By Gus Saltonstall
Strand Book Store and Shakespeare & Co. announced on Friday that The Strand will be taking ownership of the Shakespeare & Co. storefront at 2020 Broadway, between West 69th and 70th streets, and opening its second location on the Upper West Side.
Strand Book Store, which also has a location in the neighborhood at 450 Columbus Avenue, between West 81st and 82nd streets, will take over the lease on June 1st, and then plan to open in the 2,500 square-foot storefront as The Strand Lincoln Center in early July.
It is unclear when Shakespeare & Co’s final day of business will be.
“Shakespeare & Co. has been an invaluable and treasured resource on the West Side since the 1980s and in 2018 opened a store near Lincoln Center to build on this tradition,” Strand owner Nancy Bass Wyden said in a news release. “The Strand Book Store aims to honor and continue this legacy as we expand our presence on the Upper West Side with the addition of this new store.”
Wyden added that all of the current Shakespeare & Co. booksellers and baristas will retain their employment with Strand.
The shuttering of the Shakespeare & Co. Lincoln Center location means that the beloved bookstore will have no more outposts in New York City.
This closure follows the shuttering of its location on Broadway and West 105th Street in March, after only a year in business, as well as its recent closure of an Upper East Side storefront. Shakespeare & Co. opened its Lincoln Center location in 2019. The bookstore also had a location on West 81st Street and Broadway that was featured in “When Harry Met Sally,” but it closed in 1996.
Read More: Shakespeare & Co. Owner Says Economics Did Not Work Out for the Shuttering UWS Store
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Yikes too bad, why is Shakespeare not able to make this location work when the Strand seems to think they can?
Shakespeare did well at that location Strand will do well there too. Glad they had the foresight to save the space for an independent bookstore. We should all support our independent bookstores!
Somewhat more interesting backlist drives foot traffic.
Took B+N a while to learn, but even that chain figured it out by the late 1990s.
Their store in downtown Philadelphia has always been stocked in a lousy fashion.
Agree that the Strand selection is better than Shakespeares was. I wonder if Strand will keep the cafe? It kind of made it feel more like a hang out spot than a serious book shop at times.
Can any bookstore, even B & N, survive without a cafe these days? I hope it does well, but it can be a tough sell. What a weird economy.
Has anyone noticed that the UWS B & N now requires a purchase to use the restrooms? The secret code to enter is printed on your sales receipt. (You can also beg the barista for a code ask nicely.)
Of course a book store can survive without a cafe
.
Examples please of successful bookstores without cafes?
Locally? Argosy. Mcnally Jackson (multiple locations), Strand (multiple locations, Aeon Books, Codex Books, Climax Books, Three Lives….i could go on and on.Independent bookstores in the United States have experienced a significant resurgence over the past decade. Maybe you have not been paying attention to this.
The Strand.
The Corner Bookstore at Madison and 93rd is thriving without a cafe.
McNally Jackson, Barnes & Noble on Atlantic Avenue, Books Are Magic, Community Bookstore in Park Slope, The Mysterious Bookshop, Book Culture.
Westsider.
Also, the Strand (a store I never particularly liked) didn’t have a cafe for decades.
Gotham Book Mart. All right, that’s been gone a while.
Book Culture.
Book Culture 112th st.
Can’t wait to have The Strand close by! Totally thrilling news.
I remember pre-Covid that Shakespeare were working on an expansion that would include a new store in Greenwich Village, and one in Philly. Now, they are gone. Wow,
The store in Philly lasted about two years. It had a terribly limited stock, and was mostly patronized for its cafe as a place to sit and study.
Well, except the West 81 Street and Broadway Shakespeare and Co closed in 1996, and no Shakespeare and Co branch existed on the UWS for something like 20 years. So the store hasn’t been in the area since the 1980s.
Good, the Stand has medical coverage for its workers.
Then, you mean the “sale sign” in the Broadway S+Co did mean “we’re closing”.
Tant mieux: Good, the Stand has medical coverage for its workers.
Exactly! Let’s not pretend this store gave much to us.
I found some decent hardcover front list titles to check out, of the library.
One was something like “Letters from Nazi Germany” (1930s letters in English back to the UK, with a few to the USA, from English speaking writers.) It’ a good book.
But then, Hillary Clinton’s latest was faced out a couple months ago. Yes, I realize that publishers will some times pay for display space. But it’s really hard to care what HRC thinks on any subject.
Another one bites the dust. The strand will not last long on the UWS
They’ve been there since 2020
Strongly disagree
The Strand already has a location on the UWS and has for years lol
Having a second location will surely destroy it.
Complainers gonna complain UWS Strand is great. Smart people appreciate good book stores.
Shakespeare & Co., 1981–2025. It’s the end of an era.
Bill, Steve, Wyatt, Vicky, Kim, Nancy, Laura, Chip (occasionally) … can any old-timers out there help extend the list?
Linda. Long time head buyer when Bill and Steve owned the stores.
She was awful
Rubber Toe:
What makes you say so?
I remember Wyatt!
The Strand on the UWS is the absolute WORST bookstore there is. The staff is outright rude and makes you feel like they are angry that you’re there. I’ve overheard a manager saying “I hate people” and I thought, yea, we know, it’s obvious.
They also are wildly unhelpful. If they don’t have a book you’re asking for, there is no offer to order it. It’s just “sorry, we don’t have that.” You know who has it? And who has pleasant staff? The Barnes & Noble over on Broadway.
Not to mention that they closed up the two bathrooms they had and, when you ask, they tell you to go to ANOTHER BUSINESS DOWN THE BLOCK. “Don’t use my bathroom, go use someone else’s bathroom.”
And now they gave signs ALL over the store like they are yelling at you. “Park you stroller here” and “No we don’t have a bathroom” and “Oh did we mention you can’t use our two bathrooms?”
Give me a break.
I’m all about local and shop small, but not at The Strand on Columbus. I’d rather give my money to Barnes and Noble.
(None of this is commentary in the original Strand downtown)
What the UWS does NOT have is a music store!
If you mean sheet music, Juilliard’s is excellent and open to the public!
Honestly, I have had the opposite experience there. They were lovely to me despite a very small and somewhat inconvenient purchase. I do like B&N too, but just wanted to say maybe you caught Strand on a bad day – and sometimes people behave badly in stores, so maybe they were reacting (inappropriately, I will agree) to someone who left before you came in?
Old B&N was terrific in its wide choice of books and occasional places to sit and read. The second floor now has new bookshelves which store many FEWER books and large, chaurs where you can almost lie down. No longer a fine, broad inventory and heavier on current commercial successes. Is that all we want to read?
Staff is still friendly and will look up or order books. But it is for those who read less.
It may still be “the best” but–is this the quetio?
I agree that Barnes and Noble is the best, but they also have locked their bathrooms, and you must go to the cafe to get a password in order to unlock the bathroom. Also, because the bathrooms are heavily used, they are often very dirty.
I believe someone could be elected mayor by promising to build and maintain hundreds, if not thousands, of public bathrooms. Shame on NYC!
Tokyo, in fact all of Japan, manages to have clean, functional, and free public restrooms everywhere. Why can’t we have nice things?
The redone Barnes and Noble at West 82nd is an awful space.
Why is Shakespeare and Company closing?
Even the woke don’t want to read woke books
That’s really sad about the end of Shakespeare & Co. It was such a bright spot on a pretty dull block the past 7 years. It’s good to hear The Strand is taking over the spot and that it won’t languish empty for years.
I remember the Shakespeare & Co on B’way & 81st, with the cheese shop & little theatre in the basement. Good old days! But not enough people read anymore, it seems. I was on a crowded Metro North last week, reading an old paperback TC Boyle—the only passenger I could see with a book. Oh, well. Times change! Peace, neighbors!
Eh, people still read. Approximately 80% of millenials have read a book in the past 12 months, making them the most voracious readers among all generations. As for Gen z they favor physical books, with print accounting for 80% of their purchases.
It isn’t that people don’t read. Many of us have switched to e-readers when in transit. I can carry multiple books with me on my phone and not have to lug books around. And I am old and still read the paper version of The Times so it is not just a thing for young people.
The basement theater was not connected with the bookstore. I think it was called West Side Rep. There were about twenty seats. It was pretty good!
They were horribly rude in that store! And their recent outpost uptown was very uninviting. Not one seat! If you want readers to buy books make browsing enjoyable. B n N should learn this too. They now have a very inhospitable and uninviting store.
Shakespeare & Co was historically terrible to young readers, meaning teens & 20-somethings! They acted like we had no business asking for books or assistance of any kind. I have no love lost for them.
S & Co. is a cafe. The Strand is a book store.
I was just in there last week – talked to one of the employees who is always so friendly and helpful (and loved their points program for $$ off your next purchase!) they were selling off their inventory – no new books in over a month – glad it’s staying as a bookstore – and really glad they are keeping the staff –
It wasn’t a great bookstore. OK for browsing, but if you wanted something specific and not a top seller, they rarely had it. Partly because it’s a small space. Maybe Strand will organize it better. But more and more, I head for B&N or Strand downtown.
I tried the 69th St. Shakespeare & Co. out a few times, but except for one employee I found them remarkably unfriendly. Staff followed me around like I was a potential shoplifter (this after I’d ordered books at their customer service counter twice!) and the manager a few years ago was really cold anytime I asked a question.
I get the feeling these new stores don’t always understand the UWS or its longtime residents, some of whom are enthusiastic readers but aren’t lululemon-wearing instagramer types. Treat us right and we become loyal customers. Treat us like unwelcome visitors in our own neighborhood and we’ll ignore you til you go away.
As the New Yorker cartoon of many years ago read: “What? No cafe? And you call yourself a bookstore?”
At least it is another book store in place of a book store!
Sad to see the end of Shakespeare and Company. Thanks to the late Nora Ephron, Harry met Sally on the second floor of the 81st Street and Broadway store.
Harry met Sally when they drove from the University of Chicago to Manhattan after graduation.
Years later, Harry saw Sally in Personal Growth on the second floor of S&Co at West 81st Street.
Rob Reiner directed the film, Nora Ephron wrote it, and lived in the neighborhood in the 1980s.
I worked at the 81st & Broadway location in the early 90s, after college. It was a kind of rite of passage for a certain type of NYC kid. I didn’t realize until years later that we a reputation for being obnoxious to customers whose literary tastes we considered uncool and unsophisticated. It’s true, we were, and I’m really sorry.
They need to open these further north near Columbia and all the institutions in Morningside Heights where all the students and professors are.
Will they sell digital downloads?
How heartening that enough people on the UWS still read books to support the store.
I’m not sure why anyone is surprised that west side book stores are closing. I can’t remember how long it has been since I bought a book at a store.
I don’t need the extra clutter and dust.
You can reserve books from the NY Public Library . Popular books may take some time to be available, but you won’t be out the “cash.
The West Side still has several bookstores. And this one isn’t closing—it’s becoming another bookstore.
Rent kills the store to stay in the business!
S and Co never seemed to have a lot of books in it. I feel like they could have used the space better.
“The Strand will be taking ownership of the Shakespeare & Co. storefront at 2020 Broadway”
Is this literal ownership? Any business not at the mercy of capricious rent increases has a wild advantage in the city’s brutal commercial RE market. We’ll see how the new Strand fares.
I am pretty sure when I walked by Shakespeare & Co. the other day, they made a point to have signs up saying they were NOT closing.
Well, the signs don’t appear to be an honest representation of what’s occurring.
I just was at the UWS Store and found a first edition, rare find that will be a collector piece. I was thinking that the world, including myself are guilty of forgetting a fun hobby, reading an actual book in your hands, not on a tablet or phone.
The world is not guilty of this. People are reading in print. Books and magazines continue to be published all over the world all the time. Book stores are still with us, and many new ones have opened. Please stop with the hyperbole!
Is/was Shakespeare & Co. related to the one in Paris, France?
No. I asked at the Paris store in 1990.
I emailed them that same question once. They said it’s not. I always wondered if that is why they chose that name. Maybe they thought people might connect the two.
There was also a Shakespeare and Company in Berkeley for decades, not related to either Sylvia Beach’s store or the mini-chain in NYC.
The documentary “Old Man and a Bookstore” about the man who took over the Paris store from Beach is fun.
Thanks. Ruth Reichl, the former NYT food critic, has a recent novel called “The Paris Novel” that focuses a lot on the bookstore, its owner and the “tumbleweeds.” Highly recommend it.
RCP:
Correcting myself, the documentary title is
“Portrait of a Bookstore as an Old Man”.
Doesn’t seem to exist on DVD, parts of it are on Utube though.