Bennett Books To Close

After almost two decades of bookselling, Bennett Books in Wyckoff, New Jersey, will shut its doors by September 30. As owner John Bennett told BTW, when a business that's been around for 19 years closes, there's never one reason for it. Bennett cited a number of factors, which included a rent increase, a sales decrease, and the abundance of free information available on the Internet. "A bookstore can't compete with free," he said.

The general bookstore had expanded twice since its start on Labor Day Weekend in 1988. It launched near its current location in a 1,000-square-foot space, moved to a 2,500-square-foot space, and finally expanded to its current 5,000-square feet with 35,000 titles. The bookstore focused on literary fiction and children's literature. More recently, they had included more sidelines, offering puzzles, plush toys, and games, which had better margins, said Bennett, but which did not boost sales. The store is currently selling inventory at a 30 percent discount.

When the store suffered a six-month run of declining numbers, Bennett and his wife, Betty, "decided it didn't make any sense to continue," he said, adding that 2007 was the "most challenging" year in the store's history. "We thought the best thing was to end operations and not have huge obligations."

The reasons were many for the closing, Bennett said, but in addition to rising rent and dipping sales, he cited concern about the book industry as a whole. He watched many of his regular customers migrate not to other bookstores, whether bricks and mortar or online, but away from certain kinds of books altogether. "A number of our customers didn't need book notes from us because they could get that online, maps they could get online, and recipes they could look at online instead of buying cookbooks."

Regarding their plans after the store closes, he said that the couple is "putting out feelers" but is currently focused on the closing. Bennett, who is a licensed attorney in New York and New Jersey and was a corporation and securities lawyer before becoming a bookseller, might return to law. Betty Bennett, however, "loves interacting within the book community," and would prefer to work in another bookstore or within the publishing industry.

In a letter discussing the closing, Carolyn Bennett of BookStream wrote a short history of the good work her parents did at Bennett Books. "In the past 19 years, I've been filled with pride for my parents' achievements," she wrote. She outlined their commitment to selling banned titles, including Salman Rushdie's The Satanic Verses, as well as Sex by Madonna, despite threats of a boycott. She also cited their involvement in ABA (Bennett was a former board member), NAIBA, and ABFFE.

"It's deeply unfortunate that all great things cannot last," she said in the letter, "and while I'm devastated to see my favorite bookstore go, I remain confident that independent bookselling will remain an important part of our country and communities."

John Bennett noted that he and Betty "consider it a tremendous success to stay in business for 19 years in a challenging, competitive environment." He added, "We will truly miss the friends we've made in both the publishing and bookselling community and our customer base. Many have come in the store to express their tremendous regret at losing a community asset. We sincerely hope someone else will take up the cause and open another bookstore in the community." --Karen Schechner