(Brandon Sun article - February 10, 2011)
Downtown Brandon will close another chapter and bid adieu to one of its champion retailers, Pennywise Books, this spring.
Over its six-year tenure at 1031 Rosser Ave., Pennywise Books’ owner T. Keith Edmunds endeavoured to bring excitement and activity to the downtown core through community events like Words Alive, Brandon’s annual literary festival.
The storefront will close its doors at the end of May.
However, the business will continue to exist online, Edmunds said.
Sales have been tarnished by the advancement of powerhouse web retailers like Amazon and the growing popularity of e-books and Edmunds says he has simply grown tired of “treading water.”
“I’m not being forced into closure by any means. It’s just that the book industry is going through a lot of changes and things are getting tighter. I was having to do more work to tread water,” Edmunds told the Sun.
Simply selling the business to a fellow book lover just wasn’t an option, Edmunds said.
“I built Pennywise from the ground up and I sort of want it to live and die with me,” he said. “There are things that have come out of it that will live on beyond, and I’m very proud of that.”
Brandon’s annual literary festival, Words Alive, and a local writers’ group, will continue beyond the closing of the store.
Plans for the fifth annual Words Alive literary festival are in the works right now and Edmunds says he will continue to look to the future and see how the event can grow bigger and better.
As a proponent for downtown development, Edmunds says he sincerely hopes his departure won’t have an impact on the momentum gathering throughout Rosser merchants.
“I don’t want (my closing) to be a reflection of downtown. The location of the store had no impact on my decision, it’s more of an industry-wide thing,” he said.
“There’s a lot going on in the industry and I was tired of trying to scramble to keep up with all of these changes for something that operated as primarily a hobby business.”
From Feb. 15 to the end of May, all regular stock will be deeply discounted. In addition, there will be ongoing sales and surprise daylong specials.
Follow Pennywise on Facebook or check out pennywise-books.com for updates on exciting sales.
