WALLINGFORD - At 20 N. Plains Industrial Road sits a large warehouse lined with books sold at below market prices.

Typically, the only time Barnett Books would host a half-price sale would be after Christmas. This year the sale has already begun and will end on Dec. 28, when Patricia Barnett closes her doors for good after 20 years.

"My customers are coming in and they're in tears," Barnett said Thursday.

A large American flag hangs from a barren wall. The wide aisles are stacked with books of all types, from classics to children's. The store opened in 1988 as a true discount store, featuring overstocks, remainders and closeouts.

Barnett is not in competition with major bookstore chains such as Barnes & Noble, but rather has relied on them for business. "If it wasn't for the big chain stores buying in the quantity that they buy, then there wouldn't be any remainders," said Barnett, who buys many of the books that end up sitting too long on retailers' shelves.

Barnett and other booksellers, however, are in competition with a powerful infrastructure that has revolutionized communication and commerce: the World Wide Web.

"Since the Internet has come along, and Amazon.com, the business has slowed down," Barnett said. "It's so easy to shop online, and with the instant gratification from video games it's so hard to get that entertainment dollar."

Both Barnett and major chains are feeling the effects of Amazon and other Internet-based stores, and while she blames the store's closing mainly on the ease of buying books online, other factors have contributed.

For one, expenses such as electricity, gas and advertising costs became too high to manage. She thought about leasing a smaller space, but the cost of building a wall in the middle of the store was not feasible for her landlord unless she were to sign a long-term lease.

"I was holding out and holding out," said Barnett, who did not want to move to a new location. October was the store's worst sales month ever, so she decided to throw in the towel.

As Elaine Murphy and Maureen Bilger of the Kiwanis Club of Meriden stacked piles of children's books on the counter for purchase and eventual donation to the Head Start program, Barnett recalled better days: "At one point I had three registers going."

She considers it unfortunate, but she is convinced that traditional bookstores are a dying business, mentioning the Kindle, Amazon's wireless reading device. "My nieces want to get one because it's something new. It's a gadget," said Barnett, speaking nostalgically of the texture and feel of books as if they were dying altogether.

Bilger and Murphy were sad to hear of the closing. "I've come here for years. They have really nice stuff here," Bilger said. The women typically come to pick out children's books for family and donations.

"Now we're going to have to pay full price," Murphy said.

People in the community have told Barnett that her bookstore has done a service for children, as teachers frequent the store to buy books for their class, using money from their own pockets. "You meet so many wonderful people in a bookstore," she said.

Barnett started thinking about opening a bookstore while she was a student at Southern Connecticut State University. While visiting New York City, she stopped in a bookstore that sold books for $1 each, called Marboro Books. "I thought, 'Wow, what a great concept.' " Marboro Books, a small chain, was bought out by Barnes & Noble around 1980, according to Barnes & Noble's Web site.

Barnett said she will be retiring partially, but will continue to sell books out of her home using the same vehicle she attributes her sales losses to: Amazon.com.

shernandez@record-journal.com

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