Spirit of ’76 bookstore expands to Swampscott

SWAMPSOCTT – Waldenbooks was first. But Borders was bigger. Then Borders succumbed to – among other things – the behemoth of Amazon. But now a local bookseller is betting that the trend of bigger-is-better has run out, as Marblehead’s Spirit of ’76 bookstore is scheduled to open a new branch today in Vinnin Square.”I think the independents are growing, it’s going full circle,” said John Hugo, who is a co-owner of the HugoBooks, which is opening The Spirit of ’76 (squared) at 450 Paradise Road, the former location of Borders in Vinnin Square. “Amazon kind of killed the big box (stores) because they didn’t have service. My thought for the future is that it’s going to be Amazon and independents.”The Spirit of ’76 (squared) will have the same square footage as the Marblehead location and will be the fourth location owned by the local business HugoBooks, which opened its flagshop store The Spirit of ’76 Bookstore in Marblehead in 1965. HugoBooks also runs the Andover Bookstore in Andover and the Book Rack Bookstore in Newburyport. The basic idea Hugo described to translate the Spirit of ’76 to the Swampscott area, retaining the community feel and the possibility of accommodating events such as author readings that have made the other locations so successful.But Hugo anticipates a few changes: The store’s name is, after all, the Spirit of ’76 (squared).””It’s hard to say, but we hope it’s got the same qualities as the other stores,” Hugo said. “But it’s a different location for us. Three stores are in a downtown, this is in the mall.”Hugo said that he anticipates the new location will have a smaller selection of greeting cards than the Marblehead location due to Walgreens and CVS Pharmacy both having stores in Vinnin Square. He anticipated, however, that the store’s gifts section – where customers can purchase bookmarks and other bibliophile accessories – would be larger. But all would be adjusted as the store gets to know its clientele, Hugo said, although he has already noticed while setting up the store that there is a lot more traffic going past the new location than in any of the other branches. Which leads to another big difference from the Marblehead flagship – Hugo said there is a lot more parking in Vinnin Square.And Hugo said that he wasn’t nervous about opening in a location where a previous bookstore had failed. Hugo said that Borders reported strong sales at the store and thattheir bankruptcy was indicative of corporate issues rather than a soft market for bookstores. And he didn’t anticipate that the new location would have a negative impact on the Marblehead store, noting that the flagship location coexisted with Waldenbooks and then Borders for years and their Marblehead location’s customer base is primarily – about 85 percent – made up of Marbleheaders and Salemites.They are just expanding to another community. And community is something that HugoBooks knows well.”Community is what local bookstores are all about,” Hugo said.The Spirit of ’76 (squared) is scheduled to open at 10 a.m. today at 450 Paradise Road, with anticipated store hours of 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Saturday and 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sunday. For more information, visit http://hugobookstores.com.