City Lit Books, in the Logan Square area of Chicago, Ill., is closing permanently on December 1. The store will end curbside pickup orders on October 15, but online orders can be placed through the end of November.
In an announcing the closing, owner Teresa Kirschbraun said that because of the pandemic, "we have been reduced to an order fulfillment business with precious little customer interaction. In spite of incredible community support, revenues have fallen dramatically. Supporting an order fulfillment center is simply not sustainable, financially or emotionally."
She added that it will like "be at least another nine months before we could get back to anything resembling business as usual, and I am unable to sustain the financial losses for that long."
She decided to close December 1, she continued, because of concern "about our ability to meet customer expectations during the holiday season this year due to staffing shortages, probable shipping delays, and possible book shortages from the publishers."
Kirschbraun recalled that "over eight years ago, the vision for City Lit Books was to provide a platform for facilitating conversations, supporting creativity, and collaborating to contribute to our community all within a setting of amazing books. To that end, we have hosted hundreds of author events, book clubs, Open Mics, and legendary Story Times. We have supported authors so local they walked to their book release events. We loved providing a space to host fundraisers and book drives for schools.
"We have collaborated in dozens of off-site events all over the city in schools, churches, bars, temples, farmers markets, and libraries. We have donated hundreds of books to schools, shelters, and community organizations.
"We've even had some celebrity: hosted rock stars, been featured on an episode of Easy on Netflix and were included in United Airlines Hemisphere's article, 'Three Perfect Days in Chicago.'
"Most importantly, we have introduced thousands of books to our community that helped readers learn, laugh, cry, get inspired, be better citizens, plant more gardens, and, in general, experience joy."
She added that City Lit "exceeded all my expectations."