Waldenbooks in the Woodland Mall surprised its customers by closing in late

January.

Although this announcement might have seemed out of the blue, mall manager Rich

Molfetta suggests Waldenbooks has been having trouble with business for quite

some time.

“Over the last three years they haven’t been hitting the targets that corporate was

hoping for,” he said.

And with Books-A-Million recently moving into Levis Commons in Perrysburg, this

added even more competition for the smaller store.

“Its not that Waldenbooks didn’t have the books that other Waldenbooks offered,”

Molfetta said.

Borders in Toledo opened up about two years ago, according to John Bratton, a

supervisor at the store. Because of the short drive between Toledo and Bowling

Green, it’s a great possibility that a lot of customers of Bowling Green’s

Waldenbooks that are looking for a similar store would travel to Toledo.

“Most likely people shopping at Waldens would just come here,” Bratton said.

If customers don’t want to leave the Bowling Green area, Grounds for Thought has a

wide variety of books that could have been found at Waldenbooks.

Kelly Wicks, manager at Grounds for Thought, was sad to see Waldenbooks go in

January.

“We’re a used bookstore so I think it’s hard to compare. We’ve seen an increase in

sales over the last six to 12 months in general, but I don’t think it can be equated to

their closing,” Wicks said.

Wicks also encourages people to continue to seek out books.

“We’d like to see a new bookstore downtown. Any bookstore stocking a large

number of books would be good for the community,” he said.

So what will be filling the spot at the mall left vacant by Waldenbooks?

“Currently, the Woodland Mall is hiring a leasing company to bring national tenants

to our mall. We’re hoping to bring in some quality tenants within the next six to

nine months,” Molfetta said.