After 21 years in business, Oak Park’s independent book shop, The Book Table, is closing its doors.
Rachel Weaver and Jason Smith opened its Lake Street store in July 2003. Weaver and Smith met while working at another independent bookstore, and married two years before the Book Table opened.
Over two decades after they opened the store, the couple made the decision to close the business. Smith said that COVID-19 pandemic was hard for book-selling, and the two got into a funk that never really went away.
“The process of going through that for Rachel and I, just the world of being in charge of decisions that could literally kill our employees or our customers or ourselves, wasn’t like anything we’d ever experienced in book selling,” Smith said.
Smith emphasized that the closure is not from financial reasons, such as increased property taxes or rent.
“For a business that is certainly built upon the great employees that we’ve had, past and present, and the wonderful customers that we’ve had, past and present, it’s also a lot about the two of us and what it is that we put into the store,” Smith said. “So, this inability for us to sort of have the right level of passion for it means that it just isn’t right to keep it open. That’s really the decision, and it all stems from the pandemic times.”
David King, president of Oak Park-based commercial real estate firm David King and Associates, leased the couple the building when they first opened, but not without some hesitancy.
At the time, there were many bookstores in the area. Barbara’s Bookstore and Border’s were near the Lake Street location, and initially, King said, he did not want to take them on as clients. After working with Smith and Weaver, whom he called “relentless” in their pursuit, he decided to take a chance on them. The other stores closed, and the Book Table remained as a beloved institution in Oak Park.
Two decades later, King said the store’s closure is bittersweet.
“You want to be thankful that they were here and gave us 21 years of some pretty cool stuff and good service and friends,” King said. “I would choose to look at it as a celebration of what they were able to do for 20 years.”
Although there is no closing date set for The Book Table yet, Smith said he expects the store to close around Thanksgiving. Smith said that as long as there is a storefront, customers will be able to order books through the store online, but he said he is not sure if that will continue after the store closes its doors for good.
The store is having an escalating sale as the business wraps up, starting at 10% and increasing as time goes on. When they announced their closure, the store had a full inventory of books they plan to get into the hands of customers.
“We have the exact proper store that we would want as of August 7, full of what we think are the perfect books for our community, so we would like to make sure that those get into people’s hands,” Smith said. “That’s the way that we’ve always bought as two people who live in Oak Park and care about what people in Oak Park, and then the greater community, want to read. We have what we think is a really good inventory here, and we want to make sure that each and every one of these books finds the proper home.”
Smith said he is grateful for the support the community has shown them, in previous times and as the store announced their closure.
“As two people who worked for many bookstores before we opened this, we have empirical evidence that we have the best customers in the world,” Smith said. “The ability to become a part of this community and interact with it in all of the ways that we have over the years has been incredibly special for the two of us, and we just thank each and every one of them for all that they’ve done to us over the years. And for all they’re about to do over the last couple of months as we sell a whole bunch of books that we still have at the store.”
