Lots of changes coming to businesses in the neighborhood, both happy and sad.
Good news first:
Seattle Pops, a favorite of my children at the Wallingford farmers market, is opening a retail location this summer at the corner of 45th and Interlake.
Heavy Restaurant Group (owners of Purple, Barrio, and Thackeray) are opening a Mexican restaurant across from Gas Works Park this summer. Read more about it on Seattle Met.
After we ran an article on Kids on 45th back in January, owner Susan Arefi has finally had some serious interest in taking over the store. She’s optimistic that Kids on 45th will live on, although no details are available now. Stay tuned for updates some time soon.
And now the bad news:
The Half Price Books located just on the other side of I-5 on Roosevelt Way is closing in early April.
After forty years, Wide World Books & Maps on Wallingford Ave. is closing at the end of April. Here’s a note from the Wallyhood forums regarding the closing.
As most of you know, in February 2016 we announced that Wide World Books & Maps would be closing that month. In the days following that announcement, hundreds of customers and travel professionals came forward to share their love for the store, and many asked if there was anything they could do to help keep it open. A few suggested trying a crowd funding campaign, and due to the generosity of our customers, we were able to raise the money to help pay off some back rent and bills, restock the store inventory, and increase our advertising.
While it was a good rally and we’ve been able to keep the store open for another year, we’re just not able to sufficiently turn the store around in its current location. There are several reasons for this, the main one being the exponential rise in internet shopping, a marked decrease in neighborhood foot traffic, and the continued rise in rent and utilities.
Given that, it’s clear that we are not able to keep the store open in its current location or in its current configuration. We are considering a few other options, namely reopening in another location or focusing solely on a web business. Ideas for adding a coffee shop or wine/beer bar, adding travel consulting, etc., are worth exploring if we can find a different location that is already set up for these types of activities (i.e., that have access to water, etc.). A partnership to share space with an existing café or coffee shop would also be of interest to us. We have been scouting for other locations in the past few months – and if any of you happen to know of an available retail space in a higher traffic area (e.g., Fremont, Green Lake) or are interested in the possibility of a partnership, please send us an email ([email protected]).
We need to be out of our current location by the end of April. To minimize the amount of inventory that needs to be moved and/or stored, all store merchandise will be on sale starting on Tuesday, March 7th, and will continue into April. We’ll start at 10% off store merchandise, and increase the discount in future days. We won’t be replenishing the stock before moving, so if there’s a specific item you’re looking for, it would be better to shop early.
We’re proud that we were able to celebrate our 40th anniversary in the fall of 2016! Over those 40 years, Wide World Books has had several different owners and been in 3 different locations. We have greatly enjoyed the outstanding presenters who have shared their travel knowledge, the inspiring solo travelers and gutsy women who have shared their stories on Saturday mornings, and the thousands of wonderful customers who have shared their travel dreams and memories.
Many of the customers who contributed to our fundraising campaign have not yet picked up their thank you gift (e.g., free guidebook, map, RFID blocking credit card sleeve, etc.) Please try to do so as soon as possible – it is our way of thanking you for your support over the years and during the campaign last year, when it was so greatly appreciated.
We will keep you posted about any developments, for example, if we find a new location, over the next few months. Thank you for our many loyal customers who have continued to support us over the past few years! You’ve enabled us to stay open as long as we have, and I’m truly hoping that we still have a future!
Sad news regarding wide World of Books. I hope we have a final goodbye. if I am not too busy reporting graffitti ( lots more from the past week) I will see if I can find out more about Halp price Books closing plan.
So Half Price Books is closing in part because of a “marked decrease in neighborhood foot traffic.”
Hmmm, now why would that be? Could it have anything to do with why, in part, Cafe Racer is closing as well?
Where are you getting that information? This article says Wide World Books & Maps is closing because of a marked decrease in foot traffic, but nothing about why Half Price Books is closing. Cafe Racer is nowhere near Wallingford Avenue.
Half Price’s location is bound to turn into another apartment building. Earlier this month they didn’t have any idea where in Seattle they could open a new store – though they have stores in Bellevue, Everett, Lynnwood, Redmond, Tacoma, and Tukwila, and Olympia.
Doug, see my response to TJ below.
I think you mixed up the two. That reasoning is stated by Wide World not Half Price. Cafe Racer is selling not closing, and its sales pitch actually includes “high traffic”.
Yes, my mistake. I didn’t realize that part of the article was about Wide World instead of Half Price. Although I am still curious to learn why they’re closing. As for Café Racer if you want to split hairs, yes, technically he’s “selling” and not closing, but his state reason for selling is that, in part, the bike lane hurt him too much.
You need to give up this lie. It’s Trumpian. The owner never mentioned the bike lane as the reason for selling. Cafe Racer is a very bike-friendly establishment.
Doug , Google and watch the Kiro 7 TV story about it. And if that’s not enough for you comma then read The Stranger article about it. Specifically where it says that his business was hurt due to construction from a certain SDOT project petrine the street of car and foot traffic. What do you think that project was all about?
You might want to check out Roosevelt in the morning. Since it’s one-way southbound, the bicycle traffic in the morning is much greater than it is in the afternoon.
Talked to someone at Half-Price tonight. The lease is up, and they decided the rent was too high. They are looking for new space, but didn’t sound optimistic. still plenty of stock.
I always hate to see small businesses closing, but Wide World is a particular loss. The people, broad inventory, and interesting talks have always been something special–truly the whole wide world right here in the neighborhood. I happily shopped there and contributed to last year’s crowdfunding, and I wish the owners and employees much goodness in the future.
Half Price Books is closed April 9. Right now everything there is 50% off. They have a fill you rbag special for 20.00 . So sorry to see them close. I bought so many Christmas presents from them.