In a letter to her customers posted on the bookstore’s website this weekend, owner Leslie Hakala wrote that with the “trifecta of a poor economy, a street full of empty storefronts, and people who think Amazon’s Kindle is the next best thing, I cannot justify staying in business and continually losing money.”
The store launched its going-out-of-business sale on January 5, which will continue until the end of January. Books are discounted 25%; gifts, puppets, and puzzles are discounted 40%. The Best of Times opened its doors in 2004. The general interest bookstore sells both new and used books and has an inventory of 12,000 new titles. A little more than a year ago, the store added a coffee shop. Hakala told PW Monday morning that the coffee and food sales helped the bottom line, but that book sales have been down the last three years, since the economy crashed in 2008. Even though holiday book sales were better than last year, Hakala believes that book sales will never return to 2007 levels. “I would have stuck it out if I thought there’d be a change ahead – but I don’t see it getting better,” she said, explaining that, to make matters worse, the Best of Times storefront has been sandwiched between two empty stores for the past few years, with three empty stores on her side of the street alone. Besides Hakala, there is one full-time employee of Best of Times and one part-time employee.
