Open Book Co-op Out of Business

It’s never good to see a Wisconsin business close, but…

Open Book, the bookstore co-op that opened in Shorewood last fall, will close by April 30, the store’s directors said Friday.

The shop opened in November in the N. Oakland Ave. space previously occupied by a Harry W. Schwartz Bookstore. The organizers raised money from local residents and also secured a low-interest, $35,000 loan from the village.

Organizers cited “a confluence of events” for the closing, including the economy, a change in the public’s book-buying habits and strong competition from online booksellers.

“We had an expectation that we would have a much more robust holiday season than we did,” said Keith Schmitz, chairman of the Open Book co-op.

...seriously… what about the book industry has changed in six months?  The economy is about the same if not a bit better than it was when they opened.  Online booksellers, reading devices like a Kindle, and people’s book buying habits have been on this trend for quite some time.  The market hasn’t substantially changed.  It looks like the organizers here had some sort of fantasy that they could buck the trend and didn’t have enough capital to give themselves enough time to build a customer base.