‘There’s gonna be some tears.’ Why Rediscovered Books is shuttering one of its stores
.jpg "Rediscovered Books in Boise set up a display to include the books the Nampa school board voted to remove from the shelves of the district’s libraries.")
Rediscovered Books plans to close its Caldwell location after four years of losing money.
The decision comes after attempts to improve business over the last year, Bruce DeLaney, who owns the new and used book business with his wife, Laura, told the Idaho Statesman. Faced with a dearth of customers in downtown Caldwell, the store will shut down after a closing sale slated to begin in July. The closure was announced Tuesday.
“We have a lot of regulars here,” DeLaney said. “There’s gonna be some tears, on our part and possibly on their part as well.”
Despite those regulars, the store never managed to make a profit, DeLaney said. People come to downtown Caldwell for eating and recreation more than shopping, and the store, with its large inventory and five employees, needed customers to survive, he said. The owners haven’t set the bookstore’s final day in operation.
On Rediscovered Books’ website Tuesday, the DeLaneys posted a letter to its supporters, touting the connections they’ve made to the LGBTQ+ community, teachers and librarians.
The bookstore is known for opposing recent book bans made by Idaho school boards. Last year, when the Nampa school board removed 23 books from school libraries for perceived sexual content, Rediscovered’s Boise store set up a display of those books, the Idaho Statesman previously reported. The store also created a web page with resources to help people fight book bans.
Over the 17 years Rediscovered Books has been open, other bookstores have closed. Customers would drive to the Boise location from surrounding cities, and in 2017, the DeLaneys started looking into the possibility that they could meet that demand with a new store, DeLaney said. They opened the Caldwell store in November 2019, then got hit by the COVID-19 pandemic, during which they did home deliveries.
About a year ago, they started considering closing the Caldwell store. They tried to improve business with advertising as well as changing the hours and product selection, but it didn’t work, the owner said.
“You make decisions when you’re in business with two things,” DeLaney told the Statesman. “You make decisions with your head, you make decisions with your heart. And the numbers of the Caldwell location just don’t add up.”
Some Caldwell employees will move to the business’s stores in Boise and others have lined up new jobs, DeLaney said.
Rediscovered’s downtown Boise store and the store on State Street, which is called, “Once and Future Books,” will remain open, according to the business’s website announcement.
