After 14 years, new and used bookstore Ukazoo Books in Towson, Md., will be closing permanently by the end of the year, Baltimore Fishbowl reported. Store owner Edward Whitfill attributed the decision to a "straight decline in sales" since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, noting that "we are no longer making enough to stay in business."
Yesterday Whitfill started a going-out-of-business sale, with everything in the store marked down 10%-30%. While he would not give a date for the store's final day in business, he expects to close once the inventory has been sold and no later than the end of December. Early next month he plans to put bookshelves and fixtures on sale as well.
Whitfill explained that the store was closed for nine weeks after Covid hit, and sales "never bounced back to pre-Covid levels, which has just left us running at a loss." He kept the store open, hoping things would return to a sustainable level, but they never did.
Founded in 2007, Ukazoo once had four locations and carried more than 100,000 titles. In 2017 Whitliff decided to downsize and relocate the store to its current space on Towson's Loch Raven Boulevard.
"It makes my heart heavy, and yet it seems to be the only course of action right now," Whitfill wrote on Facebook.