Business of the Month: Mercer Books, 206 Mercer Street
Nominate your favorite business here.
“It’s like a little oasis for your brain. Or like a temple,” says Wayne Conti, owner for a quarter- century of Mercer Street Books and Records, GVSHP’s September Business of the Month. The shop’s 25th anniversary is this Sunday, September 19th. “This is a place where you can just relax.”
“It’s a service, of putting all the good books together in one place. It’s very important to find that book you didn’t know existed,” Conti said. A published author of fiction and essays himself, Conti remains confident, in the changed bookstore landscape, about the role of his store. “We’re cheaper than the ‘Net,” he says, “and you get the book right in your hand.”
The location also faces a looming threat: Construction of a massive new building just across narrow Mercer Street, on the site of NYU’s Coles Sports and Recreation Center. It will be one of four new NYU buildings that GVSHP and a host of other civic groups and community leaders have been fighting for years, with some success, until the state Court of Appeals ruled in NYU’s favor this past June. 
Conti has long opposed NYU’s expansion plans in the Village. The latest publication by NYU Faculty Against the Sexton Plan, “The Art of the Gouge: How NYU Squeezes Billions From Its Students,” is offered for free on his front counter.
Read the full posting on Business of the Month Mercer Books here.
With GVSHP's "Business of the Month" program, each month a local, independent business is featured on GVSHP's website, blog and social media, to showcase one of our neighborhoods' great and unique commercial treasures. The program underscores what makes each business so valued and distinctive. We hope it will increase support and patronage, aiding our local small businesses' health and viability. We're asking you, the public, to nominate your favorite businesses for consideration for our "Business of the Month." To nominate a business just fill in this brief form. See our past Businesses of the Month here.
Next: 10/21/15
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