• The shelves are empty now: Elaine Walton packing up. Photo by Jeremy Dixon

by DAVID BELL

AFTER nearly 28 years Cover to Cover book exchange in Melville Plaza has shut down.

The second oldest shop in the store (after the optician), it was started by Diana Van Hamersveld and Elaine Walton in 1985 after they’d been to Jobsearch looking for employment.

“They told us because of our age [and because] we didn’t have qualifications, we could do housekeeping, waitressing, or barmaiding,” Ms Walton recalls.

“That was it. So we said ‘no, we’re not going to do any of that’. We decided to go into business.”

They found a little shopfront in Melville Plaza (the first of four locations they’d have at the centre) and moved their bookstore in.

But Ms Van Hamersveld’s had health troubles lately, and Ms Walton says they can’t beat the emerging technology. “We tried to sell for 16 months,” Ms Walton says. “No one wanted to buy.”

She says the business has been struggling because “people are buying Kindles now. They’re just killing it. Technology’s taken over”.

When Kindles were first launched, the pair noticed their Christmas trade take a dive, and customers who used to drop in every week came in less and less.

“We wouldn’t see them for three or four months.”

“It’s a relief for me now,” Ms Walton says. “I’ve done it for nearly 28 years and I need to retire now and have a rest.

“I’m going to retire and enjoy life and go on some holidays with my husband and go on lunches with my girlfriends and enjoy life.

Fremantle institution Magpie Books is also closing its High Street store, with owner Penny Bannister saying she’s likely to continue in the industry as a book scout.