Newtown Book & Record Exchange Under New Ownership

NEWTOWN, PA — Forty years is a good run for any business, let alone a book and record store, which is a dying breed in modern America where small business owners struggle to compete with retail giants like Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

Bobbie Lewis, who opened the Newtown Book & Record Exchange at 102 S. State Street in 1981, is placing her trust in one of her longtime employees to keep the business running for another 40 years.

After four decades as a business owner, Lewis is calling it quits. Fortunately for book and record lovers in Newtown, her store will remain open for the foreseeable future.

"When Newtown Book & Record Exchange opened in 1981, little did I know it would be almost 40 years later before I would be announcing a new owner!" Lewis posted on Facebook last week. "This has truly been a labor of love for me and I will miss seeing you as many of you are like family to me. Without you and your support we would never have survived for so many years."

Lewis is handing over the keys to the shop to Chelsea Mitchell, who has worked at the shop for most of the last 15 years. A Wrightstown native, Mitchell attended Council Rock North and went on to study opera and jazz at Bucks County Community College. After moving to Philadelphia and graduating from Temple University, Mitchell returned to Bucks County and began working at the shop full-time.

For Mitchell, working at the shop has been a labor of love.

"I have met some of my favorite people at the record store," Mitchell said. "Music and literature lovers are a special kind of folk — you can bond instantly over an album or book. I was an English major in college and I'm a musician by trade, so there's always fun conversation to be had with my regular guests."

While she's wanted to buy the shop for years, she didn't always have the means to do it. In addition to her job at the book store, she's been a bartender at Honey in Doylestown for the past nine years. This year, the stars "finally aligned" and she was able to purchase the shop.

"I felt in my heart that I wanted this shop to be a mainstay in my hometown for at least another couple decades," she said. "My dad bought vinyl and CDs from Bobbie before I was even born — it feels really special to own a business with so much history."

The shop is known for its selection of used paperback books for trade or sale, new and used Vinyl LPs and CDs, and rare collectible items. They can also special order almost any music.

For Mitchell, whether or not the book store can survive another 40 years is a moot point. As she puts it, Newtown can't live without it.

"I don't know what this town would do without a quirky little book store," Mitchell said.

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