Wildcat Textbooks closes after 7 years near campus

By Shelby Streicher | @KyKernel

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Wildcat Textbooks, the bookstore at South Limestone and Prall streets, closed at the end of February.

Lack of parking and the store’s location contributed to the reasons the store closed, according to Davis Wade, the store’s textbook manager.

There was not a main parking lot for the store, which made it inconvenient for students who were buying or selling back their textbooks.

“In so many ways our location was good, but it didn’t give us an advantage over Kennedy’s or the UK bookstore,” Wade said. “It was much easier to go to Kennedy’s where you had a place to park.”

Wade said even when the business was doing great the store wasn’t selling or buying back many books due to the inconvenience.

“The first week of school we were always slammed, but after that we only had people coming in to get a pencil or a blue book in between classes,” Wade said.

Vice President of Kennedy Bookstore Inc. Carol Behr said she thought the closing was due in large part to the Internet, as well as the maintenance problems with the building.

“It wasn’t a very pleasant place to be operating a store,” Behr said.

Behr said the store opened in 2006, but as the Internet became more popular the bookstore industry as a whole continuously lost business and Wildcat’s slogan of “cheapest prices on campus” was eventually overruled.

There were two full-time employees at Wildcat as well as a few student employees. Behr said she was able to offer each one of them a job at Kennedy’s.

Wade said there are many differences between his job at Wildcat and his current position at Kennedy’s.

“There are just so many more people coming into Kennedy’s,” Wade said.