McIntyre & Moore used bookstore: Store Closing Sale

[ron_newman]

McIntyre & Moore's used bookstore in Porter Square is going out of business. They are having a Store Closing Sale with the following tentative schedule posted on a sign outside:

30% off - through May 6
40% off - May 7-15
50% off - May 16-22
60% off - May 23-29
70% off - May 30 - June 5

(This store used to be on Elm Street in Davis Square, where Foundry is now, and before that on Mount Auburn Street near Putnam Square in Cambridge, and before that somewhere else in Harvard Square)

Comments

[ceo]

Well, scratch my plan of selling them some of my surplus books. :-(

[ron_newman]

Or maybe not. A sign outside said they would continue to receive new merchandise during the closing sale. Not sure what that really means.

[emcicle.livejournal.com]

are they going out of business for good, or relocating again? by your post, i would guess going out of business for good.... that's a shame.

[findingthegirl.livejournal.com]

According to their website, they're switching to internet-only.

[ron_newman]

Going out of business. Their web site says: "Sometime late spring or early summer we'll be closing our store in Porter Square, Cambridge, and become internet-only booksellers"

[siderea]

Oh. I suppose this would be the occasion to use up my hoarded frequent buyer discount cards. :(

[ron_newman]

Something is wrong with the layout of their web page so you can't read this text, but it says: "The discount will apply to store credit, and frequent buyer cards can be used for additional discounts"

[siderea]

Oh, that's good news! Thanks!

[ron_newman]

And I told them that the page displays badly in Firefox, Chrome, and Safari on the Mac (but fine in Opera). This mystified them because they said it looks fine in Firefox, Safari, and IE on a PC.

sad to hear this

[jonbastonin.livejournal.com]

This really saddens me.

Just another business that got screwed by the landlord at 255 Elm Street. I spoke to the owners of Mac and Moore on several occasions and they got pushed out of that Elm Street space due to the rent being doubled on them and they could not afford another place that had the same kind of foot traffic.

Speaking of that building, the space next door has been empty for a year now. At what point does the city step in and make them fill the vacancy. It is such an eye sore (and yes I know, they have rented it temporarily a few times).

Yes, I have heard, they want to "keep it local", but in the meantime all they have seem to have done is push pretty cool eclectic local businesses out of their building in favor of huge rents.

Sad day.

Re: sad to hear this

[ron_newman]

The city can't really force a commercial landlord to rent property. Perhaps the city can provide some incentives, but I'm not sure I'd want to live in a place where the city could dictate that they rent to a particular tenant.

Re: sad to hear this

[jonbastonin.livejournal.com]

Ron,

I agree with you I wouldn't want them to be "told" who to rent to, but a year has passed and it is the biggest space in the square and it's just a bit depressing to see it empty month after month.

Jon

Re: sad to hear this

[ron_newman]

There are two other big spaces in the square that need to be rented -- and possibly subdivided to make them rentable. The Social Security building across the street, and the former first-floor office space of the Citizens Bank building. The landlord of the latter space thought he had Staples lined up for it, but they backed out.

[eredien]

I stopped by there yesterday. They are also selling off the bookshelves.I'm sad but I wasn't expecting them to do well in that new location--it's close to Porter, but nobody saw them down there in the basement.