Innisfree Bookshop to open second location in Laconia

Innisfree announced the opening of the new location at 630 Main St., beside the Wayfarer Marketplace, on their Facebook page on June 23. The second store is projected to open in September. The space most recently held a women's clothing store. 

Gerken is excited to build off the character of the older, smaller space downtown: having a storefront and a large window on the street was a deal-maker. She envisions people strolling Main Street or enjoying coffee on tables outdoors being able to look in the window and casually venture inside. 

She believes a bookstore perfectly complements the dynamic cultivated by new business in the downtown area. 

“Most people who are intrigued and interested in a downtown like that kind of expect it to have a bookstore, I think,” Gerken said. 

Karmen Gifford, president of the Lakes Region Chamber of Commerce, said she was excited, as book-lover and a native of the area who used to frequent the Sundial Shop, to see a bookstore returning to the area.

“There is a need” for a bookstore downtown, Gifford said. “People still love books, and that is still an important part of our retail.”

Gerken bought Innisfree Bookshop from its original owners, Jim Meryman and Laura Mammarelli, in June of 2017. Meryman and Mammarelli opened the first Innisfree location in Lincoln in 1984 and purchased a location at Mill Falls in Meredith in 1992, which was then expanded in 1998. The Lincoln location has since closed.

Originally from Virginia, Gerken moved from Colorado to the Lakes Region in 2008 with her husband and young daughter to be near relatives. She worked at Innisfree in Meredith from 2009 to 2012, before leaving retail to work in architecture. In 2016, she had a realization and a combination of perfect timing and well-maintained ties with the Innisfree team brought her back to the store. 

“I just realized that I wanted to be my own boss,” Gerken said. She began looking into business opportunities and asked Innisfree’s owners if they had made a plan to downshift into retirement. “I asked at exactly the right time,” she said: a year later she owned the shop where she had once been an employee.

A second location gives Gerken the opportunity to build a bookstore from her own vision that can pair well with, rather than replicate, the beloved, more traditional offerings of the Meredith location.

“I bought Innisfree from the previous owner five years ago, and you kind of buy what’s there,” Gerken said. She has made a few gradual updates to the Meredith store over her five years as owner but said that “the original location carries a lot of nostalgia,” that she does not want to disrupt.

Gerken is excited for the downtown store to have its own character. “This can be a different thing, it doesn’t have to be only an extension of the Meredith location,” she said. The Laconia store will, like the Mill Falls location, meet the needs and energy of its community. 

“Laconia is great” for a second location, Gerken said, “because it is demographically different than Meredith.” Innisfree currently serves a mostly seasonal clientele, and many patrons are one-time customers because they are visiting the area.

Though there is a year-round customer base in Meredith, Gerken said, downtown Laconia businesses seem to have “a more hometown atmosphere,” with a larger group of regulars and more balance between the summer and winter seasons. “It’s a different community, with a different pace.” 

At the Meredith store, the selection of books is more oriented toward best sellers and major publishers, serving one-time buyers. Gerken said the new store may have a more curated feel, catering to more regular stop-ins. She aims to more prominently feature local authors, a less tourism-oriented New Hampshire history section, and smaller or independent presses.

Gerken looks forward to building ties in the Laconia community. Downtown Laconia has not had a bookstore since the Sundial Shop closed in 2010 and the city broadly has not had one since Annie’s Book Stop closed in 2020. Much of the response to her Facebook announcement, Gerken said, was local joy at the return of a bookstore to Main Street. 

“Laconia is a sizable city, they should have a bookstore, deserve to have a bookstore,” Gerken said.