Tatnuck Bookseller ends Worcester chapter
Today, it’s not only about books, it’s about logistics, says Larry Abramoff, owner and president of Tatnuck Bookseller & Sons Inc., which shuttered its Worcester store effective Jan. 3, laying off 70 employees and offering another 25 employees jobs at the Westboro site.
Citing the decision to close the landmark Worcester store as "devastating," Abramoff says a combination of declining business since 9-11, the increased presence of national chain stores Barnes & Noble and Borders Inc., and a weak holiday season contributed to the decision to consolidate. In the last two years, Borders, based in Ann Arbor, MI and Barnes & Noble, headquartered in New York City, have doubled their store presence within a 20-mile radius of Worcester. Borders, which already had a store in Shrewsbury, added a store in the Solomon Pond Mall. Barnes & Noble, which moved its Auburn store to the Shoppes at Blackstone Valley in Millbury, opened a store in Lincoln Plaza in Worcester, less than 5 miles from Tatnuck’s Worcester store.Last July, Tatnuck withdrew from contracts to operate bookstores at Clark University and WPI. Those contracts went to Barnes & Noble.
"I definitely did not do it on a whim" Abramoff says of the Worcester closing, saying that he, his wife, his staff, and their advisors fought as long as they could to keep the store open.
Tatnuck Bookseller, founded 30 years ago, moved to its 355 Chandler St. location in 1991. It has a longstanding reputation for giving generous shelf space to books of local interest, written by Worcester-area authors or written about the region.
Tatnuck’s 31,000 square foot Westboro store, opened in Nov. 2004, is easier to operate because it’s all on one level, Abramoff says. The space, in the Westboro Shopping Center on Lyman Street, houses the company’s corporate headquarters and will house its mail order business.
"You love the charm of this building," Abramoff says of the Chandler St. site, "but the charm can be challenging." Bookselling, he says, used to be literature, culture, sales, and customers. "Now, it’s those things plus the logistics you have to deal with. ... and we feel we can do that much more effectively in Westboro."
But what about the community component? "Don’t underrate Westboro as a community," Abramoff says of the rapidly-growing suburb. "We have customers in Westboro that were customers of Tatnuck for 30 years."
Christina P. O’Neill can be reached at coneill@wbjournal.com
WBJ Web Partners
Most Recent
Most Recent
0 Comments