A beloved retailer now makes an unexpected closure in Texas after 30 years in business, leaving shoppers with no other option.
Half Price Books, in Mesquite, Texas, which sells books and more, will be closing once its lease is over on May 5, reports The-Sun.
The store located at 1645 N. Town East Boulevard in the Market East Shopping Center has been in the area since 1994.
“We’ve been in Mesquite since 1994 and have great customers in the area,” Half Price Books spokesperson Emily Bruce told local ABC affiliate WFAA.
“But due to a decline in customer traffic, we made the decision to close at the end of our lease.”
The store has been Mesquite’s only bookstore since 2021 after The Book Co. closed.
The chain bookseller has about 120 locations in 19 states, including about 40 in Texas.
It sells a variety of books, textbooks, music, and movies.
Founders, Pat Anderson and Ken Gjemre first operated the used book store out of a laundromat in Dallas in 1972.
The pair coined the phrase, “We buy and sell everything ever printed or recorded (except yesterday’s newspaper),” according to their website.
Another bookstore has recently shut its doors in New York City.
An iconic Barnes and Noble location in Tribeca closed on January 14 after 16 years of business.
On December 29, 2023, the store announced its closure saying it was because the “landlord has chosen to redevelop.”
“We’ve loved being a part of this neighborhood and are choosing everything we can to find a new location,” read the Instagram post.
The post detailed other Barnes & Noble locations across the city that book lovers can visit including the Union Square location at 33 East 17th Street, New York, NY, 10003 as well as the Atlantic Avenue store at 194 Atlantic Avenue, Brooklyn, NY, 11201.
The store also added that it hopes to welcome customers back to a new bookstore in Tribeca “just as soon as a suitable location has been found.”
The post’s caption also gave a shoutout to booksellers, store managers, and customers.
“We have so many great memories from events, to meeting authors and making a positive influence in our Tribeca community,” it read.
The number of bookstores has been declining gradually over the years as digital reading becomes more popular.
Bookstore sales fell from a peak of $16.8 billion in 2007 to $9.12 billion in 2019, a decline of 45%, according to Publishers Weekly.
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A massive discount retailer is now closing all 371 stores and wind down its business operations after more than four decades.
99 Cents Only Stores will close all of 371 stores according to the City of Commerce discount chain.
“This was an extremely difficult decision and is not the outcome we expected or hoped to achieve,” interim Chief Executive Mike Simoncic said in a statement.
“Unfortunately, the last several years have presented significant and lasting challenges in the retail environment.”
He cited multiple factors, including the “unprecedented impact” of the COVID-19 pandemic, shifting consumer demand, persistent inflationary pressures and rising levels of shrink — an industry term that refers to loss of inventory attributed to reasons such as shoplifting, employee theft and administrative errors.
Combined, those issues “have greatly hindered the company’s ability to operate,” Simoncic said.
99 Cents Only has stores in California, Arizona, Nevada and Texas and has about 14,000 employees. The privately held company said it had reached an agreement with Hilco Global to liquidate all of its merchandise and dispose of fixtures, furnishings and equipment at its stores. Sales are expected to begin Friday.
Hilco Real Estate is managing the sale of the company’s real estate assets, which are owned or leased, reports The LA Times.
The announcement by 99 Cents Only reflects a larger weakness in the dollar-store category, said Brad Thomas, equity research analyst at KeyBanc Capital Markets.
Dollar Tree, a Chesapeake, Va.-based retailer, announced last month that it was closing 600 of its Family Dollar stores this year and an additional 370 in the next few years, he noted.
“It’s been trying times for many, many retailers,” he said.
“What’s interesting is that what started out as a boon to retailers in the pandemic, with all those stimulus checks, quickly turned into a very troublesome time.”
Rising wages, inflation and higher losses due to shrinkage have reduced profits for retailers in a deep-discount sector where margins are already extremely low.
99 Cents Only, with its large base of California stores, has been under particular wage pressure, he said.
And it’s at a disadvantage compared with larger chains such as market leader Dollar General, which has a store count close to 20,000 — “a sales base and a store base that is multiple times larger than 99 Cents,” Thomas said.
Last week, Bloomberg reported that 99 Cents Only was considering a bankruptcy filing as it contended with a liquidity shortfall.
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