The Booktenders at 463 U.S. Route One in York, Maine is a new bookstore which opened in June, 2022. I’d heard about the bookstore from Tom, a friend who’d purchased a gift book there for me and had offered only praise about his experience with the owners. I decided to check them out. They opened at 11a.m. according to their listed business hours on the Facebook page. I arrived at 11:15 to a darkened building and locked front door. I waited about fifteen minutes, hoping that the owners would appear but they never did. While I waited, I took a few pictures, one of the building’s front façade, and then two stickers on opposite corners of the front door window: one stating that the bookstore was a member of the American Independent Booksellers Association, the other the word “Welcome” repeated in a rainbow of colors, and at the sticker’s bottom in black ink, “York, Maine - Combating Racism and Bias.”
I peeked through the front door window to see a neat and well-organized space with bookshelves of books along walls and in varying positions through the small space, then a stairway leading to the 2nd floor, which I assumed held more books. The bookstore is owned by Michelle Clark and her husband Rick, and so far, they have 514 followers on their Facebook page. Their website, thebooktenders.com is not currently functioning. In a blurb about the bookstore that I found online through the website self-awaresness.com, I learned that The Booktenders inventory includes “fiction and nonfiction for children, teens and adults, along with cookbooks and a small selection of donated, gently used books.” The blurb goes on to say that Michelle worked in Publishing for twenty years before opening the bookstore. If I'd had the chance to meet the bookstore owners, I might have asked about what compelled them to open a small bookstore in York, Maine and how business was going. I’m disappointed that I wasn’t able to take a look around this new bookstore in our community, and though my first impression of their business acumen isn’t a good one, I will give them another chance on another day. I understand there are all kinds of reasons why a small business might not be able to open its doors when its says that it will.
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March 2023
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