A Novel Story Bookshop and Fine Tea Emporium closes

BRIGHTON — After serving the Brighton community with books, local author signings and high teas for the past 11 months, A Novel Story Bookshop and Fine Tea Emporium closed its doors Saturday.
    “We didn’t fail. We didn’t go out of business because of e-books, we didn’t go out of business because of e-readers or any of that nature,” said owner Richard McCutscheon. “It’s just society has different concepts of communication and entertainment value, and books and communication are just not part of that any more.”
    McCutscheon said when he and his wife, Rhonda, created their business plan for the store they put it together based on a worst-case scenario but that they weren’t even meeting those numbers. He said they didn’t account for the societal change when creating the business plan and believes that although the economy plays a factor in their closing; it wasn’t the economy that influenced their particular situation.
    He said small bookstores such as A Novel Story — or independent bookstores in general — are really dependent on the community to support them and to take the time to be a part of them.
    “We’re disappointed, yes, but in the aspect that we’re just seeing the demise of an aspect of life we were hoping more people would partake in — just the idea of enjoying each other’s company and being part of sitting down and taking time,” he said. “I just don’t see that’s going to be happening, I don’t know how you get that back, I don’t think that’s gonna come back to be honest with you.”
    The McCutscheons are now going to reorganize, sit back and figure out what happens next. Richard said they’re going to put themselves back together, try to recover the pieces the best they can and move forward.
    He said they are going to miss the bookshop and their customers immensely.
    “We enjoyed every minute of it — the customers we had and the people that came in were fantastically wonderful people. We’re going to miss them, by all stretch of the imagination, there’s no way we can say we’re not. They were good to us. I hope we gave them a sense of well being; just being a part of everything.”

Contact Staff Writer Crystal Nelson at cnelson@metrowestnewspapers.com.