BELFAST, Maine — The shelves at The Fertile Mind Bookshop are crowded with Maine books, mysteries, classic literature and much more, just like they’ve been for 30 years.
But after longtime owners Bruce and LaRue Hayne dispose of the current stock — now for sale at the bargain rate of 40 percent off — they will close its doors for good.
“A lot of our regulars are making it a point to stop in,” Bruce Hayne said this week from behind the counter of his cozy store. “They tell us they’re going to miss us.”
So will many of the other independent booksellers in Maine, who say that staying in business despite the growing success of Internet behemoth Amazon.com is an uphill battle.
“The Fertile Mind is an institution,” said Andy Lacher, who has owned BookStacks in Bucksport since 1997 and is concerned about its future, too. “That’s what I worry about here. I worry every day. You’re all in the same boat. You just hang on by your fingernails.”
The Haynes, who are taking their second retirement, say they wanted to leave the business so they could spend more time with their grandchildren in Costa Rica. They tried for more than a year and a half to sell the business. Although a number of people were very interested, Bruce Hayne said, no one was able to get the financing together to turn a book-selling dream into reality.
“Frankly, this year was not a good year,” he said.
‘Rough year’
There’s a troubling trend for bookstores both big and small. Major book retailer B. Dalton is closing its doors nationwide this month. Its Bangor Mall location already is closed. Port in a Storm, a landmark bookstore on Mount Desert Island, went out of business a year ago. And Meg Smith of the industry trade group the American Booksellers Association said Friday that the group’s membership dropped 10 percent in the last year.
“It’s been a rough year,” she said. “The rough economy has not helped.”
Lindsay McGuire, one of the three owners of Left Bank Books in Searsport, said it is “impossible” for small businesses to compete with Amazon.com, which offers steeply discounted prices on an enormous catalog of books. As an example, she offered the pricing for the newest Stephen King hardcover, “Under the Dome.”
“It’s big, and heavy, and retails for $35,” she said. “But Amazon sells it for $17, which is just over half price. We would lose money if we sold it for $17.”
Lacher had strong words for the online giant, which he called tantamount to a monopoly.
“When I walk into the post office and see one of my good customers walking out with an Amazon box — they’re eating my lunch,” he said.
Efforts Friday afternoon to reach an Amazon spokesman were unsuccessful.
While McGuire said she understands why people struggling in the recession would buy through Amazon.com instead of her store, it doesn’t make the choice any more palatable.
“We’re all guilty,” she said. “None of us can be a retail saint or a purist. But if you did some of your shopping locally, [it would help]. If we were trying to support a family on this business, we wouldn’t be able to do it. We couldn’t. We’re lucky this isn’t our prime source of income. Making a go of it in this economy and with the wolves of Barnes & Noble, Borders and Amazon nipping at our feet — it just doesn’t make sense.”
‘Bright spot’
According to Smith, who said she tries to be “hopeful without being Pollyanna-ish,” this year’s grim numbers mask a more positive trend. She said that many members of her trade group themselves engage in e-commerce and also sell more goods with a higher profit margin than new books, including gifts and used books.
“While there’s certainly concern and alarm, there’s a renewed commitment, almost, from independent booksellers,” she said. “In Maine — especially in Portland — there’s a very active ‘local first’ movement.”
Community ties are important, too, booksellers say.
The Haynes bought their store 15 years ago after moving north from the suburbs of Philadelphia. Although they’re looking forward to their southern sojourn — “Every time it snows, we look forward to it more,” Bruce Hayne said — they will miss lots of things about their downtown bookstore, including book signings and the friendships they have developed with customers.
“The people in Belfast are interesting by any measure,” Bruce Hayne said.
That equation is reciprocal, booksellers say, emphasizing that having viable independent bookstores makes communities more interesting for the people who live there.
“All the technology we’ve got, it’s really isolating us,” Lacher said. “When you have a real store with a real person who says hello — that’s important.”
McGuire said that customer relationships are key.
“The bright spot is that we do have a lot of devoted customers who really do want to support us and don’t want us to go out of business,” she said. “That’s really very, very rewarding. We offer an experience that Amazon can’t, is the way we look at it.”
New business climate
The Haynes and The Fertile Mind won’t soon be forgotten in Belfast or in the bibliophile community.
“It is sad,” said Nancy Burnham, manager of the Belfast Mr. Paperback bookstore, a family-owned Maine company. “I’m sorry they couldn’t find a buyer for their business. It’s the feeling that every man’s death diminishes me.”
She said she envisions a “long slog” until the recession eases and the retail climate improves a little — but even then, there won’t be a return to the easier days of the past.
“I think that how we buy things has changed, permanently,” Burnham said. “I’ve no idea how the next generation will value the printed page.”
Sales of gifts and jewelry help to keep her bookstore afloat, she said.
But she still finds joy in what she does, despite the hard times.
“There’s nothing like finding the perfect book for someone, or sharing a conversation with someone who loved or hated the book you’re talking about. It’s a very close connection. That’s why I wanted to work in a bookstore.”
Even the Haynes can’t quite give up that connection. That’s why they’re now having a wooden cart built in Costa Rica which they’ll use to sell books in English — and takeout coffee — to beach-goers.
“It’ll be called The Thirsty Thinker,” LaRue Hayne said. “We think we’ll have a special niche.”