BookSmart, a family-owned Morgan Hill bookstore that has been a beloved community gathering place for more than 20 years, is in danger of being forced to shutter its doors if the owners can’t gain a sudden large infusion of financing.
Brad Jones, who owns the store located at 1295 East Dunne Ave. with his wife Cinda Meister, informed his customers July 11 that he received a 10-day eviction notice from the store’s landlord. The store owes about $60,000 in back rent, but Jones said the owners actually need to bury a mound of other debts—which eat into BookSmart’s ongoing cash flow—in order to stay open. And they don’t have much time.
“We need to have an angel that’s willing to finance us,” Jones said. “We’ve spent every penny we’ve made in the last 25 years in the bookstore business.”
In total, the company needs about $250,000 in long-term financing to cover the back rent (about $7,500 per month) and to pay off high-interest short-term debts. Jones explained that if he could pay off the short-term debts—about $150,000 worth—the store would be on solid financial ground, and would in fact make enough money to continue to grow.
“Business is profitable enough to make payments on our long-term financing, but not enough to make payments on the short-term financing,” Jones said. “Unless we can refinance the (short-term) debt, we’re gone.”
Jones and Meister have owned BookSmart for 23 years. They initially opened the store in a small shop at Monterey Road and Second Street in downtown Morgan Hill, then moved to the former Depot Center shopping center at Second and Depot streets as they outgrew their former space.
Last year, the owners of the Depot Center property sold the site—under a deal set in motion years earlier by the City of Morgan Hill and the former Redevelopment Agency—to make way for a mixed-use residential/commercial project that is now under construction.
The new location is located on the eastern outskirts of town, in a more modern shopping center near the intersection of Dunne and Murphy avenues. Jones said while business started off slow in the current location, it has picked up steadily since they moved in.
BookSmart has always been more than just a book retailer and toy store. It also has a café with ample comfortable table seating, and serves as a de facto community center for many Morgan Hill residents.
It is a center for “music, arts and literacy,” according to Karen Fitch, coordinator for the nonprofit BookSmart Community Advantage, which the store created last year in order to promote arts and culture. Part of BCA’s agenda is a summer-long calendar of fun and educational workshops, art lessons, music classes and more, primarily geared toward children.
One of these ongoing events is the weekly “Baby Blanket Babble-On” infant storytime, led by Fitch. The storytime takes place every Tuesday at BookSmart.
A frequent attendee of Baby Blanket Babble-On is Morgan Hill resident Brenda Glimpse, who brings her 9-month-old son Hunter to each weekly story. She carefully arranges her busy work schedule just to make time for the Tuesday stories. Glimpse was also a frequent customer of BookSmart’s previous downtown location.
“This store is a good environment for him,” Glimpse said.
Count Fitch’s 10-year-old son Matthew among the young faithful customers of BookSmart’s too. The store is a safe, welcoming place with plenty of activities for him and other children—not to mention his preferred spot to pick up the latest novels in the “Ranger’s Apprentice” and other series he follows.
“We’re trying to create a place where Matthew has caring adults in his life. This is home to him,” Fitch said.
BookSmart has been in a similar, if not quite as dire, situation before. In 2014, Jones and Meister found themselves similarly overextended in debt after a store they opened in San Jose failed. They turned to their customers, who helped raise enough money to keep their doors in Morgan Hill open.
Jones acknowledged the support of BookSmart’s customers Tuesday as he worried about the long odds of staving off an eviction.
“The community has already done an awful lot for us,” Jones said.
BookSmart will begin liquidating its inventory Friday, July 14 unless Jones and Meister can come up with the financing to stay open.
