At 58 years old, Leonard Janes doesn’t know whether he will continue his lifelong dream to operate a bookstore, but he knows that he won’t be operating one in Bayonne. His store, Unique Books, is scheduled to close its doors as of Oct. 1.
Economic hard times, high rent, changes in school curriculum, and other factors have made it impossible for him to keep the store open, he said.
Originally from Hoboken, Janes has been a resident of Bayonne since 1983. He said the idea of owning his own bookstore started when he worked a part time job at Down Stairs Book Store (whose twisting staircase was featured in the film Crossing Delancy) in New York when he was in the seventh grade.
“I was in love with the idea,” he said.
But life steered him a different direction. A veteran of the Vietnam War, Janes later became an investment counselor. He was successful, but something was missing.
“I just got bored with it,” he said.
“I started to depend on the store to make up for the emptiness at home.” – Leonard Janes
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“The idea didn’t come right away,” he said. “I thought about it for while. But I had savings and eventually did it.”
His son Daniel was a big part of this dream, often working with his father on many of the everyday chores.
Back when people read books…
Life got good. The store made a profit. While in some years, books like the Harry Potter series bolstered the bottom line, most years it was simply people buying hardcover books by other popular authors.
“We didn’t make any money the first year, but after that we made a living,” he said. “The first year we lost money was 2008.”
This was the impact of what some call the Great Recession. Because books did not seem like a necessity to the buying public, the store’s sales plunged by 25 percent.
This, however, was not the greatest loss for Janes that year. His son, Daniel, passed away at age 17, opening yet one more void in his life.
“I started to depend on the store to make up for the emptiness at home,” Janes said.
Things got worse. Rent on the store nearly doubled, while sales continued to slide.
“People just stopped taking an interest in reading,” he said. “Of 62,000 people in Bayonne, we have had 3,368 regular customers over seven years. Some people came in here later and said they weren’t aware that we were here. I asked them where they’ve been.”
Sales dipped even more in 2009, and in 2010, the store saw more of the same. He struggled with distributors, too. One went out of business, and his store owed so much to the second primary distributor, Janes could no longer order books.
“More than half of my business is ordering books for people,” he said.
In the middle of all this, Janes suffered a stroke. While he has made a remarkable recovery, his business did not, and this year, a change in school curriculum took away another huge portion of his summer sales.
The store pre-ordered a lot of books for students who had required reading over the summer. But the district changed its requirements and many of the books students needed to read were no longer in print.
Going out of business is hard, but necessary, Janes said, thanking the 3,368 customers who have stuck with him over the years.
“It has been a pleasure doing business in Bayonne,” he said.
The doors of the store will likely close by the end of September, but this will depend upon whether or not he can sell off his remaining inventory, fixtures, and antique furniture by then.
“We might stay open a little longer,” he said.
He will start the final sale on Sept. 20 with discounts on books and merchandise going from 20 to 75 percent off, he said.
What next?
His sister in Virginia has put him in touch with a bookstore there that he could take over in a college town. But he isn’t certain about the move, since he has ties to this part of the world that he is reluctant to give up.
“That’s something I’ll have to think about,” he said.
Al Sullivan may be reached at asullivan@hudsonreporter.com.