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September 18, 2018

No bookstore? I'll open one, says enterprising Fort Kent native

News of the demise of bookstores could be exaggerated.

The Fiddlehead Focus reported that Heidi Carter opened Bogan Books in Fort Kent. Carter, a Fort Kent native, is a graphic designer who owns Heidesign Creative Studio.

“I wanted a bookstore in Fort Kent and it wasn’t opening so I said, 'I’m going to open a bookstore so I have a bookstore to go to,'” she told the newspaper.

According to shelf-awareness.com, Bogan Books, "a tiny little indie bookshop with a big heart and kaleidoscope of good vibes," held its soft opening Sept. 12 at 130 West Main St. It features new and used bestsellers, cookbooks, Maine themes, physical and spiritual health, young adult and first readers.

Carter announced the store’s opening on the store’s Facebook  page, writing, “My bookshop is tiny, but it sure does hold quite a bunch. Please be patient with me as I settle into this new endeavor. There is so much to learn and not everything is ready to go, but I am considering this my soft opening in order to see what else I might need to work on. There will be aspects of the shop that will come in the not too distant future.”

Others are seeing a future in bookstores

Bull Moose, the Maine-based seller of movies, music, games and toys, plans to open its eighth store with a large book section inside the Lewiston Mall, where it's had a presence since June 1996. The larger Lewiston Mall location will triple Bull Moose's space inside the shopping center to 8,000 square feet, with a quarter of that devoted to books. Bull Moose carries a wide selection of heavily discounted books at its stores in Bangor, Brunswick, Scarborough, Portland and Waterville, as well as Keene and Salem, N.H.

"Every store we have opened since 2000 has included as many books as we could fit," Chris Brown, Bull Moose's chief financial officer, told Mainebiz.

And in February 2017, Samantha Haskell purchased Blue Hill Books in a vote of confidence in the viability of bookstores in the digital age.

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