‘It’s goodbye to an era’

Bookcomber bookstore to close up shop

Patti Pearcey is the owner of the Bookcomber bookstore downtown. Del Norte Triplicate/Bryant Anderson

After 18 years in business, Crescent City’s only bookstore, The Bookcomber, will close by the end of the year.

“It’s goodbye to an era,” said Patti Pearcey, owner of Bookcomber. Competition from online retail and big-box stores like Walmart, along with digital piracy, have significantly hurt business over the years, Pearcey said.

“Walmart sells big, leading books for less than wholesale,” Pearcey said. “I can’t even get them for as cheap as they can sell them.”

Another factor pushing the closure is an impending rent hike, coming at the end of the year to reflect the cost paid by other tenants in the same building, she said.

Bookcomber has truly been a family business. The first jobs of Pearcey’s kids’ lives was stocking books, and now they sell their handmade woodwork and hula hoops in the shop. Thanksgiving night was usually spent preparing the store for Black Friday shoppers. Pearcey’s brother, Dale Morgan, has been giving guitar lessons in the store for more than 10 years.

“We watched kids grow up here,” Pearcey said, thinking of guitar students that her brother taught years ago. “Now, they are bringing their kids in for lessons.”

Pearcey and Morgan hope to continue the music store side of the business at a different location, selling guitars, picks, reeds, strings and other music items.

“I’m just getting started,” said Morgan, who plans to continue to give guitar lessons at a new location.

Ideally, the next venture would even revisit Pearcey and Morgan’s experience managing a music venue.

The back room of the Bookcomber used to host musicians from as far away as England and France. Folk singers Joe Craven, Tracy Grammer and Drew Grow have graced the cozy stage.

“Dylan Night” was a popular event, where musicians took turns playing Bob Dylan covers.

“It was awesome,” said local musician Tom Boylan, who played drums for “Dylan Night.” “It was a pretty intimate setting.”

A music store and venue is much more appealing to Pearcey, whose age and health contributed to her choice not continue the bookstore.

“I’m too old to move all this stuff and do it again,” Pearcey said. “When we first started, we didn’t have glasses.”

A local bookstore might continue in some capacity. Pearcey has interested buyers for her new book inventory who want to open a store in town. She is still looking for a buyer for her used book inventory.

Pearcey has enjoyed the experience, especially being a hub for the book and music community.

“It’s like the old Floyd’s barber shop in the “Andy Griffith Show” — it’s somewhere to stop,” she said.

Pearcey would like to remind local authors to pick up books they might have on consignment, and store credit for used books should be used as soon as possible. 

“Thank you to all the loyal customers,” Pearcey said. “It’s like dismantling a quirky sort of family. I will sincerely miss them.”