TURIN. For almost half a century it has been a point of reference for Turin university students. But now everything has changed. There is no longer any margin. After Celid and Giappichelli, Stampatori, the last university bookshop in Turin, is also closed, located right in front of the headquarters of the humanities faculties of Palazzo Nuovo.
“I close the public shop but as long as I can I will continue the online business” is the bitter observation of Fulvia Raineri, bookseller in Turin for 50 years and founder, in 1974, of the bookshop. «On the other hand, everything has changed here – says Raineri – Once around Palazzo Nuovo there were many bookshops, now only a remainders store. There were thousands of students wandering around the area and buying books, now mostly they are drunk late at night coming to McDonald’s to eat. And then, with Covid, the few remaining do not even come to the office anymore “.
The last historic bookshop that stands is Comunardi in via Bogino. But even this historical reality, the only one to remain open for many years until midnight, will soon have to change its skin. In the autumn it will leave its historic headquarters to move to the premises purchased in via San Francesco da Paola after four difficult years and the eviction from via Bogino where a supermarket will be built. «We are waiting to move our 40,000 books – says Paolo Barsi, founder and owner of Comunardi – postponing the opening from month to month due to some technical problems of the construction site. We believe it is right to resist as an independent bookshop, even in a reality in which Amazon, thanks to the large-scale distribution system, is eating the market day after day ».
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