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SALT LAKE CITY -- Sam Weller's bookstore announced Thursday that it will be moving to a new location in an effort to remain profitable in the recent economic downturn. That store may be moving into a smaller space, but local booksellers say they're not down yet.
The door may not be opening as often as it used to at the King's English near 1500 S. and 1500 East, but General Manager Anne Holman says they're doing OK, just being careful.
"Instead of 10 copies of the new John Grisham, we might buy five. But we still want to have it," Holman said.
Her store has made other small changes as well, such as buying a few gently used books, something they haven't done in the past.
The end result for the customer is less expensive hard covers in some cases of signed, first-edition books.
Bookseller Ken Sanders says it's about learning to adapt. "The death of the book is greatly exaggerated," he said. "We're not mainstream society, we never have been," he continued, "but we're not going away."
Holman agrees. She says the next generation proves it. She says recently she spotted a little girl in her store who's already a book lover. "She was smelling the book," Holman said, "and she looked up at me and she said, 'Don't you love the way a new book smells?' And I thought, 'OK, you know what? She's seven. I don't think we have to worry about books going away.'"
Holman believes in the long run local businesses like hers are going to be better off than some of the bigger chains in the struggling economy. She says people realize that buying local is important, and they appreciate the personal service and knowing that the person on the other side of the counter is passionate about what they do.
"Do you want the King's English to stay around? Do you want Sam Weller's to stay around? The only way that's going to happen is [if] you come to us and buy your books. And if we don't have it on the shelf, we can order it for you the same way Amazon does," Holman said.
E-mail: bbruce@ksl.com
