Final chapter coming for Lindon Bookstore

It’s sad and not a choice Robin Buckingham and her daughter Brianne Kuhle want to make, but the pair will close Lindon Bookstore.

“If I knew a way to keep it open I would,” Buckingham said.

Like other independent, community bookstores in the area and across the country, the Enumclaw Cole Street bookstore, which has served as a mecca for readers and other groups for 25 years, can no longer stay afloat. Buckingham and Kuhle have owned the store for the past five years. It was for sale for a time and received some interest, but no takers. In the fall, trying to keep it going, they sold memberships to the Lindon Community Club and moved to a smaller Cole Street location next door.

“For us we lost so much business when the bridge closed, we just never got it back,” said Buckingham, referring to the summertime closure of the Kummer Bridge between Enumclaw and Black Diamond. “And then the economy made it worse.”

The economy pushed many book buyers into libraries or used book stores. Buckingham said her Christmas sales dropped off 70 percent the past two years.

“There’s no foot traffic downtown,” she said.

Then there’s the competition from online sellers, e-books and The Kindle and other sources like grocery stores.

“There are a lot of changes happening in the industry,” she said.

Buckingham isn’t taking book orders, but does plan to stay open through the end of February.

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