Monday was the same as too many days for Nambour Book Exchange owner Darren Bailey.
“I’ve had two people in. And then a friend rang me up and he came in to see me. That makes three,” he said.
The quiet days do not just outnumber the good days at the exchange, they have obliterated them, forcing Mr Bailey to make a decision he has been postponing for years.
He has decided to close the 39-year-old business, which, hidden downstairs next to one of Nambour’s busiest street corners, has been one of the town’s best-kept secrets.
Mr Bailey used to be a paramedic based in the old ambulance station on Howard Street but took on the book exchange about 15 years ago when his parents retired.
Do you have an opinion to share? Submit a Letter to the Editor at Sunshine Coast News via news@sunshinecoastnews.com.au. You must include your name and suburb.
Although he had hoped to nurse the exchange to its 40th anniversary next year, he has decided to close the doors for good in September.
“I’ve just struggled to make ends meet. I may as well sit on the dole and get the same money as I do for 40-50 hours on a stool,” he said.
“I do try and help the homeless in Nambour, maybe given them a fiver, but I’m having a harder time than some of them, I think.”
Mr Bailey has battled to make sense of the diminishing number of customers. A fondness for the shop on social media has not translated to feet thought the door, let alone sales.
“I’ve put my post up (about closing), I’ve got 70 cares or sad faces. By the end of the day, I’ll probably be the top post on the page, but it’s the same every time. They don’t come in,” he said.
While much has changed in the town over the years, and businesses have come and gone, the book exchange has been a constant.
However, Mr Bailey said it had also become difficult to compete with the plethora of op shops in the town that can sell donated books for only a couple of dollars.
“We’re over-run with op shops. There’s 20 of them now. A bloke came through here last year and he said we’ve got 30-something disability services, 20 coffee shops, 20 hairdressers,” he said.
He feels that he is also fighting a changing world. He saw two children bawling when their mother, a customer of the vape store next door, refused to buy them two $2 comics.
“She’s spent $50 in the vape shop but she’d rather watch her two kids cry their eyes out because she wouldn’t spend $2 on them,” he said.
Mr Bailey has already started lightening the load at the book exchange, which held thousands of titles, in preparation for closure.
He has scheduled a farewell sale for September 16 to 30 but in the meantime is offering freebies with each purchase to move some titles on.
Others are destined to meet as sad an end as the exchange.
“I’ve had a talk to someone about taking them but they’ll probably just be landfill,” he said.
“I’ve cleared out some sections. Do you think people will notice if they don’t come in?”
Help us deliver more news by registering for our FREE daily news feed. All it requires is your name and email at the bottom of this article.
