By Alix Roy

McIntyre and Moore Booksellers will close their doors in Davis Square when their lease expires on April 1. Diminishing sales and a changing consumer attitude towards used books have contributed to the store‚Äôs decision to downsize after almost ten years at their Elm Street location. No decision has been made as to where they will end up, although the owners hope to relocate within walking distance to ‚Äútry and remain as local as possible.‚Äù 

The store is independently owned and operated by Michael McIntyre and Daniel Moore, who set up shop in 1983 in Harvard Square, a “popular destination for used-book stores in the eighties.” The business moved to Davis Square in 1998 and quickly became a Somerville landmark for literary enthusiasts looking for a place to browse thousands of titles on everything from the Korean War to Polar exploration. The store’s current size can accommodate daily new arrivals as well as older stock without overcrowding, and has allowed McIntyre and Moore to host local author events and the monthly Davis Square Philosophy Café, a community-wide forum for philosophical discussion.

Unfortunately, space is a luxury McIntyre and Moore can no longer afford. Store manager Peter Coyle attributes lagging sales in part to the death of the browsing culture that large businesses depend upon to stay afloat. “It used to be that people would look for a book for two or three years, buying other books in the meantime,” he said. “Now with the Internet people go online and find everything instantly.”

The lack of browsers has hit stores like McIntyre and Moore especially hard, while sparing the smaller, more specialized stores that carry one or two genres at most. “The model of huge [used] bookstores is going by way of the dodo,” Coyle said. “If we don’t change we could be one of those places formerly known as a bookstore.”

McIntyre and Moore is not the first used retail store to be pushed out of Davis Square after suffering from dwindling profits. Disc Diggers, a used-record store, left the neighborhood in 2004 due to rising rent and loss of business. Coyle has no problem with realtor Mike Gorin who he said has been “very reasonable” given the size and location of the store’s current space. Instead, he faults the changing culture of Davis Square, which has become more of an “entertainment destination” in recent years.
“I’d say around 2000 we started noticing a downtick. We’ve been struggling along with it ever since,” Coyle said.

Davis Square does have its fair share of eateries, although very few chains exist. Ward 6 alderman Rebekah Gewirtz said that although the loss of McIntyre and Moore is “not something we want to see,” in general the square has proven to be a haven for small independent businesses.

“McIntyre & Moore has been in the square for ten years now and they’ve provided something unique and interesting, a place where people can go in and look around. I’d like to see it replaced by another locally owned business,” she said.

Over the next few months, McIntyre and Moore will be forced to drastically reduce inventory in preparation for their move. In the future, Coyle said, inventory will be “more carefully selected,” and events may be eliminated altogether, since floor and shelf-space will be limited.

“$4.50 paperbacks will be no more,” he added. “It’s sad, but things have to evolve.”