The Story of Our Store

Nineteenth Street Book Exchange is not your typical used book store. It is a prototype store, created to demonstrate a new way of organizing the service that used book stores provide.

Used book stores were one of the first cottage industries of the recycling movement, which includes thrift stores, second-hand stores, junk yards, and now many others. There is a well established and fairly simple business model for used book stores that has been around for decades now.

However, changing technology has exposed the awkwardness and ineffectiveness of "old school" stores, and offers new choices for consumers. The simple model has become less viable. The less industrious of these store operators are mostly failing and even the best of them are not doing nearly as well as they were in years past.