After "the worst holiday season in record," James Drayton is closing the African American Heritage Bookstore, West Palm Beach, Fla., which he bought 15 years ago, according to the Palm Beach Post. The store was founded in 1991.
Drayton indicated he believes the economy will get worse and won't improve for at least two years, adding, "I don't have that kind of financial staying power for that period of time."
This marks the second African American bookstore to close in the last week. Last Tuesday, Karibu Books, with six stores in and around Prince George's County, Md., announced it was closing. In its case, the cause was not the state of the business so much as what CEO Simba Sana called a "destructive" dissolution of the company's partnership (Shelf Awareness, January 22, 2008).
Okay. I'm very concerned. Granted, Christian Fiction Blog book sales have increased last year, we need black bookstores. We need a place to connect with our readers kneecap to kneecap across the cafe tables. What are we going to do y'all? And how does this affect Essence bookstore reporting?
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