Book Vault Shuts Doors Forever Regulars Upset by Closure
By Allison Cooper '09
Wallingford Correspondent
Student and faculty patrons responded with shock when The Book Vault, Main Street’s bookstore, announced that it would be closing nearly four years after opening for business on October 13, 2003.
“It is disappointing that the Book Vault is closing down.” Said Choate economics teacher, Glenn E. Hartsoe. “I’ve done some shopping there and it’s very nice to have a bookstore in town,”
Fifth former Min Yeoh is also saddened by the loss of The Book Vault: “I remember once my roommate was looking in The Book Vault for a birthday present. She was looking at the cds and was not sure which one to buy, so someone who worked there played them all for her to help her make a choice.”
A charming, privately owned bookshop with a friendly, personable staff, The Book Vault, and its two owners, Janice and Stuart Hecht, contributed greatly to the town. “We have done more than anyone could have expected for this town, and for our customers,” commented owner Stuart Hecht. “We had book clubs, reader’s theatres, and author events. We even had the Connecticut opera come to our store. We gave schools historical tours of our ship and read stories to children,”
Unfortunately, there was a “lack of participation for people in Wallingford and surrounding areas” in the shop, and The Book Vault could no longer afford to stay open in the face of monthly rents and rising utilities costs. “Fewer people are going downtown to shop. They want more businesses downtown, but they will not support existing ones,” continued Hecht.
Local Stores Struggle
Fellow small business owner Heidi Pariato, of The Curiosity Shop, an antique store specializing in vintage costume jewelry agrees that there is not enough interest: “I would love to see more interest from the Wallingford and Choate communities. It would be helpful to have more people come in.”
The challenge the downtown Wallingford area faces represents a frightening larger trend in the United States. Small businesses struggle to stay alive because “big block” consumers frequent large corporate businesses like Wal-Mart, or in the case of The Book Vault, Amazon.com, and large stores like Barnes & Noble and Borders. They do not support locally owned businesses. “It’s difficult for a small store to compete with larger stores like Barnes and Noble,” agrees Hartsoe.
“Walmart Effect” Apparent
In a study featured in Charles Fishman’s book “The Wal-Mart Effect,” economist Emek Baker discovered that five years after a Wal-Mart sets up shop in a town, 250 people lose their jobs (although Wal-Mart creates approximately 350 jobs) and four businesses go out of business.
Another study by economist Kenneth E. Stone evaluated “The Effect of Wal-Mart stores on Businesses in Host Towns and Surrounding Towns in Iowa.” In this study, Stone examined 55 Iowa towns with populations ranging from 5,000 to 30,000 people, 10 of these towns with a Wal-Mart, and 45 without. Stone discovered that although total retail sales jumped 55% per capita in three years in a town where a Wal-Mart opened, nearby towns lost 13% in total retail sales. Small local businesses also suffered dramatic sales losses. Specialty stores (drug stores, toy stores, clothing stores, etc.) lost 12% of sales after three years.
For books, Wal-Mart only carries about 500 titles, a fraction of the amount of books carried by most independent shops. Any book Wal-Mart offers, however is sold by the millions to the vast number of consumers at Wal-Marts. Now, publishing companies who want to sell more books are picking which books to publish based on whether they think Wal-Mart and large corporations will like them. There were 250,000 independent bookshops in 1990, now there are fewer than 183,000. This pattern thus pre-selects what people can read and results in a loss of variety and choices. If only Wal-Marts exist in any given town, a consumer cannot go anywhere else in that town in that town to buy something
Community at Fault?
“There needs to be more support by the Choate community and everyone of independent businesses” urges Hecht.If there is no support, then soon there will not be a downtown to go to. Do not wait for someone else to do it or you will lose your choices.”
