We welcome the latest addition (or shall we say “edition”?) to the East End neighborhood—PRINT: A Bookstore. Located at the intersection of Congress and India Streets. The grand opening is at 7 PM on December 3rd. https://www.facebook.com/printbookstore/
Owned by Emily Russo (yes, Pulitzer Prize winning author, Richard Russo, is her father) and Josh Christie, who worked with Sherman’s family-owned bookstores—Mainers who have been a part of the book businesses since very early ages. Russo has returned to Maine after living in Brooklyn.
PRINT is joining two local favorite independent bookstores on the peninsula, Longfellows and Sherman’s, and their timing seems good. The industry trade journal Publishers Weekly reported last week that, for the first half of this year, bookstore sales were 6.1 percent ahead of the same time in 2015. Bookstores reported $5.44 billion in sales from January to June, up from $5.13 billion a year ago. Additionally, bookstore sales in 2016 were higher every month than they were in 2015.
“It feels like we’re joining a real community rather than a tourist attraction,” Christie said when interviewed by Bob Keyes of The Portland Press Herald. “Our store is also perfectly located within greater Portland, equidistant from the Eastern Prom and the heart of downtown. I feel like Print has the potential to become a staple of the neighborhood, and the neighborhood has the potential to become the creative heart of Portland.”
There are no plans to have a café onsite, but Russo said there’s coffee just around the corner and the store will be “coffee friendly.” So grab a cup of java from nearby Coffee by Design or Katie Made and head in to browse the shelves.
