Oct. 4, 2023, marks a sad day for the Baldwin City community as The Nook is shutting down due to the increase in inflation and lack of revenue being received.
The Nook did its grand opening in Oct. of 2019 but had to face some challenges with the COVID-19 outbreak in March of 2020. The Nook didn’t qualify for much government funding due to it being such a small and upcoming company. However, the money that they did receive gave them just enough to cover a month’s rent.
In the bookstore industry, books are sold at whatever the author chooses to mark them as, therefore inflation does not affect the price. With that being said, many other things that went into a business were rising in price including ice machines, rent and utilities.
The owner of The Nook is Niki Manbeck who is not only the owner of The Nook but the owner of the Bullpen, former owner of Imperial Publishing and former owner of the Baldwin City Newspaper always saw The Nook as a passion project.
Manbeck was the start of something new for the city of Baldwin as there were only two other businesses in the downtown area. With time progressing, you now start to see the expansion of El Patron creating La Patrona, and Gambino’s being introduced to Baldwin City on Oct. 16.
The Nook wasn’t your ordinary bookstore and had many different things that Baker students and faculty, along with Baldwin City Residents could do to either take their mind off things or even to relax in a quiet place. Puzzles (for both adults and children), games (like chess and board games) and bicycles were just a few of the many other activities within The Nook itself.
Professor Russel Horton thought of The Nook as a “nice place to relax and have nice conversation,” as you would also see him and his wife there every Friday to play Scrabble.
Junior, Gracie Childs was pretty heartbroken to see the fall of a local company and the only bookstore in town. “I was always excited to see what news books were in their crime section, considering they had such a wide variety of choices to choose from,” Childs said.
Manbeck always loved seeing college students in the store and getting a chance to see how they were doing in school and being able to just talk about life as a whole. Sadly, “we lost a lot of that crowd when the coffee shop pulled out,” Manbeck added.
During the COVID-19 outbreak, many people were weary to go out in public which put smaller businesses that may not have the option to switch to online shopping in danger.
Looking towards the future, Manbeck thought of doing a “Nook mobile” traveling around Kansas in a food truck selling books. Flatland Pizzeria (a local pizza company) started doing this to avoid paying building costs. In hopes that the Nook mobile would let locals know that they do have a chance to get books right then and there, giving The Nook the target audience that Manbeck had also wished for.
