One of the state's biggest retail collections of used books will close its doors at the end of June. Photo courtesy of Ebornbooks.com
SALT LAKE CITY — It’s called Utah’s largest retailer of new, used, rare and out-of-print books for sale on it’s website and now Eborn Books will be leaving its long-time digs on Main Street in downtown Salt Lake City. Owner Bret Eborn says the owner of the David Keith Building is evicting all current occupants.
“There are multiple businesses here, so the owner has basically evicted everybody, told us all to get out so he can renovate the building…and bring restaurants, bars, things like that to it,” says Eborn.
Eborn says he got the call a couple of weeks ago, giving the book retailer and other tenants until the end of the year, but Eborn says they don’t want to move the large supply of books in the middle of winter, so he says the location will close at the end of June, with all inventory moved out by end of summer.
As for the future he says, it’s going to probably be on the internet, because finding a space with adequate room for his big supply of books probably won’t be possible. Eborn says they are still entertaining the idea of another retail location, but holds out little hope of replacing the abundance of room at the current downtown location.
Eborn says he’s heard from many customers who say they will miss the unique experience of browsing the collection at the historic Main Street location.
“Clearly there are lots of customers who are unhappy with it but it’s interesting where we get the most comments every day is from people who are guests at nearby downtown hotels who tell us how wonderful it is that Salt Lake has this because they don’t have it in their towns anymore,” says Eborn.
Eborn has a good attitude about it though. He says the building’s owner has every right to do with his building what he wants, and the closing will probably boost Eborn’s internet sales, but he does feel like Salt Lake is losing something special.
Eborn has other locations in Utah and Illinois. The location at 254 S. Main Street will offer half off inventory during the month of June and close the doors for good after that at the end of the month.