The Davis-Kidd Booksellers store in Jackson, Tenn., is closing later
this month. The Jackson Sun called the store "a grand experiment, an
upscale, trendy boutique bookstore and coffee hangout smack in an urban
blip surrounded by rural West Tennessee."
Owner Neil Van Uum told the paper that the store had struggled to be profitable since it was opened in 1995 by the original owners of Davis-Kidd, Karen Davis and Thelma Kidd. (They sold the company to Van Uum's Joseph-Beth Group in 1997.) "Sadly," he continued, "it was probably built too big for this sized market. And while we tried to explore lots of options (sub-leasing space, lease relief) to remedy the situation, we came to a point in the lease where we could step away, and decided this was the best option."
At one point, Davis-Kidd had four stores, in Nashville, Memphis, Knoxville and Jackson. The Knoxville store closed in 2000. In October, the Nashville store moved to larger quarters (Shelf Awareness, August 24).
Owner Neil Van Uum told the paper that the store had struggled to be profitable since it was opened in 1995 by the original owners of Davis-Kidd, Karen Davis and Thelma Kidd. (They sold the company to Van Uum's Joseph-Beth Group in 1997.) "Sadly," he continued, "it was probably built too big for this sized market. And while we tried to explore lots of options (sub-leasing space, lease relief) to remedy the situation, we came to a point in the lease where we could step away, and decided this was the best option."
At one point, Davis-Kidd had four stores, in Nashville, Memphis, Knoxville and Jackson. The Knoxville store closed in 2000. In October, the Nashville store moved to larger quarters (Shelf Awareness, August 24).