Paperback Dreams

March 17, 2009

Goodnight Stacey’s, Weller’s On The Move

It was a big week for two of the oldest booksellers in the country—both stores in cities I’ve lived in, but stores I’ve known and loved.

Stacey’s Books closed its doors today after 86 years on San Francisco’s Market St. My wife Heather is especially taking this one hard. She works in the Financial District, and Stacey’s was her store. We argue about “the best” bookstore more than we should (and I can’t share my thoughts at the risk of causing offense) but she felt that both on selection and staff knowledge and service, Stacey’s was it for San Francisco. They were indeed a very good store, and the last of the very large independents in the area that doesn’t do most of their business in used books. Brad Craft, who is now the used book buyer at University Bookstore in Seattle, worked at Stacey’s for many years, and has been sharing some memories on his blog. The end of Stacey’s is further sign that the era of the mega-bookstore may be coming to an end. And it’s not just the independent—Border’s problems have been well documented for over a year, and the beautiful notion of a large home for all the books that could pique a reader’s interest seems just not to be much of a reality these days.

I grew up in Salt Lake City, and the Stacey’s of my hometown was Sam Weller’s Books. The store has been family-owned and operated for three generations, and the stacks of used books in the basement have long been one of my favorite spots in downtown Salt Lake. Tony and Catherine Weller announced this week that they’re moving the store. This doesn’t write the end of Weller’s. They’ve moved before, but faced with the toughest recession since 1929 (a recession they also weathered) they’ve decided it’s time to downsize. Tony Weller answered a few questions for us via email before we screened Paperback Dreams in Salt Lake last Fall, and we never got around to posting his answers. This seems like as good a time as any to share them. We wish them the best in this difficult transition, and recommend this as a very good time for residents of Salt Lake to go buy a book. May their store always look like it did hosting the opening party for the American Bookseller’s Association’s Winter Institute in January: