COURT HOUSE — Steven Pyfrin, owner of The Book Shoppe in Court House Village Shopping Center, rear plaza, will close “sometime early in May,” according to a letter sent to customers.

He said the store’s Shore Mall location would remain until the end of December, should customers desire to special order books.
He added that special order books would be shipped to customers “free of charge.”

“We are keeping this location open in hopes of selling out our inventory,” he stated.

Thanking patrons who have remained faithful through the years, Pyfrin stated that the decision to close was on “I did not want to make, but due to financial realities that are confronting this business we simply have no other choice.”

Nationwide, Pyfrin acknowledged demise of bookstores, large and small.

“When I purchased this store five years ago there were approximately 3,000 independent book stores throughout the county. Today there are fewer than 1,200,” he stated.

“It is not only independents that are closing,” he added, “Borders is rumored to close within the year also, as the stock price has been as low as 34 cents.”

Part of the loss of business to book stores came from supermarkets, drug stores and “big box stores like Wal-Mart,” he said.

Those giants have decided to carry large book selections, thus cutting into the small businesses’ profits.

The Internet, too, was cited as “a big influence on my decision to close,” he added.
Daily, he stated, he saw deliveries on the UPS truck from such places as Amazon.com heading for customers “that likely used to buy them from us.”

Lauding the workers who have given a face to The Book Shoppe, Emily, Ellen, Tom and Amanda, Pyfrin stated, “Not a day goes by when I do not receive a compliment for work that they have done.”