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News & ArtsThursday, February 14, 2013
Books / Retail Capitol Hill Half Price Books to Close June 2nd
Posted by Paul Constant on Thu, Feb 14, 2013 at 11:01 AM
For years now, from many different sources, I've heard rumors that the Capitol Hill Half Price Books was on the verge of closing. But yesterday, I heard a strangely specific rumor that the store was set to close on June 2nd. There has never been a date to go along with the rumors before, so I sent an e-mail to Anne Von Feldt, the Western Regional Manager of Half Price Books, and she confirmed the rumor. Von Feldt says:
Yes, we recently decided not to renew the lease and the Capitol Hill store will close June 2. We have great customers at this store, but not enough traffic, so we felt it would be best to focus our resources on our other seven Washington locations.
We're committed to the Seattle area - we've been here since 1984. We look forward to seeing our customers at our other locations including the closest store to Capitol Hill - our U. District location on Roosevelt, which is about 4 miles away - and stores in the north end (Lynnwood, Everett), on the eastside (Bellevue, Redmond), and in Tacoma.
Half Price Books has continued to open stores, and have opened 11 since 2010, including our 116th store in Lexington, Kentucky, which opened today. We're working to redefine what it means to be a 21st century brick and mortar bookstore.
We are encouraging our employees to apply for transfers to any of our seven other locations. We are also looking at possible new Half Price Books sites in the Puget Sound area and hope to announce a new store in the coming months.
This is terrible news. The Capitol Hill Half Price Books is a surprisingly beautiful store, and the staff has always been cheerful and helpful. Let's hope everyone manages to track down new employment soon, hopefully in some of Seattle's other great bookstores.
3
Dang, that's too bad. The CapHill Half-Price is so much more convenient than the U-District store, where, since the Trader Joe's moved in down the street, it's been nearly impossible to find parking.
4
First Velo, now Half Price. What next? The only thing that can thrive on Capitol Hill now are restaurants, bars and cafes -- and increasingly lame/corporate ones at that. Makes for a very one-dimensional neighborhood.
6
change is horrible. oh wait, we want density, change is good! oh wait, this store is gone, density is horrible. oh wait, we want change, we want cities, that's pro environment, putting so many people close together cuts down on travel and lessens carbon footprints. yay! oh wait, this makes real estate more valuable, changing the kinds of people and stores you get within TEN BLOCKS OF DOWNTOWN OMG RENTS ARE GOING UP AND THINGS CHANGE THAT'S HORRIBLE! oh wait, .......
7
This is really sad. The Cap Hill Half Price Bookstore is probably the bookstore I frequent most. Staff is super awesome. They almost always have everything I'm looking for. I hate what is happening to my neighborhood!
8
@3 it's going to get worse, they're building giant apartment buildings between NE 45th and NE 50th, and the light rail station four blocks away starts construction next month. All your parking is belong to Car2Go.
9
A shame. This was a really nice place to shop. Elliott Bay books is always crammed full of people spending money - is it really so farfetched to think that Capitol Hill can support a single decent used bookstore?
10
That building was lazer tag, then internet porn, back in the 1990s. Colorful history. I'm sure it'll make a wonderful branch bank location for someone.
11
@3, @8, Makes me wonder if the added rent from the huge parking lot (takes up as much land as the building itself!) that is rarely full is why it didn't make financial sense for Half-Price to stick around...
12
They're closing because they've got that huge parking lot. They would have gotten fucked on their next lease agreement.
Also the company as a whole has gotten really shitty in the last few years, getting more and more buttoned-down and giving fewer and fewer fucks about their employees.
Also the company as a whole has gotten really shitty in the last few years, getting more and more buttoned-down and giving fewer and fewer fucks about their employees.
13
First of all: Nnnnnnnnnooooooooooooo!!!
Second of all: Good news for Twice Sold Tales up the street, which is a true small local business?
Second of all: Good news for Twice Sold Tales up the street, which is a true small local business?
14
How are independent stores able to thrive in even more expensive cities, like Chicago and Boston? Is there something specifically off on the hill right now that countermands that?
This sucks, specifically, but with that off-off street sort of location it was sort of inevitable. :(
This sucks, specifically, but with that off-off street sort of location it was sort of inevitable. :(
15
Well that just sucks. That Half Price is/was a perfect used bookstore. Large, neat, and mostly orderly, with a good mix of good condition used books and (what I assume are) overstock new books. With tons of genre fiction and graphic novels as well. I've made some fantastic discoveries there. It's not a half bad place to unload some of your stuff, too.
It was always just tucked away enough away from the main Pike/Broadway area that I wondered how much foot traffic it got. I think it could still do well with a more visible location. I really hate to think what will fill that space now. Probably just some office space for realtors or something.
And seriously, this neighborhood needs more places to shop. All these restaurants are good and all, but there's less and less reason to walk around unless you're going out to eat or drink.
It was always just tucked away enough away from the main Pike/Broadway area that I wondered how much foot traffic it got. I think it could still do well with a more visible location. I really hate to think what will fill that space now. Probably just some office space for realtors or something.
And seriously, this neighborhood needs more places to shop. All these restaurants are good and all, but there's less and less reason to walk around unless you're going out to eat or drink.
16
It seems each time I go to Capitol Hill some place that I loved and adored is gone. First the B&O and now the Half-Priced Books. Bummer
17
Isn't it interesting that of all their locations, the one that is underperforming is the Hill?
I guess they should have put a cafe/restaurant in there, maybe Bavarian-themed? Would have done great.
I guess they should have put a cafe/restaurant in there, maybe Bavarian-themed? Would have done great.
19
Just a few years ago, Capitol Hill had Steve's Broadway News, Bulldog News, Bailey Coy Books, a much larger Twice Sold Tales, Spine and Crown and, obviously, Half Price Books. Now the confluence of the Internet, rising rents and leases and the teetering economy have wiped out all but a much smaller Twice Sold Tales. Like everyone, I'm thrilled to have Elliott Bay Book Company on the Hill. It has been my favorite bookstore my entire life. But the end of so many other great venues is truly saddening. And when you factor in the relatively recent losses of Sonic Boom, B & O, Cafe Septieme, Velo, Bauhaus, Edie's, Vu, Four Square and a number of smaller galleries on the Pine/Pike corridor, you realize we're losing many great places that anchored the neighborhood. And for each wonderful Elliott Bay Books, we're getting something subpar like Rex Seattle. (Seriously, dog owners: that place is bonkers.)
20
Seems like the Hill is dying. That's one of the few places I'd go and hang out at, and buy things at on the Hill. With free parking. Broadway Market turns into a grocery store. The Green Cat cafe closes. Vivace I still go to the new location but it's not as cool at the old one, thanks Sound Transit. Bauhaus is on the ropes. B&O. I'm running out of reasons to go to the Hill anymore. I can go anywhere if I want to see stupid condos with lame corporate storefront businesses. I guess this is just Adam Smith's invisible hand doing its work, but just another nail in the Hill's coffin. Guess I'll stick to Georgetown and Columbia city. Until the yuppies gentrify them too.
21
That is terrible, I love that store, in fact I love it so much I cant go inside without dropping a hundo. Though I do hold a bit of a grudge when I sole them a record for $3 and then it was behind the counter for $60, but hey I found it in a dumpster, probably after someone elses breakup.
@20, 16, 4
Yee the hill has been the new belltown for years now. I think The Comet is the only thing left on the hill from when I moved there.
@20, 16, 4
Yee the hill has been the new belltown for years now. I think The Comet is the only thing left on the hill from when I moved there.
22
Sad to hear that. I've bought a lot of books and CDs there over the years. I won't miss it as much as the wonderful B&O and the QA Easy Street Records, but I'll miss it.
24
This is the natural result of the "density über alles" that many folks at the Stranger seem so smitten with. Want local businesses that sell real goods at moderate prices? That's not gonna happen when the city doesn't give a rat's ass about what the neighborhood thinks about density and where supposedly liberal papers have columnists who sing the praises of 600 square foot apartments without kitchens. As you told the Roosevelt folks - light rail is coming so suck it up and take whatever the developers choose to give you. At least we get to watch Capitol Hill fucked over first...
25
I watched shit like this happen in San Francisco 20 years ago-thats why I left and moved north, first to mendocino county, then humboldt county and finally here. In the last 13 years I've been here, I've seen the same damn patterns happening....first make rents impossible for normal working folks to pay, then begin the fern bar yuppification process and close out all the places the local folks were comfy going to, then criminalizing the really poor and creating default ghettos of poverty.... I could go on, but why bother....Im only a disabled transplanted San Franciscan...who gives fuck what I think?
26
The staff at Capitol Hill location were helpful, nice and professional. The staff at the U Dist HP are nasty, angry demons. I have been screamed at at the U Dist HP for asking a simple question, screamed at by an incredibly hostile 30ish tubby nerd with a mustache and beady eyes and a sour body odor. He saw me walking in the street once, flipped me off and walked over to the other side of the street to avoid me. His "Thor" superhero tee shirt is always badly stained and he never brushes his teeth.
27
The staff at Capitol Hill location were helpful, nice and professional. The staff at the U Dist HP are nasty, angry demons. I have been screamed at at the U Dist HP for asking a simple question, screamed at by an incredibly hostile 30ish tubby short nerd with a mustache and beady eyes and a sour body odor. He saw me walking in the street once, flipped me off and walked over to the other side of the street to avoid me. His "Thor" superhero tee shirt is always badly stained and he never brushes his teeth.
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