Once the home of a number of regional bookstore chains, including Lauriat’s and Encore, New England is losing one of its last and oldest literary chains. The Bangor Daily News reported last week that Mr. Paperback will be closing by the end of April. The 50-year-old ten-store chain had been the largest in Maine since the closing of Bookland of Maine in 2000, which had 13 stores.
Mr. Paperback was founded in Bangor in 1963 will begin a going out of business sale in March. While the Foss family, which owns Mr. Paperback, wasn’t able to find a buyer for the bookstore chain, it is in negotiations to have Worcester, Mass.-based Hudson RPM Distributors, LLC to take over its magazine distribution business, Magazines, Inc., according to the paper.
Co-owner Penny Robichaud told the Daily News that the bookstore chain’s troubles are due to gas prices and a changing book industry—“Amazon, the Internet, Kindle.” She expressed concern for the 80 employees, who will be laid off at Mr. Paperback, 40 at Magazines, Inc. Unlike Bookland, which closed after filing for bankruptcy, Mr. Paperback plans to pay its bills before shutting down.
In November, the Books-A-Million chain moved into Maine with three stores, including one in Borders’s former South Portland store, rumored to have been among the chain’s top five performing stores in the country. BAM also opened in a former Waldenbooks in Auburn and a Borders in Bangor.
