Longtime Boise used-book store to close after sale. Developer has big plans for site

A longtime Boise used-book store plans to close by the end of July.

Bargain Books Boise has been a staple, offering an extensive collection of used paperback and hardback books for nearly 30 years. The store relocated four years ago from State Street in the Collister neighborhood to the northeast corner of Franklin and Cole roads near the Union Pacific Railroad track.

But the owners, husband-and-wife duo Clayton and Micky Scherer, said their landlord has other plans for the space.

“Our customers have been really supportive,” Micky Scherer said. “We’re completely used books, so we didn’t discriminate on what we brought into the store. When people brought things in, that’s what we put on the shelves. I think that’s what people enjoyed about it. It’s been really, really fun.”

The store’s last day of business is July 28. Everything is half off until then.

Shannon Robnett Industries, a commercial real estate investment firm in Boise, bought the property in 2022 with plans to demolish the building and build a seven-story, 200-unit apartment complex called The Hummingbird in its place.

Clayton Scherer told the Idaho Statesman that Robnett met with each of the tenants several months later and informed them of his plans. The Scherers’ lease was set to expire next June, but rather than grind out the remaining year, they’ve decided to move on.

“We immediately started looking for a place to move to and just couldn’t find anything,” he said.

He said most other leased spaces in the area of the same size, around 5,000 square feet, cost three times more than what they’re paying in rent, and the Scherers couldn’t afford them. They said it would be difficult to downsize with their business model.

“We were unique in the fact that we would accept any book for trade as long as we could sell it,” he said. “We were taking magazines, textbooks, everything, as long as it was in good-enough shape.”

The Scherers bought Bargain Books Boise in 2018 from Lyn Jennings, who originally opened the store under the name Half Price Books in a shopping center with a Fred Meyer store in Garden City. Jennings later moved the store to the corner of State and Glenwood streets in Boise, when he changed the store’s name to Bargain Books Boise, because it turned out that the Half Price Books name was already taken by a national bookstore chain.

Jennings moved the shop again to the corner of State Street and Collister Drive, where the Scherers purchased the inventory and operated the business for about three years.

The Scherers said they bought the business because they were looking for a change of pace. Clayton Scherer had retired from the Idaho Department of Correction, where he worked for 20 years in a job with a stress level he said was comparable to that of an air traffic controller.

Boise Bargain Books moved to its current location at 76 N. Cole Road in Boise just before the pandemic hit. The shop shares its shopping center with the Aquarium of Boise, Spectre Jiu Jitsu, Mountain West Gymnastics and Aladdin Bail Bonds, which has already moved to a new location nearby.

“It worked out really well for us, because we were able to build all of our bookshelves and get everything situated,” Micky Scherer said. “We were finally starting to make decent money and had more people coming in. Then they sold the building.”

The store boasts a sweeping array of used books of all genres – science fiction, fantasy, romance, religion and more.

It’s also home to a few pets . Stella, a boxer lab mix, often lies in front of the shop’s door, greeting customers as they come in and occasionally rolling over for a belly rub. There’s also a cat named Izzy. The couple’s other dog, Daisy, which Micky called their bookstore mascot, died a few months ago.

Michael Martin and his wife, who live in Boise, have been visiting the store about once a month for years. Martin told the Statesman the business has always had a great selection.

“We find several literary treasures every time we come here,” Martin said. “It’s really sad that they’re going to close. Plus, there’s the added benefit of playing with their puppies. That’s always a bonus.”

Katharina Martuscelli, a former reading teacher who moved to Boise from Texas in mid-June, visited Bargain Books Boise for the first time with her three children on Wednesday. She told the Statesman she was searching online for a bookstore when Bargain Books Boise popped up.

“I always like to shop at small, local bookstores,” Martuscelli said.

How customers could trade up for costlier books

The business operated on a trade system, meaning that each book someone brought in was traded for store credit, not cash. Each trade credit was worth up to half off the price of any book.

“So potentially you could bring in a book that was only worth $5 and get a $20 book for half off,” Mickey said. “It was something that was really unique about us.”

After the store closes at the end of July, the Scherers have arranged for ThriftBooks , an online new- and used-book retailer, to come pick up the remaining inventory on consignment. When those books sell, ThriftBooks will pay them back.

The Scherers plan to move to Northern California, where Micky Scherer recently found a job.

A gap in Boise’s used-book market

Clayton Scherer said the closure of Bargain Books Boise leaves a gap in the used-book scene in Boise, which only has a few other locally owned book stores, including Rediscovered Books and Once and Future Books in downtown Boise, and Bent Corners Used Books off Five Mile Road in West Boise.

The Scherers said they never felt like they were in competition with the other used-book businesses.

“We all work together,” Micky Scherer said. “We would often get people that would bring books in to Once and Future Books to sell and then Once and Future Books would say, ‘Well, whatever you have left we can bring to Bargain Books Boise.’”

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