Crediting widespread community support, Cindy Mauricio, the manager of Barnes & Noble in Lahaina, said that her store will not close at the end of 2017. This weekend, she had said that officials with Barnes & Noble’s corporate office and Festival Companies, which manages the Lahaina Gateway Center, couldn’t agree on a new lease, which meant B&N–the only bookstore on Maui specializing in new books–would close at the end of the year.
“I’m still shaking,” Mauricio told me by phone. “All of the community efforts got negotiations going. We’re not just saying hi and bye–Barnes & Noble is open.”
Mauricio said she had spent the last few days planning all the things she’d have to do to close the store–and had already told her 35 employees that they would soon lose their jobs.
“I’m going to thank every customer who comes through the store saying they supported us,” she said.
Louise Lumague, a spokesperson for Festival Companies, said she hadn’t yet heard anything on the decision to keep Barnes & Noble in the Lahaina Gateway Center, but that she would be meeting with Festival officials tomorrow.
Click here to read our Oct. 21 story on Barnes & Noble’s announcement that they would close.
Photo: Sean M. Hower
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