In-person purchase: Customer, Chris Costner purchases a book from The Silver Chair owner, Joffre Swait. Customers will soon have to make their purchases via the internet when the store goes solely onine.
Photo by Mandy Ferguson
Silver Chair closes doors, goes online Building will find new life as home to philosophy club
The Silver Chair bookstore on Poinsett Ave. will be closing in early February, but the good news for the avid readers that frequent the converted house is that a new online store will make it possible for them to still buy books.
"The Revenant Culture", a literary magazine that was published through The Silver Chair, that featured local writing and art, will also fold in the next few months.
In a pod cast on The Silver Chair Web site, owner Joffre Swait, said that he knew many would be upset by the news of the closing.
"There's nothing quite like us and clearly that was part of the problem," Swait said in the pod cast. "At least we can comfort ourselves with the idea that there aren't many folks out there like you and me."
Swait is offering a 50 percent discount on the books in inventory now.
"I've got a really robust, enthusiastic crew of regulars here, but the problem was that second and third level customer that I didn't manage to get," Swait said.
The first step in making sure part of the dream of The Silver Chair stays alive is expanding its Web presence. Silverchairbookstore.com is the new Web site.
Ben Young with Big Blue Hat in Greer has built Swait a Web engine that operates like Amazon.com. People can search for new and used books and also see what other people are buying when a certain title is found.
"If you want the latest bestseller, I won't be able to beat Amazon, but if you want the latest history book, then you'll want to go through me," Swait said.
He said that going online exclusively might one day allow him to resurrect The Silver Chair as a walk-in bookshop.
The building will not close, but it will become home to a new philosophy club that will be private and for members only. It is possible that public poetry readings and art shows will be held again.
