By CAROLINE STRAINIG
A MASSIVE rent hike has forced Port Macquarie’s last dedicated book shop selling new books to close its doors.
In a milestone moment for the town, the Book Warehouse in Horton Street ceased trading last Wednesday, with the owner donating unsold books and other items to Rotary. These will now be sold at a temporary shop established by Rotary in William Street.
A spokesperson for the Book Warehouse said the move was forced by a 50 per cent rent hike in January.
“The closure was to do with an unsustainable increase in rent and it was just impractical to relocate at short notice,” she said.
This is the second time the Book Warehouse has closed a branch in Port Macquarie, with another branch in Settlement City also axed some time ago because of a rent increase.
The chairman of the Rotary committee handling the donated books, John Sheppard, said while the donation was a windfall for Rotary, it was also a very sad moment for the town.
“I believe this is our last official book-selling establishment, as Dymocks has also closed,” he said.
“I don’t know what it is in Port Macquarie because we have a lot of vacant shops, or maybe it is the future of book sales? But I do think there will always be demand for the printed word, if not in the same numbers as years ago.”
The upside of the closure is that Rotary now has between 10,000 and 11,000 books and items to sell to raise funds for the many charities it supports, including CDs, DVDs, jig-saw puzzles and children’s games. These will all be sold at massively marked down prices.
“This is really a fantastic opportunity to get some once-off bargains,” Mr Sheppard said.
Situated at shop 7 and 8 111 William Street, the temporary book shop will open as soon as electricity can be connected, which could be as soon as sometime today.
Mr Sheppard said it took 14 Rotary volunteers many hours to pack a total of 240 boxes of items and move the shelving – also donated by the Book Warehouse – to the temporary store and set everything up.
