GREENFIELD — The owner of World Eye Bookshop and the Magical Child toy store has decided to consolidate the two Main Street businesses into one location due to declining sales and an upcoming rent increase at the bookstore.
Jessica Mullins has owned World Eye for nearly six years and purchased Magical Child last February, saving it from closing permanently. World Eye has occupied the same storefront at 156 Main St. for about 20 years and will be consolidated into Magical Child’s location at 134 Main St. The move will be complete by next month.
“It’s sad, it’s exciting, it’s necessary for us,” Mullins said. “It’s either move or have to close, so I think moving is a good choice in that case. We want to keep it going and keep doing what we’re doing.”
Mullins said the idea to combine the two stores had been in the back of her mind for a while, as sales at the bookstore dropped 18 percent between 2015 and 2016. She said World Eye was also due for a significant rent increase this year and felt she couldn’t sign a new lease at the higher price. The rent at Magical Child, she said, is significantly cheaper.
In 2015, Mullins held a week-long campaign to sell $15,000 worth of merchandise to keep World Eye from going out of business. Since that time, she said sales have not improved, but she’s found ways to save money, some as simple as changing to a cheaper phone service provider and adjusting — but not cutting — her employees’ hours.
In the consolidated space, Mullins said there will be fewer bookcases but just as much World Eye inventory. Her plan is to rearrange the books so that most will face binding-out rather than face-out, and keep fewer toys on the shelves with more overstock in the back room.
“We’re going to try to keep the feel of World Eye as the dominant feeling, and then have a lot of the toys integrated,” she said. For example, the toy store’s microscopes might be placed with the science books, and certain stuffed animals might be placed with corresponding children’s books.
Both stores were closed Sunday to Tuesday for inventory and cleaning, which has traditionally been done at World Eye at the beginning of each year. Mullins said the bookstore remained closed Wednesday because of the extra work that has to be done before the move.
World Eye will reopen Thursday for the rest of the month, and Mullins said most of the move will happen during the last week of January. The bookstore’s inventory has been pushed forward and rearranged, leaving bookshelves in the back of the store empty. Mullins said those extra shelves, as well as other office equipment including desks, will be for sale.
“Other than the fact that everything has been moved forward, it’s business as usual,” she said. “We’re asking people to still stick with us and browse and call here.”
The Greenfield Business Association said in a statement that it was pleased when Mullins purchased Magical Child, maintaining two downtown businesses, and supports the stores in their efforts to make the businesses continue to thrive under one roof.
“We are confident that considering all the wonderful things happening downtown: the new courthouse coming online next month, the designation of a cultural district in downtown and the much-anticipated arrival of a new parking garage, that the now-vacant storefront will be filled quickly,” the GBA stated.
Mullins said the biggest challenge she’s expecting during the move — which is already an ongoing problem — is people thinking that as an independent bookstore, World Eye is too small to carry certain items or get their special orders in.
“We still do special orders in one to three business days, and we’re going to try to have just as much inventory,” she said.
The bookstore will continue to offer the same customer service and benefits, such as free gift wrapping, in the new location. The consolidated space will include both store names for the time being, and Mullins said there will be no immediate changes in staffing.
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