Bookie's New and Used Books in Homewood, Ill., will close permanently at the end of the month after nearly five years in business, owner Keith Lewis announced in a Facebook post last week. The closure, he explained, comes as the result of an "exorbitant rent increase" that, if agreed to, would likely jeopardize the future of not only the Homewood store but also the original Bookie's location in Beverly.
Lewis noted that although the Beverly location has always been the higher volume store, the Homewood location benefited from increased sales during local festivals and being the only bookstore in a 10-mile radius. He had thought those things were enough to ensure the Homewood store's future, but a deeper look at the numbers showed that "unaffordable rent was a lot lower than we thought" for the Homewood location. He realized that "if we continued, we'd probably lose both stores."
Despite the closure, Lewis hopes to continue serving the Homewood community in a variety of ways. The Bookie's team is working on a plan to deliver special-ordered books to people in the Homewood area on a weekly basis, and the store's partnerships with local schools and charities will continue. Bookie's might also make pop-up appearances in Homewood throughout the year.
"Homewood has wonderful people and beautiful families," the post continues. "Nothing made us happier than to see kids flipping through the pages of books and jumping up and down when they got the books they loved. We have until the end of the month to keep that up. But we're sincerely hoping that our relationship with Homewood isn’t at an end."