New England Mobile Book Fair, Newton Highlands, Mass., is planning to move from its current 32,000-square-foot space to something "significantly smaller," about 4,000 square feet, the Boston Globe reported. The store's lease is up at the end of the month, and "revenues have been dropping year after year," Tom Lyons, who bought the store in 2011, told the newspaper. He had 36 employees and is now down to 22. "With one or two exceptions, large independent bookstores just can't exist anymore," he said.
Lyons plans to whittle down his inventory of a million volumes and carry more children's books, which now are 50% of inventory, and bolster mysteries, fiction, history and cookbooks. He'll shed some categories that don't sell as well anymore, including business, humor, sports, religion and self-help.
In a Globe followup, Lyons said that news of the move had resulted in many calls from people "who have space that they want me to look at. It's gratifying there's that kind of support."
One example: Boston City Councilor Matt O'Malley, who "has happy childhood memories of visiting New England Mobile Book Fair with his mother," told the paper that he hopes the store will move to West Roxbury. "It's one of my favorite places and it would be the perfect complement to our business district."