Per our tipster: The landlord wants more money for the storefront here between Washington Place and Waverly Place… an increase that's too much for Shakespeare to manage.
There isn't any official word yet from the store about a possible closure … and our tipster says that there is interest among some regulars in launching a fund-raising campaign to help the store either stay in its current location or find a new home.
The Shakespeare & Company closed on the Upper West Side back in 1996. The location on East 23rd Street closed several years ago. There are still locations on Lexington Avenue near Hunter and in Brooklyn near Brooklyn College.
[Image via Yelp]
Scary. And what next, more overpriced sneakers?
ReplyDeleteRich people who don't live here stuff which does not include books.
ReplyDeleteSure, why not, because after all, who needs books these days? Not when there's a combination fro-yo/coffee/nail salon to be had!
ReplyDeleteI honestly hate to say it, but good. All of the times that I've gone into the store, I've felt like I was not wanted in there. With The Strand up the block, I'm surprised that it lasted this long.
ReplyDeleteI'm sad to see any independent go. But I have to agree that attitude has long been an S&Co. problem. Back when they were on the UWS (in the days when Coliseum was still a going concern and well before Amazon etc.), I saw them as a bookstore of last resort. You could practically hear the salesclerks' eyes rolling whenever you asked a question.
ReplyDeleteDid you complain to the store manager about the attitude you got?
ReplyDeleteWhenever some store worker gives me an attitude I literally tell him or her "What's with the attitude?" and 9 out of 10 ten of them drop it. The one idiot who doesn't has me get the manager on him/her and I tell the manager what's up.
Years ago a worker at J&R Music World gave me an attitude and I complained so much the manager gave me a $10 store gift certificate I spent $1 of on batteries for $9 cash back (back when you got cash back from using a gift certificate) haha, so sometimes it even pays to complain :)
D
The Shake & Co on the UES was bought by a different bookstore company earlier this year.
ReplyDeleteI also will grieve anytime I see a bookstore close. When I was younger I would spend many hours trolling racks at the various small stores around the City. Now you can hardly find any left. Seeing S&Co leave even if they had attitude issues will be a shame. One of the comments above recalled Coliseum Books. That one hit home for me when it left.
ReplyDeleteReally? People didn't like some employees attitude, so therefore we should lose yet another bookstore? As if the new stores that replace all our old bookstores won't also have some employees with an attitude?
ReplyDeleteKeep dreaming if you believe the next retailer will even be selling anything you either need or can even afford. Try going into any upscale store and tell me they don't give you an attitude. They specialize in attitude.
A little attitude is part of what makes it New York, and knowing how to deal with attitudes, and by sometimes even turning these people into your friends, is what makes you a New Yorker. If you are just too shy, reserved, introverted or if you are just much of a wimp to deal with people who give you an attitude, thats not their problem, it's yours.