Elko’s only bookstore to close Saturday

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From the Elko (Nevada) Daily Free Press:

Loyal customers to the Bookstore are making one more trip to find a book before the store closes Saturday after 26 years in business.

The going-out-of-business sale this week includes a 35 percent discount on new books, and all used books at $1 for paperbacks and $2 for hardbacks, along with store fixtures and shelves also priced to sell.

Bought by Sandy Wilson in 1991, the Bookstore located in the Rancho Plaza sold new and used books and developed longtime relationships with customers who also took part in the used book exchange.

Tammi Santistevan bought the store from her mother in 2006, but recent trends in brick-and-mortar retail and reading habits are causing her to close the store.

“We cannot compete with Amazon and the Internet,” said Santistevan, who noted that people were coming in to take pictures of books to order a cheaper copy online.

. . . .

“They’re just not reading physical books as much,” Santistevan said of the younger generation of readers.

“Our elderly customers are really upset,” she said. “They came in all the time and traded used books; the younger generation not so much. They read on their phones and tablets.”

Link to the rest at Elko Daily Free Press and thanks to Dave for the tip.

From his memories of the last time he drove through Elko, PG suspects, after the Bookstore closes, the nearest physical bookstore is going to over 200 miles away.

6 thoughts on “Elko’s only bookstore to close Saturday”

  1. I think you’re correct that it would be over 200 miles going either east to Salt Lake or west to Reno, but there is a Barnes & Noble at the Magic Valley Mall in Twin Falls, Idaho, that’s 165 or so miles away. Still way too far to drive for a book, IMO.

    • I have shopped in the Bookstore, My work took me thru a lot of towns in Idaho and northern Nevada, and I looked for used paperbacks by pulp authors. Most of those stores are gone now, and the effect on the western landscape is large.

      You do see a lot of Nevada license plates in Idaho Falls.

      Ron

      • Ron, do you mean Twin Falls rather than Idaho Falls? It makes sense that you would see a lot of Nevada plates in Twin Falls. It’s about 45 minutes from the border and a logical shopping destination for those who live in the rural NW corner of NV. By contrast, Idaho Falls is a 3 hour drive from that corner of NV.

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