Womrath Bookshop in downtown Bronxville, N.Y., will close permanently at the end of the month. In a message to customers, Morin Bishop, who owns the store with Barbara Bishop, said the store has reached a point where "the cost of remaining in business--including a 37% increase in our rent--as well as the substantial debt we have taken on in our efforts to survive, has created a simply unsustainable situation." The Bishops bought the store in 2019.
Bishop added that the store has "struggled mightily" in recent years to find solutions to its financial difficulties, but several promising options were rendered "unworkable."
The store's last day in business will be February 28, and Womrath will stop accepting special orders today, February 20. Bishop encouraged customers to continue shopping through the end of the month, saying that sales will help cover a number of closing expenses and the store "still [has] many wonderful books in stock."
He noted too that although the future of the space at 76 Pondfield Rd. remains unclear, "there is a chance that the ultimate disposition will include book sales as a continuing part of the operation here. Here's hoping that's the case. Bronxville needs a bookstore!"
Womrath Bookshop has operated in Bronxville for 87 years. In the 1930s, Womrath had some 50 stores in the New York metropolitan area whose main business was renting books. Over time, especially with the expansion of paperbacks, the rental business declined, and in 1947 the company sold its stores as franchises to focus on distribution. In 2016, Womrath's Bookstore, Tenafly, N.J., closed, and we believe the Bronxville store is the last Womrath.