Food for Thought in Amherst, a valley staple for 37 years that had been teetering on the edge of survival as 2013 ended, will survive thanks to an online funding campaign to save it.
AMHERST — Food for Thought Books, a valley staple for 37 years that had been teetering on the edge of survival as 2013 ended, will survive thanks to an online funding campaign to save it.
The shop needed to raise $38,000 by the end of the year and was able to raise $40,573. A posting on the store window reads “FFTB: Year 38 We did It” with a graphic showing what was raised.
But part of the survival is reducing the size of the store to about half of what it is now, more like what it was before a 2005 expansion. It is now closed until Jan. 15 for those renovations.
In July, Food for Thought issued a plea to the community asking people to buy books and donate in a number of ways to help the store move to a different business model.
The cooperative needed the help because of reduced textbook sales and to buy time as it refocused. The new model meant selling used books, adding more events and asking supporters to become members and donate.
While people came forward, that was not enough to pay off debt incurred from the loss of the textbook sales.
The shop in November launched the online fundraiser. “Were it not for this debt, we would be doing fine,” the plea stated.
The store doubled in size in part to accommodate the textbook market. But a law that went into effect in 2010 has hurt independent stores that sell textbooks.
The law requires colleges and universities accepting federal money to provide students with the names of required textbooks, the International Standard Book Numbers, and retail prices when registering for classes. Before students would get that information in class and buy many books at local stores.
The money raised will allow the store to pay rent while it's closed; for workers to do the reconstruction and related materials; for more books; and to pay debt while the store is closed, among its needs.