The story arc for Books Etc. rose from funky, counterculture beginnings in Portland’s Old Port to encompass almost four decades of meeting the disparate desires of the region’s bibliophiles.

The story will end next week.

The recession claimed the iconic Books Etc. on Portland’s Exchange Street in 2009. The recovery couldn’t happen in time for the store on Route 1 in Falmouth, which will close Monday.

Allan Schmid, the owner of Books Etc., said Friday, “When the market tanked in September and October of ’08, people just stayed home sort of in fear of spending money and what not. That kind of was what precipitated the whole thing.”

But it wasn’t just the recession, he said. Independent booksellers are hard-pressed to compete with behemoths like Amazon, which offer deeply discounted books. Some of those companies can make nothing on the books, surviving on “shipping and handling” fees.

“I think a lot of people turned to online sales,” he said, though a combination of several factors brought about the end.

Even the bookstore giant Borders filed for bankruptcy protection recently, and announced that it would close hundreds of stores outside of Maine.

Schmid said he doesn’t believe that people are reading less, or that books don’t have an important role in today’s entertainment and information mix.

“People always ask me about the electronic revolution. That’s here to stay. As technology improves, it’s going to have more of an impact,” he said.

But, “It will settle out somewhere,” he said. “There are tons of people who love the printed book.”

Schmid, who is 54, came to bookselling after majoring in English in college, then working as a salesman in the publishing business. Books Etc. was one of his clients. Its founder opened it in the early 1970s, before Exchange Street had the cachet that it now enjoys.

That owner did transcendental meditation in a back room — what later became the children’s book section — and later sold the store so he could go firewalking in Hawaii, Schmid said.

When Schmid’s predecessor said she was selling in 1987, he said he was interested.

“I’ve loved books always; loved them not only for all the obvious reasons — how it stimulates the imagination, that sort of thing — I just love them as physical products, the way they fit into boxes and on shelves, how they feel and weigh,” he said.

The business prospered, Schmid said, and running an independent bookstore had its perks.

He became head of the New England Independent Booksellers Association and shared a dinner table with an up-and-coming U.S. senator from Illinois, Barack Obama.

At a convention, he had a thoughtful discussion with Augusten Burroughs, author of “Running with Scissors,” and Burroughs came to visit him in Portland as a result.

But the recession did its damage and, even as the economy came back, it was hard to recoup lost sales from previous years, Schmid said. Christmas was good, but January was dead.

“I hung in there as long as I could. I’m a glass-half-full kind of guy,” he said.

Schmid imagines he may go back into the publishing business, though he’s not sure. “I’d like to do something book-related. I have a tremendous passion for books and the arts,” he said.

Owning a bookstore was supposed to come toward the end of his story. “I thought it was one of those things I’d do in retirement,” he said.

Staff Writer David Hench can be contacted at 791-6327 or at:

dhench@pressherald.com

 

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