KETTERING — After nearly closing in August, it seems that Murphy’s Used Books & Media will close after all at the end of the year, according to an announcement posted Nov. 18 on the bookstore’s blog.
In the announcement, Greg Murphy described how the store first received a surge in support after it was in danger of closing in August.
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In combination with renegotiating the store’s lease, the store was able to keep its doors open, processing 30,000 books to refill the shelves.
However, once things calmed again, Murphy wrote, sales dropped and simply never recovered.
“In fact, sales now are 50% of what they were in November of last year. This is unsustainable to the point where if we don't close the store, we aren't even sure that we will be able to continue to make payroll into 2020,” he wrote.
In order to sell the existing stock of books, Murphy wrote, Murphy’s Used Books & Media will begin a series of store-wide discounts leading to the end of the year.
Murphy expressed his own sadness to have to close the store, writing, “While my daughter Sydney and my new bride Ericka both love me and want me to be happy running my bookstore, I feel like going beyond the end of the year here will make me a kind of Don Quixote... tilting at windmills.”