Beloved Logan bookstore is weeks away from permanently closing its doors

Many small businesses are still struggling to recover from COVID-19 shutdowns from over a year ago. Becky’s Bookshelf, an award-wining bookstore in Logan, Utah is potentially weeks away from closing its doors permanently.

Becky Jorgensen has been running the bookstore for over 20 years.

“I love Logan” she said. “The people are great. And especially my customers have been wonderful over the years they’ve been good to me,  they are great readers.”

This store truly is her pride and joy.

“There’s nothing I love more than books and organizing and people, so those three came together in owning the bookstore,” she said.

Inside is a book-lovers haven. Used treasures line the shelves, hallways, and multiple rooms.

“A lot of people have enjoyed the way this bookstore set up. It was originally an old house, and so it’s long and narrow and has different rooms. A lot of people have enjoyed the feel of going into a special room to look for whichever genre they are interested in”

But for Jorgensen, this store is more than just what sits on the shelves.

“It’s a very personalized bookstore,” a longtime customer turned volunteer Sue Campell-Pinkerton said. “[Jorgensen] knows her customers, she knows what they like, and she watches for them. Sometimes they haven’t even requested [a certain book] but she will say, ‘put this aside for them.’ ”

Jorgensen even calls customers she hasn’t seen in a while to make sure they are doing okay, and Sue says its those personal touches that will be missed the most.

“But I think because of how much she puts into it, I thinks it takes a lot out of her. I think it’s time for her to have that rest,”Campell-Pinkerton said.

Jorgensen suffers from Fibromyalgia that has been getting worse.

“My health has not been good for more than 10 years” Jorgensen said, “And it’s just getting harder and harder for me to manage this. And so, I was waiting to get all the paperwork ready to show other people that might be interested in buying the bookstore, how much we made and all the details that they would want to know, and, the day before I got that printed out I found out that the rent was going up again.”

Jorgensen fears that with her financial realities she wont be able to find someone to buy the bookstore.

“That’s when I decided to just go out of business.”

Back in 2020 Jorgensen’s — like almost all other small businesses — had to close up for months.

“But I still had to pay all those bills. That’s when we went in the hole.”

She has not been able to recover since.

“But boy when I reopened, customers flocked to the store they were really anxious to get their books again so that warms my heart.”

This week her customers are supporting her through one last sale.

“This has been a very, time consuming but loving gesture that she’s made to the community,”Campell-Pinkerton said.

And Jorgensen’s customers are inspiring her to remain optimistic. She hopes, “to go from just closing out gone sale, to more of a,  Becky’s retiring somebody else is taking over, so that’s my hope.”

Jorgensen’s customers have created a go-fund me to help her stay afloat a little longer https://www.gofundme.com/f/save-beckys-bookshelf