Dolbey's Medical Bookstore, which serves the University of Pennsylvania's medical, nursing, veterinary and dental schools and is owned by Matthews Book Company, is closing March 23, according to the Daily Pennsylvanian. The store was founded in 1909.
Manager Joe Noce attributed a decline in sales to online competition and "peer-to-peer" selling, such as by second-year medical students to first-year students.
Jim Klund, COO of Matthews, told the paper that store may have been hurt, too, by competition with the Penn Bookstore, managed by Barnes & Noble.
One administrator at the nursing school lamenting the store's imminent closing, saying, "They've been serving students above and beyond expectations. I can speak for the School of Nursing that we need them in spirit."
