A story in Publishers Weekly about how teens and tweens are helping to run three separate bookstores — including Wellesley Booksmith — notes that the Wellesley Square store is planning to change its name to Wellesley Books.
The Booksmith changed hands last year when a Wellesley couple named Gillian and Bill Kohli bought it from retiring owner Marshall Smith, the Smith in Booksmith.
Gillian says they decided when they bought the store that they wanted to change the name “to make the store feel more our own and also to eliminate any confusion over whether we were still related to Brookline Booksmith.” She says the Kohlis wanted to keep Wellesley in the name “to underscore our close connection with this community.”
Technically, Wellesley Books has been the official name of the store since the store changed hands in September. The new owners are now starting to focus on some cosmetic changes such as flooring, painting and signage and will incorporate the new name into new look, Gillian says. The goal is to have everything spruced up by spring and to coincide that with some sort of grand opening for Wellesley Books, she says.
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