As I blogged a while back, venerable Sam Weller’s Bookstore in downtown Salt Lake City has announced that they will be closing the Main St. bookstore at some time in the near future – and moving to an undisclosed location where they can be more competitive the Barnes & Noble, Borders, and Amazon.com… Competition and the recession have taken their toll. I stopped by the store a few days ago and was told that the owners were at that moment in another meeting dealing with “the move.” While there, I picked up several old local histories – all at bargain prices.
The store is my favorite retail operation in all of the Wasatch Front. It’s an old-fashioned book store that covers many rooms on 
three floors – and just seems to go on and on… For many years, it had an unrivaled used genealogy and local history section. That section is pretty-much gone now, having been consolidated with LDS books on the lower level. However, the Rare Book Room is still thriving and is loaded with treasures.
The store has a lower level that’s loaded with “bargain books” as well as all kinds of materials specific to all kinds of categories. Geography, LDS books, art books, music-oriented books are a few that come to mind.
I got permission to shoot a few pictures in the store and post for my friends.
Enjoy…
Sam Weller passed away on June 23, 2009. He was a wonderful bookseller and an icon in our community. My dad (a librarian and Western Americana collector) introduced me to Sam many years ago when I was a teenager. I’ve been shopping at his store since 1967. My condolences to Mrs. Weller, Tony, Catherine and the rest of the Weller family.
Given the sanitized downtown of much of SLC, it’s awful that the city father and mothers, whomever, wouldn’t step in to save the store. It’s critical to have places like this flourish in order to continue deep cultural traditions and the arts – the store going makes this area of downtown more of a desert than ever. – Alan Sondheim