Park McKnight, a customer in the store Saturday, said once the doors shut for good, “I don’t know what I’m going to do.”
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After four decades in business in Greenville, The Open Book is closing. JanuA card with the news went out to about 1,000 of the store’s best customers over the past year. As you know, that is no longer true.Īnd unfortunately, you can still get it cheaper at the Walmart.Ĭustomers say a community will vanish with independent retailer That was in 1989, and well before the internet. We thought, well, they still have to come to us for the offbeat and hard-to-obtain stuff.
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The volume in question was of course some mega-billion-seller by Stephen King or Danielle Steele. Somehow, that never actually translates into trying to SAVE those small businesses by, you know, patronizing them to keep them from going out of business.Īt least once a day I hear the phrase, "I can get that cheaper at Walmart." (I fight back the urge to reply, well yeah, if you wanna burn in hell for all eternity!) But it is telling that I can first remember hearing "I can get that cheaper at Walmart," while working at the Open Book. I am always amazed when the heavily-Republican upstate prefers big business retailers over small businesses, all while bleating the patriotic, pro-capitalist mantra small business is the future of America.
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It's the oldest independent bookstore in the area, and ever since the arrival of Barnes and Noble, its days have been numbered. It is with a heavy heart that I report on the loss of The Open Book, the first place I ever worked here in South Carolina.