Lisa Taylor wasn't ready or to close the book on her career as a bookstore manager when Borders shut down in April.
So Taylor, a Mount Clemens resident who worked at the Borders store in Utica for 17 years, opened her own bookstore.
Used on New -- the books are used and the store is on New Street in downtown Mount Clemens -- opened in May and since then Taylor has seen there is still a market for books. Not only are there book lovers who see electronic readers as inadequate, but there are readers who want good prices on books. For example, she says, the latest, barely used Janet Evanovich retails for $28 new, or $9 at her store.
"People still like the experience of the bookstore and the book, the tactile, the feel, the smell," says Taylor, who's 43 and started working at Borders at age 25.
"While I was going through the liquidation process at Borders I saw how much people wanted discounted books," Taylor recalls. "They still liked books, they just wanted them at a more affordable price."
Besides not wanting to see the demise of the bookstore, Taylor says she went into business for herself because "I didn't want to grow up. I didn't want to go into the real world."
Taylor says downtown Mount Clemens is a great spot to own a business. "There's always something going on here. There are events...There are festivals all summer long," she says of the city that is the seat of Macomb County and home to its busy courthouse and county offices. "I get the court traffic, the jurors who have time to kill."
Her husband, Dave, who owns Weirdsville in the Clem as well, helps her run the bookstore that they hope has many chapters to go.
Source: Lisa Taylor, owner, Used on New
Writer: Kim North Shine
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